Review: UltraFire C3 Sample from LightsCastle

UltraFire C3

Overall Rating:

Summary:

Battery: 1xAA NiMH or 1X14500
Switch: Clicky
Modes: On - Off
LED Type: Cree XR-E cool white
Lens: Glass
Tailstands: Not well with the Lanyard attached
Price Paid: Retail $
From: LightsCastle
Date Ordered: 07-15-13

Pros:

  • Small and Lightweight, Glass lens and Aluminum reflector

Cons:

  • No modes, Does not work with a 14500

Here's the rest of the story, with photos:

OP reflector with an XR-E led. It's slightly blue, so it's got to be in the 6500K - 7500K range.

Tail cap. Notice the Ano missing on the edge. That was the worst I saw on the finish. The rest of the light was clean.

The inside. The switch can be removed by turning out the aluminum ring with a needle nosed pliers.

There is quite a gap between the tail cap the the body seam. I tried to tighten the inner ring in the tail cap, but it was tight. To me, this in unacceptable.

The tail cap threads were greased a little too well. I got grease on me when I took the tail cap off. The other threads on the light were not greased. Quality of the threads was good for such a low price point. The O rings were all in place and none were damaged.

That big blob of solder is the positive contact on the driver plate. I think it's nasty and poorly done. I did not remove the driver yet, to see if there was anything wrong. I figure I would not be able to fix it anyhow, so I left it alone.

The pill is aluminum and there is a shelf where the led star sits. It's hollow underneath that and the driver is a press fit in the bottom. The shiny plate is a metallic tape ring.

The lens is coated and may even be AR coated. It does not reflect much light.

The reflector is Aluminum and is OP.

Overall I wanted to like this light. It has a nice holster and it's the type of small light I would want. However, with the fact that the light would not power up with a 14500, with the XR-E led and with no modes, I would not buy one of these lights for myself. Why put an XR-E in a light like this. It's not going to throw. It has a tiny reflector and it's OP as well. No led is going to throw in it, so why not just use something like an XP-G?

From my testing with an AA Eneloop, the amp draw was 1.6 amps.

Here's a couple beam shots:

It's no powerhouse for sure and it's only got about a 15 yard max limit, so it turned out to be a less than desirable light to me.

Thanks for the review OL. This light has the best mode memory of the bunch at the moment. Its a shame it did not work on the 14500 as advertised as it may of put this light in another league for a budget light.

Cool

I have one with the extension tube that I got during the 50% off sale from those other guys at Christmas time and I love it.
I run it with a 14500 without the ext. tube. With AA it is not very impressive even with 2.
Mine does not have the big gap as was reviewed here, so the old china manufacturing tolerances once again rear their ugly heads.

Keep in mind I only use this light for in house use, bedroom to bathroom for guests, etc.
It is not made to throw with the OP reflector.
Wish it had modes, but it was cheap and cheap is good :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Keith

Thanks for the review. The C3 has a solid reputation. Hopefully, LightsCastle can explain why it doesn’t work at 3.7v. I agree that no modes is a deal killer though.

TY for the review :-)

Thanks a lot for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.