i recently purchased an Utlrafire wf502b flashlight with charger and 2 18650 batteries:
Ultrafire 1000 LM WF-502B CREE XM-L T6 5-Mode LED Flashlight Torch (With Batteries and Charger) http://amzn.com/B00EOJKHH4
i charged the batteries for 10 hours and the charger’s red light never turned green. can anybody tell me what is up? btw this is an awesome site!!! the cheapskate in me now has a place to go to. also, are there other sites like this, geared more to the frugally mined individual?
Personally I would safely dispose of the batteries and charger. The batteries are no good and I have had 5 of the chargers and not one of them terminated the charge.
Ultrafire is a notoriously bad/copied brand for batteries, and the charger could also be bad/broken. The claimed mAh even if you do eventually get them to work is always over rated, when I first started some were 1/3rd the capacity claimed, some were 1/10th. The charger should have charged a REAL 3000mAh battery in less than that time, and since these are probably 1,500mAh to 300mAh (or worse: overdischarged and/or overcharged now, which could explode later), there has been more than enough time in 10hrs to charge them. I would try to get a refund on Amazon since they are pretty good about that, and either send back or dispose of those batteries and buy some protected Panasonic 3400mAh NCRBs instead to use with your flashlight. Also make sure and give the seller a bad review
i will give a bad review and get my money back. i forgot to mention, during the 10 hours of charging, the batteries nor the charger were warm, they were room temp.
I actually meant product a bad review, but seller is up to you, certainly if he doesn’t want to refund you etc. I’m ambivalent about the sellers: most have to know the items are junky over time and the returns they get and they keep doing it, but its not exactly directly their fault and some might not know…so its how they treat you etc. But you can review the products directly separately.
It always annoys me to see how these batteries all have a bunch of positive reviews on Amazon, some seem pretty obviously fake, most are probably people who dont know better who just pop in the battery (with 1/3rd capacity that its supposed to have and have no way to compare or tell) and see light that’s brighter than their non-LED flashlight they currently have, then get excited and give a 5 star review, further misleading others…
As everyone else here said, most Ultrafire Cells are fakes, bad, dangerous, etc. ( Along with that charger tha came with the light.) For Li-ion cells use only a good quality regulated charger, like the Nitecore I4, (its worth the investment for safety and proper charging) as for the cells, check the voltage, if they are between an average of 3.2 volts and a maximum of 4.15 volts, charge them in a good charger, ans away from combustibles, (Place the charger while charging the cells in a metal 5-gallon pail maybe just incase of a venting of one of the cells, or even better get rid of the cells and buy some good real cells like Samsungs, Sanyos, or Panasonics.
Its funny, I just looked at the reviews for the same light and even in the guys who gave it 5 stars on the first page, the first guy realizes the lumens are much less than advertised, another guy’s got a battery that probably isnt charging like yours, the second and third guys are comparing to even more over priced lights of the same quality and are excited, two more reviews down the list show one who got a battery that most likely isnt charging (probably dangerous) and another who says battery life is short (shouldnt really be, probably more problems with batteries), yet another guy literally compares it to his Maglite (all current tech LED lights are brighter than old Mags)….all people with situations showing the product isnt what it claims it is, but they all rated it 5 stars! I hate Amazon reviews
sorry for the missunderstanding, i meant to say i will give the product and not the seller a bad review. i have to admit, i’m a new flashaholic and would probably be one of those guys that thinks it’s awesome at a third capacity but i am learning. thank you for all the help
awesome! i will start saving up. btw, i plugged in the ultrafire 18650s into the charger an hour ago and the light on the charger finally turned green! that’s approximately 12 hours to charge two 18650 batteries! wow!
Warning: Many recommended Panasonic 3400. But many found it’s too long (and /or thick) for their light. Search if wf502b and pana are compatible.
[EDIT]
Charger should have the output capacity specified, most likely 500mA. Divide the battery capacity by the charger output capacity to calculate the charge time.
[EDIT2]
For 2-bay charger, divide the output capacity by 2 to get the charge time.
