Disassembly of some UltraFire batteries

Disassembly of some UltraFire batteries







I wanted to check the construction of some more cheap batteries, this time it is 3 UltraFire batteries.







UltraFire 6000mAh







The specified capacity is not possible, but what does the battery contain?







It looks real enough, this is the way a LiIon battery is made.







Lets look a bit closer on the top of the battery.







The plastic around the top is to isolate it from the can of the battery.







The metal foil below the button top is the pressure vent, but it does not contain any mechanishm to break the connection when the battery vents.

The button top is part of the top, not added later, this makes me suspect that this cell is special made for consumer useage and it is made very cheap without PTC and CID.







But on the battery it says it has protection and that the circuit board (PCB) will last for 10 years (Not the cell).







This type of protection is usual placed at the bottom of the cell, but there is no protection present here and as we saw above the top is also without protection.







UltraFire 3000mAh B







During my battery test this cell failed completely, why?







It looks like this cell is better filled than the above cell.







It looks like there is some more build into the top of this cell.







On this cell the button top is added, i.e. it is probably a regular LiIon cell. The washer around the button top hides the real vent holes, but I expect that it will easily blow away if the cell vents.







The pressure vent looks more complex.









Here are the parts from the top, from left: Top with extra button top, PTC, CID, washer.

There is an X in the CID, this is where it breaks if the cell vents and when the X opens it will break the connection.







Between the two surfaces of the CID is a plastic washer (The white part).







Here it say the battery has over current and short circuit protection, that is partely correct when it has a PTC







And here it says it has a protection circuit, lets check the bottom.







No trace of a protection circuit, but it looks like there is a metal plate on the bottom. Using a knife it can be removed.







Looks like there is some corrosion on the bottom and 4 marks in a square. These marks shows that the cell is from a battery pack and with the corresion and a not working cell, it is probably from a used battery pack.







UltraFire 3000mAh C







I decided to do one more of the 3000mAh cells, it is from the same order as the one above.







This cell looks like the above 3000mAh, but not completely, the washer has a different color and the wire from the cell roll also has a different color. I would expect this to be a completely different cell.







The cell does not look new.







It is again with a added button top.







Here is a PTC and probably also a CID, but with another construction than the above cell.







There is also the extra metal plate on the bottom, hiding the marks from usage in a battery pack.

The battery do also looks corroded.







Conclusion



Both types of UltraFires are bad cells. The 6000mAh is made to be a cheap/fake cell for consumer usage with minimal protection, the 3000mAh cell is made from old battery pack cells and when you buy multiple cell they may be different, even if they have the same wrapper.







Notes



I bought the 3000mAh cells as a 4 pack from ebay dealer ezb4u

I bought the 6000mAh cells as a 4 pack from ebay dealer yuancong2016



Disassembly of cheap 18650 battery



How is a protected LiIon battery constructed



Is my battery protected

Good post, thanks.

Much thanks HKJ.
Its great to be able to point out to people that some junk batteries don’t even have PTC or CID. I’ve seen another teardown showing the same thing.

What seller did you get these batteries from?

It is interesting that you have not found this type of "internals"

Yes, I would very much like to get some of that type.

High current cells do usual not have a PTC.

I will probably open some more cells at a later time, but it requires good weather (It is an outdoor job) and time.

See the notes at the bottom of the article.

This shows you the BS that the *Fire brands

of batteries and some sellers are sending to the market.

Wow…scary (cheap chinese cells)

The 3000mAh cells may not have started as cheap cells, but they where cheap when they got the UltraFire wrapper.

Great to know :open_mouth:
I’ll stay far away from fire.* :bigsmile:

Just check out the sales of such UltraFire cells.

They are 10 in a pack, and it says that there were 880 packs sold, that means 8800 cells sold. This is not an isolated case, actually those huge numbers seems to be normal on EBay for sellers from Germany.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/10-UltraFire-3-7V-4200mAh-18650-Li-Ionen-LED-Taschenlampe-Akku-Batterie-/281175039598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item4177569e6e

Good to see, like to see more tear downs of those ultra cheap cells.

I’ve had them all
reused cell (original wrap still under the fake ultrafire wrap)
sand filled with small cell inside
cheap made, lacking all kind of internal cell protection, not even a rupture disc.

interesting to see if the Chinese people have found other way’s to scam the people

You’re a braver man than me HKJ…

I could do some wrappers in ‘BLF’ and put the same cells and nonsense on them too. The idea its a ‘brand’ is part of the enigma …its like ‘Cree’, its on everything, even if it has bugger all to do with anything inside it. Youll find lights labelled UltraFire for example, made by half dozen different factories or the same factory for different clients to different specs or the same specs.

Imagine a supermarket, and someone goes in at night and tears the labels of every tin can in the place, then places them all in a big pile. Which tin cans have the baked beans? Yeah its like that. Although in my example there is a puppet master, in the case of *Fire there isnt one, its anyone and everyone.

i need to save and autopsy the ones i get occasionally.
i confiscated 4 last week from a guy that was running them 2s in a high power boxmod. :evil:
they checked at 500 mah and 210 mah on the ones he had in the box.
had some 20r that i set him up with.
these junkers went in the fire where 2 of them didnt even vent.
next ones get the tube cutter.

Thanks for the pics & review. I can say ALL Ultrafire rechargeable batteries are junk & extremely risky!

Thanks for the disassembly of these cells. As it turns out, it is better to steer clear of the *Fire branded batteries.

This is common knowledge but its still fun to tear them down and show how low they will stoop for a $ .
iI do the same with” gutless wonder” pc power supplies.
then after i take pics I fill them with 7.62mm holes.

Thank god so many of them are clearly branded as UltraFire. Makes them easy to spot and easy to avoid. :exmark:

Thanks HKJ, for the entertaining autopsy!

So many variations of these JunkFire batteries.

UltraFIRE!