Ultrafire?

[rwasham]

Can anyone comment on the basic quality and reliability of Ultrafire as compared to other low budget lights? I'm specifically looking at the 501-b with a Cree R2-wc and 5 mode memory. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
rwasham

 

[Imon]

I think generally the consensus would be that quality is a hit or miss issue.
Don't except the overall build quality to be on par with higher quality lights (of course ).
I think the whole thing boils down to what you intend to do with it and who you are going to buy the flashlight from because if you get a lemon ... well, you better hope you bought it from someone who takes returns or does exchanges.

 

[StackNZ]

I have an ultrafire 501b with a cree r2, the driver broke, got another drop in for it and the driver broke. The body of the flashlight is good, it is waterproof.

I've taken out the driver and run it direct drive. Now i can't see anything going wrong with it :twothumbs

 

[qwertyydude]

Romisen is much more consistent in quality. My Ultrafire 501b has rough loose fitting threads and poorer anodizing than my Romisens. Romisen seems to be the most consistently recommended as a budget light and shiningbeam Romisens even more so.

 

[rekd0514]

Get a Ultrafire WF-504B. It is quite good quality and is the same as a Solarforce L2. It even has the same threads. It also has a R2 P60 drop in.

 

[vickers214]

I bought 2 of these in single mode, 1 worked the other didn't, Ultrafires have really bad tail switch issues, ive had several different Ultrafires and its been 50 50 if they work or not, i have been able to fix about 80% of the issues with foil or good luck but i would not recomend them.

Out of say 12 DX romisens i had one that had a milky dome on the led, but never has one failed to work, and if you are in the US then the shining beam ones with uprated drivers and LED would be great.

BTW the 501B when working is an OK light, just not worth the hassle

 

[Monocrom]

Can anyone comment on the basic quality and reliability of Ultrafire as compared to other low budget lights?

Worthless, **** poor, garbage.

And that's comparing their lights to other budget brands.

 

[subwoofer]

It seems to me people are more inclined to complain rather than praise anything these days. My experience of Ultrafire is not very long term as I have only had them for about 6 months, but is as follows:

WF-501B with Cree R2 - Working perfectly, 200+ Lm great thrower (from UK importer)
WF-501B with Luxeon K2 - Red LED, very bright mainly used for Lamping (from DX)
WF-501B with 5 mode Q5 - Working perfectly nearly as bright as R2, then fitted 0-100% ramping Cree R2 drop-in, still working perfectly (both from DX)

WF-501B with Luxeon K2 - LED output unacceptable but otherwise fine. DX replaced fully FOC, now in drawer as spare host.
WF-501B with Luxeon K2 - replacement working perfectly (from DX)

UF-H2 - nice torch, the only complaint being the battery cap is too tight using regular AAs - why didn't they make it 1mm longer - suffers from parasitic drain when left off, so needs the battery cap unscrewed if left for longer periods. Nice and bright on 14500 (From Ebay)
UF-H3 - Excellent floodlight/ headlamp running off 18650. Very bright great battery life, does not suffer from parasitic drain (that I have noticed so far) but this is probably due to the full off switch in this bigger model.

These are all running on Ultrafire protected and un-protected cells.

As I have so many, none of them have had really heavy use, but have been used regularly without any problems. Only the Luxeon K2 LED gave any problems, not sure if this is anything to do with Ultrafire or if DX put that module in the WF-501B host.

Oh and one needed the o-rings swapped round as there were two different sizes and they had been put the wrong way round.

I am very pleased with all the Ultrafire torches I have. Yes they are budget, and when compared to Fenix and Quark you can tell the difference, but value for money is excellent.

 

[Monocrom]

Check out SolarForce. Tough to do better in terms of value for money.

 

[vickers214]

Worthless, **** poor, garbage.

And that's comparing their lights to other budget brands.

 

[randomlugia]

I've heard of many quality issues with the 501B and 502B, but all of the others seem to have quality on par with your average good budget light. I have a C2 clone, not sure if that counts but it's never let me down, even after being dropped, beaten and smashed.

 

[B12]

No issues whatsoever with my WF-502B XPG-R5. Used as a bike light year round (-30C last winter, worked just fine) and as a general light as well. Good solid torch in my opinion. Many say the 501 is flimsier than the 502.

I also had the C3 P4 but not for very long since my work buddy buyed it. No issues.

I also have the C3 stainless XRC-P2 and it had bad flickering issues at first. It just turned out the pill was not tightened from factory. A twist with needle nose pliers and it was rock solid. I updated it with XPG-R5 and it has plenty of lighting power now.

In my opinion the ultrafires have solid bodies etc but there is a fair chance you may have to give the assembly a finishing touch.

 

[jereader]

I have an ultrafire c3 p4 2AA, and although I haven't had it for very long, I think it is a gleat right. It's also nice to be able to switch to 1AA configuration.

 

[randomlugia]

Oh, and I also noticed all of the C1 host reviews on DX said there were a lot of imperfections.