Test / Review: UltraFire BRC18650 3000mAh (Red-silver) from 3 shops

You're a brave man for testing these indoors. :bigsmile:

Look at the DX version's logo on the bottom of the cell - it looks to have been engraved by hand...

Thanks again for the test - this should be a perma-sticky at the top of the sub-forum !!!

Thanks for the test HKJ. Confirms what I had always thought.

I believe that it is very a good idea to include some of the cheap/bad batteries in my test, this makes it easier to see what the differences are.

I plan on a few more (But I do not plan to test all the cheap brands).

Any chance of a test of the 5000 mah battery?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280742341594#ht_500wt_1287

It probably has less than 2000 mAh. I will think about it, but remember that it will probably be between one and two months from I order it, until I can publish the test.

I guess it’s 5000mAh for the 4-pack, so 1250 mAh per battery. :smiley:

I had ordered one and I seriously doubt it was even 1250 mah.

Thanks so much for another detailed review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

Thanks, HKJ. I stopped buying these long ago and am glad for that. I still use a few of them when they actually work. Some of my lights (like Balder BD-2) will not even function on high using these cells. They should come with a big Avoid label on them.

i just did a rundown test on a pair i bought off amazon a little over 1/2 year ago, put em in my bc40, till the light shut off. when i measured them, one was 3.4v, the other had the protection tripped :bigsmile: , went under 2.8, great batteries they are, needless to say i am going to get some good cells soon and retire them asap

Bid at an auction on ebay and won four of these for ridicilous money and 1 is a complete dud, it doesnt work. Multimeter says 3,8v but it can only produce a dimly glowing LED (what you call halo?) that you can look straight into. Charging it with my WP2 II produced the interesting effect of voltage dropping the more I charged it. Put it in the WF-188 and it made it happier (but maxed out at 3,85). I dropped one on the floor when I unpacked them, don’t know if it’s that particular battery though.

The rest charges to 4,10-4,15v and two of them works OK, one flickers in my HD2010 on high.

Conclusion: If you pay less for four 18650’s and shipping costs from China than you do for a coffee at 7-Eleven, chances are the cells aren’t very good. But I didnt expect anything else. And two of them work just fine (for now).

I have 4 of these of the DX kind. So they are rated 2000mah? not bad considering the unprotected ones I have are rated at 850mah.

I made some discharge test with the cheap “Ultrafire” 18650 “3000” mAh batteries I have.
Since I can’t discharge these to 2.8V but only to 3.0V (1A), can I determine the full capacity of the battery?
The results of the discharge to 3.0V 1A, was around 1200 mAh.

That depends on the battery. Some batteries can easily be discharge above 3 volts, some other cannot. Look at the curve, if it is nearly vertical at the end, the battery is fully discharged.

In my test the batteries are not always fully discharged, especially not at 5A current.

I have an original imax B6 charger, I can’t export the results.
According to the battery life in flashlight usage, it must be around 2000 mAh.
Not bad for a “3000 mAh” cell???

iMax B6 can discharge down to 2.8V (or any other voltage, really) in NiMH mode.

Didn’t know that, I will try to 2.8V.
Safe for Li-ion?

Can anyone confirm that it is safe for li-ion too?

You won't get much capacity left discharging from 3V to 2.8V. I'd say your test is quite accurate. I only get 900mAh on mine.

But it is normally ok to go down to 2.7V, because even then at rest the voltage will bounce back to 3.3V or so after some minutes.

And the reason why you're "feeling" it has 2000mAh, is probably because in real life use, the current actually keeps dropping following the battery voltage (assuming normal linear driver).

A discharge test will keep pulling 1A regardless the voltage drop, until the battery drops below the preset target voltage.