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

There you go. I know, not the most glamorous DMM.
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Try a new battery in your DMM.

Is that the only cell you have that shows an out of spec voltage?

If other cells also aren’t measuring right, try a new battery in your DMM.

If that one is the only cell that shows a bad voltage,
Seriously
tape the ends of the cell AND put it outside in a metal box and read up on what to do about it.

When the reaction rate of the electrolytes increases, it continues to increase;
there’s a problem with the separator between the chemicals that can only get worse.

once that starts to happen that cell’s dangerous.

NOTE that page at batteryuniversity keeps being improved.
If you haven’t read it recently, check it again.

” What every battery user should know

A major concern arises if static electricity or a faulty charger has destroyed the battery’s protection circuit. Such damage can permanently fuse the solid-state switches in an ON position without the user knowing. A battery with a faulty protection circuit may function normally but does not provide protection against abuse. …I would caution against using an unidentified lithium-ion battery from an Asian source …”

Thank you.
Of course it was the battery in the DMM. With a fresh 9v it now shows 3.7v on the Ultrafire. Thank you.

its a sad mentality of those sellers/manufacturers who continue to make so many fakes of an already crappy brand that is known for so many fakes and counterfeits. its probably because of the zillions of un-aware & uneducated buyers who buy these dangerous crappy fake cells thinking they are getting a great deal.

great.now lets get you pointed towards some decent batteries and a charger.those $1.50 ebay ultrafires and noname potentially dangerous chargers gotta go.
since it came with a cheap light i would expect both to be crap.laptop salvage cells are 10x safer and better!

“… Fire investigators say that when the e-cigarette reached its charging limit, it overheated and shot parts everywhere, including onto the furniture.

“It blew the end cap off and blew fragments off and on to the couch and ignited the couch in the house,” said the county fire marshal.

The more we catch wind of these stories, the more clear it becomes that the e-cigarette industry needs to make some important changes. Designing devices that can charge and then shut off when they’re full so they don’t overheat would work, but until manufacturers get around to doing that, never leave a charging e-cig unattended and unplug it as soon as it’s done charging.

Barring that, even a simple warning to consumers on the packaging would be the responsible thing to do. If my hair dryer tells me not to drop it into the bathtub full of water, surely companies can advise consumers how to safely operate their cigarettes….”

Manufacturers don’t care. Throughout history, companies have never cared until they are held responsible.

Yeah I’ve got like 18 laptop pulls and I’ll borrow a buddy’s Accucell to see if I can revive them. Too scared to use some Catchonfire charger.

If the voltage is too low its best to trash them instead. Low voltage causes internal damage. Options vary on the cut off point for trashing a low voltage cell. Some people would rather take the extra risk then toss the cell.

I would toss anything below 2.5v.
Also unprotected batteries such as laptop pulls should only be used in flashlights that have low voltage warning.

It’s 2.8 so I’ll give it a shot.

What cells came out of the laptop?

Aftermarket (aka OEM) replacement laptop packs may contain junk cells. Original laptop packs is what you want.

They’re Sony and Panasonics, don’t know how old but they look good. Got to get some charge in them to see if they will hold it. The Accucell is good for that and to measure their actual capacity.

I bought one of these Police brand lights c/w battery and plug it into the light to charge charging system, I noticed some thing odd about the battery (this was a few years ago, I know better now) -

Guess what on Amazon right now -
Notice the battery

Greedy money grabbing, dangerous vendors. Watch out for them.

That’s the exact set I have. It was my sort of introduction in the LED flashlight world. Paid like 5$ for it.

Same here, I got two, they sent one free when I complained the LED was not as advertised - I binned both batteries and still have the lights somewhere but never use them, they aren’t very good.

lesson learned :- Old laptop pack 18650 pulls far more better than those fakes even after 3-5 years old & used.

So i got my hands on a Turnigy Accucell hobby charger and started going through my laptop pulls.They were rated for 2200 mA but charging them got them to about 2100 mA. Is that a sign of good cells? With my Ultrafire charging current goes to about 0,2A and sticks to 4.2V. I’m charging the Sony laptop cells starting at about 1.5A. Are they any good? I didn’t have the patience to run a discharge test yet but I’m thinking that if they take 2100 mA they should also discharge 2100 mA. Am I wrong?

Sounds like good pulls to me, Daniel :slight_smile:

“Uitra Flrc” is just hilarious though…
And puzzling too, because it’s as if original UltraFire doesn’t even exist… :bigsmile:

Really need a discharge test for accurate capacity.
If any laptop pulls heat up during charging toss them.
Also check for elevated self discharge. Charge to full, let it sit for a week then measure capacity.

I wouldn’t recommend ultrafire / _any_fire chargers.