Looks like Ultrafire 18650's don't provide enough power? Surprise!! :-)

I bought a 3800 lumen cree xm-l 3x T6 led from ebay and it said in the description that it was powered by 2 18650 batteries. They fit fine but I can't get the flashlight to stay on max. After a few seconds it cuts off and even when it is on right under max which is high, it cuts off after a few minutes. I bought 2 sets of batteries and the same thing happened with both. The seller said its the batteries. He said to get 4pcs or 6pcs 16340 batteries. I dont know why the description says 18650 if hes recommending another size. He also said 4pcs or 6pcs. Shouldnt it be 1 or the other? Does anyone know if this will solve my problem?

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Your going to need to provide a few more details. Which light are talking about? Which batteries? Some batteries have a protection circuit, some don't. We all can speculate, but the more details the better.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Thats all it had in the description. Here is the light ebay Item number: 280757149350
The batteries are the Ultrafire 18650 3000mah

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

This is why I would not buy from Ebay.

You could try 4 to 6 123s, but that is a crap shoot! Who knows what might happen since they do not list the voltage that is allowed. 4 or 6 123s is 14.8v and 22.2v respectively vs. 8.2v for the 2 18650s. That is a very large gap, I would not trust that.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

ice4me said:

Thats all it had in the description. Here is the light ebay Item number: 280757149350
The batteries are the Ultrafire 18650 3000mah

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It does sound very similar to the results I've had with the Ultrafire 3000mah 18650's and high drain light's, they are very low quality battery's that I now only use in light's that don't require much current. Try some primarys or different Li-Ion's.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

I have a couple of those, they are protected. In reading about these batteries, that means they will not flow more than 3.0 amps, or 3000 ma. I recently purchased a direct drive 4.2 amp P60 drop in from vinhnguyen54. My 18650 batteries cannot push this module to it's highest potential, so I'm looking for a couple of non-protected ones.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

i have that light skyray 3800lm, those cells you have is garbage, i also had 5min of working on max with soshine protected cells, than i used samsung unprotected cells from laptop, and it works just fine, i don't run in high for longer than 15min, cuz it gets too hot, but never had light quit with samsung cells, unless they were drained.
throw away those 3000 ultrafires, o use them in devices with very low drain.

btw that light has low voltage cut off, so it is safe to use unprotected cells, get yoursef good cells battery space cells them for about 10 a piece, or you can get good protected aw, or readylast but they are like 15-20 each.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

I dont think I have the skyray. Mine says trustfire. I dont know much about lithium batteries so its porbably best for me to get protected ones. The flashlight wont help with overcharging. So should I get different 18650 or try the 16340? Also what does 4pcs or 6pcs mean? How can the flashlight take 4 batteries or 6 of the same kind?

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

PhillyRube said:

I have a couple of those, they are protected. In reading about these batteries, that means they will not flow more than 3.0 amps, or 3000 ma. I recently purchased a direct drive 4.2 amp P60 drop in from vinhnguyen54. My 18650 batteries cannot push this module to it's highest potential, so I'm looking for a couple of non-protected ones.

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Just take off the PCB board and whoala. Unprotected. Did this to my AW 14500 so it would fit in my nitecore d11 v.2

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Check this thread out about the Ultrafire brand.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?316888-Fake-Ultrafire-18650-battery-warning

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Thanks for that link. I will be trashing these. I will buy AW batteries. Why does light hound appear to be the only company that comes up when I search for AW? Is that a good place to buy?

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Lighthound is an excellent place to buy them...I've used them several times. Also consider Redilast batteries. Both brands are for sale over at the CPF marketplace. You can't go wrong with either. I've been using Redilast 2900s in a variety of lights for over a year now and they are grade A+ (as are AWs.) You can also buy Redilast batteries direct from their website which I have done a couple of times with great results.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Do they violate this spec?
http://www.batteryspace.com/prod-specs/ICR18650NH-2200.pdf

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

Looks like this thread is a better fit for the /Batteries-Electronics/ subforum, so I'll move it now.
Also I'm renaming the thread title somewhat to attempt to better represent the OP's topic.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

That spec looks like a highly normal 18650 Li-Ion cell. The AW cells should meet that spec.

My Olight SR51 doesn't work properly with UF 2600's, starts flickering then switches to low. Just charged up my "new version" AW 2900's in my new PILA and they work fine. The UF's will only be used in my single cell lights. BTW the PILA is awesome. Anybody know what the "new version" AW's means?

What do you guys recommend a reliable, strong 18650 battery ? my Ultrafire have dismal performance.

Re: 18650 doesnt provide enough power

ice4me said:

The flashlight wont help with overcharging. ?

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the flashlight never helps with overcharging, that is chargers job.

picard said:

What do you guys recommend a reliable, strong 18650 battery ? my Ultrafire have dismal performance.

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I bought AW 2900's from Lighthound, best price I could find.

cummins4x4 said:

I bought AW 2900's from Lighthound, best price I could find.

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is this battery reliable ?