Problem with Ultrafire C3

An alkaline battery leaked and fused inside this light. I carefully drilled it out and extracted what was left of the battery. The problem is the threads on both ends of the tube are damaged and the tail piece and the front end have a tendency to pop off. I am using Teflon tape on the threads but still not reliable.
The switch is problamatic and I cant unscrew the retaining ring to clean it. I was thinking of using Radio Shack spray contact cleaner.
I like this light and would want to bring it back to life . Any suggestions ?

Not to be a pessimist but, depending on how you value your time, it's probably better for you to go and spend $15 and get a new C3. I don't know that I'd ever trust the reliability of a light which had undergone such damage and repair surgery. You can take the C3 pill out and have a spare.

Or if not, good luck to you...

I would trash it and not use alkalines again

I have a single mode C3 too and if it suffered damage as bad as yours, i would just replace it, keep the head as a spare and get a new one, change out the head to the used one and you have an unused head for when the LED burns out 50,000 hours later :laughing:

This post should be entitled "Problem with Alkaline Battery" :thinking:

Was it left in a hot car?

EngrPaul said:

This post should be entitled "Problem with Alkaline Battery" :thinking:

Was it left in a hot car?

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No . room temperature

True, the battery is the problem. Don't spend too much time on a low buck flashlight. I'm pretty new to this, but my best advice would be just buy another one. I like Ultrafire lights but I'm not going to work on one very long.

How many hours can you get out of the Ultrafire c3? How many lumens?

I'm looking for a cheap little light and this looks good. Thanks.

It is quite possible that the alkaline cell failed because the light had a faulty circuit which drained power even when the light was switched off. In these circumstances some alkalines will leak.

It is a low-end, low-quality light which is not worth bothering with.

DM51 said:

It is quite possible that the alkaline cell failed because the light had a faulty circuit which drained power even when the light was switched off. In these circumstances some alkalines will leak...

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That would be a switch problem and not a circuit (in the PCB sense) problem. Looking at these things, I would guess that a "slow leak" switch problem is a lot rarer than a "just failed" switch problem, and both are a lot rarer than an "alky just leaked" problem which I've had a bunch of.

My experience with the C3 is that, once initial tweaking is done, it's a pretty solid light. I especially liked the true current regulation of the early single level lights.

nerdgineer said:

That would be a switch problem and not a circuit (in the PCB sense) problem. Looking at these things, I would guess that a "slow leak" switch problem is a lot rarer than a "just failed" switch problem, and both are a lot rarer than an "alky just leaked" problem which I've had a bunch of.

My experience with the C3 is that, once initial tweaking is done, it's a pretty solid light. I especially liked the true current regulation of the early single level lights.

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When the C3 worked it was quite good.All the responces indicate that I should give up on this one . Is there a AA light would be more robust and reliable. Single mode and less than $25 ?

bp044 said:

When the C3 worked it was quite good.All the responces indicate that I should give up on this one . Is there a AA light would be more robust and reliable. Single mode and less than $25 ?

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BessieBenny has compiled a list of a few lights here. Looks like the Romisen RC-N3, or the RC-G2 may be alternatives.

By the way, did you leave the alkaline battery in the flashlight for a long time? And was it a name brand battery?

highseas said:

How many hours can you get out of the Ultrafire c3? How many lumens?

I'm looking for a cheap little light and this looks good. Thanks.

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i own a single mode Ultrafire C3, got it more than a year ago, runs on my recently acquired Trustfire protected 14500 for 1 hr 48 minutes then switches off.

In 2 x AA mode running on 2 x 2000 mAh eneloops, went for nearly 4hrs ( I was sleeping ) and when i woke up after nearly 4 hrs, the output was substantially down but still bright enough in dark conditions, definitely brighter than a stock 2 x AA minimag.

hope this helps

bp044 said:

When the C3 worked it was quite good.All the responces indicate that I should give up on this one . Is there a AA light would be more robust and reliable. Single mode and less than $25 ?

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Another C3 at $18.98 ( i think ) :laughing:

Whatever replacement you get, just don't feed it alkaline cells anymore. Your experience just highlight one of the many reason they are reviled here on CPF.

notnormal said:

BessieBenny has compiled a list of a few lights here. Looks like the Romisen RC-N3, or the RC-G2 may be alternatives.

By the way, did you leave the alkaline battery in the flashlight for a long time? And was it a name brand battery?

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It was not a long time at all. It was an Energizer

hyperloop said:

i own a single mode Ultrafire C3, got it more than a year ago, runs on my recently acquired Trustfire protected 14500 for 1 hr 48 minutes then switches off.

In 2 x AA mode running on 2 x 2000 mAh eneloops, went for nearly 4hrs ( I was sleeping ) and when i woke up after nearly 4 hrs, the output was substantially down but still bright enough in dark conditions, definitely brighter than a stock 2 x AA minimag.

hope this helps

Click to expand...

It does help. Thanks a lot for the info!