Have you seen this type of counterfeit 18650 battery before? UltraFire

Creative… There’s another disassembly thread on CPF iirc they pull some little sealed bag and the cavity around is filled with white power.

I’ll see what my Junkers that wouldn’t charge look like when I shoot them full of holes later. :slight_smile:

:slight_smile: Living up to its reputation and possibly in name as well. Nice dissection.

Only in China.

Saw something on CPF actually a post from a fellow countryman here

3000mAh on the wrap and 1000mAh under the wrap. They do not seem to have any gas-release vents!

Looks like a fishing lure now.

Not even 1/3 of the claimed value.

Its not the first time for ultrafire surprise.

This is a new type of ultrafire surprise to me. Im used to seeing the old school ultrafire 3000mah red batteries that say they are protected on the label and have no external protection pcb on the negative. They claim internal protection on the wrapper. Lol. The really bad fakes had some weird 14500 type cell inside and the rest filled with a drywall type powder.

If I ever run across ultrafires. I usually throw them on a gram digital scale first. The suspects usually weigh very little. They also have a hollow clay pot sound if you tap them against each other.

Ive had a few trustfire flames lately from us sellers that weighed less than the fasttech trustfire 3000mah flames. Sometimes 34 grams versus 29 grams.

I received some of the mystical protected ultrafires but in blue wrapping with my first personal Liion flashlight purchase.

And to think that the blue UltraFire used to be recommended by Goinggear in their older videos.

I will post the photos here too so anyone can see them.

hex4def6 photos:

Browsing BLF I have found another example of some small ii-ion cells put inside a 18650 shell.

Is it safe to cut an old Ultrafire up to see what’s inside ?

This guy found his UltFire 3000mAh to have in fact 887mAh.

But that is actually quite irrelevant because the max discharge the Pro Peak Prodigy 2 can do is 1Amp, so at 3Amps like what we all need the cells should not do more than 400mAh. That is assuming the discharging was done at 1A, maybe was done at 0.5A. In any case 1A is pretty irrelevant in the flashlight world.

Lower in the comments you can read (even after the guys shows how bad they are)

"i am going to buy a new battery for my flashlight ,i find a pair cheap battery on ebay ,ultrafire brc18650 2 for $3.10 ,should i buy it or not ?

If it's a fake, perhaps.

If it's genuine it could be a bad idea - there is quite a lot of energy in there and if it gets out all at once it could spoil your entire day.

At the very least do this outdoors, downwind of things like people that you care about.

Wear hand, eye and face protection and make sure you stay upwind of the cell.If it does get energetic, the fumes are really nasty.

Most likely, nothing will happen, but it could get a bit exciting.

This is but one of the many reasons I NEVER buy anything but genuine Panasonic or AW batteries (mostly AW) from reliable, easy to reach vendors I have dealt with for many years. Yeah, they cost more but I could care less. They always meet spec and I never have any problems with them. It’s bad enough that most here buy the very cheapest lights available (strike one), the cheapest batteries available (strike two) and then go on to complain that they got screwed (strike three). DUH! What in the world did you expect? You fell for the false advertising, the unrealistic pricing and ignored the countless battery reviews. No sympathy here. Think of all the poor people buying and using this junk that never even realize they’ve been had. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

On the bright side (pun intended), maybe that great warranty that came with that unbelievably great deal on those crappy batteries and lights will save the day. :slight_smile: You KNOW that’s not gonna happen. Heck, most of that stuff isn’t even worth the shipping to and from wherever it came from.

Let me know how those new $20 car tires worked out for you. Seems legit, eh?

All that being said, I too occasionally buy some junk to play with in an attempt to make them better/brighter (lights - never batteries) and when it all goes south, which is usually the case, I chalk it up to cheap entertainment. Sort of like panning for gold. Lots and lots of work for little to no return.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

Maybe this could help with opening a cell.

The shear popularity of this cells is incredible and nu-informed people will buy what most people buy.

For example check out this German seller, he sold 989 packs of 4 cells. That is 3956pcs UltraFire cells, fake 4000mAh capacity!

Check how many watchers, 401 users watching that sale.

Or this other seller proud of 4200mAh capacity (fake) has sold 64 packs of 10, that is 640pcs UltraFire.

This seller has the newest 18650 cells, 5800mAh capacity, fake of course.

Amazing photos. Crazy the market that creates this crap.

If anything, it’s a reason to own a hobby charger. Run them down and fill them back up. You’ll know then what you’ve really bought before loading the Kung full of grenades.

Since these ads showed up in my ebay account I will post the stats. The popularity of these cells is just incredible and the capacity claim has nothing to do with reality. I bet they don't have 2000mAh at 1Amp discharge.

617packs sold at 8pieces, that is 4936 UltraFire cells at 5000mAh

1860packs sold at 4pieces, that is 7440 UltraFire cells at 5000mAh