Test / review: TrustFire TF18650 3000mAh (Flame)

Most of the best 18650 cells are made in Asia.

With all due respect I wouldn't agree with your statement.

I just received 4 of these batteries from MF. I'll have to test them and see what kind of capacity they are putting out. I was really hoping that these would perform as HKJ's original test. I'm traveling at the mo so it'll be a while

The 2400mAh Trustfire flames were widely faked, with underperforming cells and falsely advertised as protected when they were not.

and good to know when buying these cells.

It would be even better if somebody of your experience post something like guide how to spot them with pictures.

Probably would help many people.

There are a couple of good threads around that cover it in detail. Just search for fake trustfires. The biggest problems were an eBay seller and then more recently Dino Direct.

Making a blanket statement like that does not make you come off any better. There is nothing wrong with being patriotic with regards to the things you chose to spend your money on and I can respect anyone's personal views on that. I'm American and proud of it, but I tend to buy what's the best value regardless of where it is made.

I would agree with Space Cowboy in that there's an old saying: "You get what you pay for". Interpret that however you want, but I do believe it's a saying or statement that has merit.

I've tried some of these TF 3000 18650s as well, my first batch of 4 I ordered from Manafont, 1 was DOA. I ordered 4 more and they all worked but I haven't measured anything yet. I have a Pila IBC Charger that I believe is one of the best chargers out there, it wasn't cheap compared to ultra/trustfire level chargers, but to me well worth it.

Recently I decided to order a batch of Xtar 2600s that are the Sanyo Cells...looking forward to getting those just to see if I can tell a perceivable difference in actual use versus measurements.

Just a thought, but perhaps the next set of tests should be the MF TF Flames 2400 mah to see how they compare. If they, too, have dropped from other tests, then perhaps TF is re-badging the 2400's as 3000's.

Your first sentence could be said against SpaceCowboy as well. A statement without any facts, no

measurements to back up the claim of lottery, no personal experiences with the brands in question,

just a blanket statement.

I did not express anything wrong by being patriotic, thats all right with me. But I think I see a growing

tendency here of the CPF bullshit where anything from HK and budget is crap. What I find important

you said better yourself: "Best value" Not just name brands. I can back that up with several years

use of DX, KD, MF, name brands and recycled laptop batteries. Some of the latter have been surprisingly

good.

Well in this case I see it's more about perception or interpretation as I did not see what you see in Space Cowboy's statements. Maybe I have a thicker skin than you, I don't know...guess we can agree to disagree there. Just that my point was is if you have a displeasure for what you see as BS mentality that we've seen over at CPF (which as I've said before is still a fantastic resource of a website despite the politics and mentalities over there) and then essentially insinuating that Americans are like that (which I interpret as a blanket statement), just to me doesn't make you come off any better. I don't condone or agree with much of that kind of mentality that we both can agree is a bad thing that happens over at CPF, so often I try to take the high road. I say to each their own and leave it at that.

That said, I myself am a bit of a duality...I buy plenty of cheap stuff and from all of the same places you mentioned and I've also purchased some of extremely expensive custom flashlights as well as owning brands like Surefire, which I am proud is an American company who still makes their flashlights here in the good old US of A (though now they say "designed and assembled in the USA with domestic and foreign components", which is to be expected these days). My favorite budget brand is Solarforce and I definitely think they provide arguably the best quality to price ratio and I have a boatload of their lights.

As for batteries, I don't think I've come across a USA made protected 18650 yet (Space Cowboy did say all the good batteries come from Asia)...all of mine are either Trustfire, Ultrafire, KD or Solarforce. I just ordered some Xtar 2600s based on recommendations here, but haven't received them yet.

Just got 10 of these from MF.

Average capacity at 1.0 amp draw from 4.2v to 3.0v on Turnigy:

2148mah.

WEAK. Wish mine would have tested as well as HKJ's.

English version of TAOBAO is Aliexpress

My friend just got 4 of TF 3000 (flames) from DX. I’ve made discharge test for 3 fully topped at 3A and got very consistent results.
Two ot them were 2599 and 2601mAh, third not so fully toped was 2581mAh. Testting equipment was iCharger 106B+
I’ve also got decent 3A at tail with Kaidomain C8 (probably direct drive), so it looks they are quite good buyat DX ATM.

Anyone still using this battery? I’m looking to buy some but want to see if there’s a better option now since this was reviewed a year back.

Thanks

I think these cells are inconsistent. Some people report they are good, others not so good (or just "ok"). I think the best deal going right now are protected Sanyo 2600's from FastTech at 2 for $11.03 - 5% discount (use coupon code "BLF" for flashlight accessories).

-Garry

I use these, but I can not measure the capacity. They work fine, haven't problems, if a flashlight needs 4,3 Ampere. Do not buy the tmart version. The picture show the real one, but the delivered looks a little bit different. For me it isn't important, if they have 2600 or 2400 mAh. I have enought batteries.

Garry post the link of the Sanyo, which should be also a really good choice or the Samsung 2600mAh.

Bought some of those:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131000844418?\_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The delivered batteries look different from the photos on their ebay listing.

For one the negative plate is silver textured metal (attracts magnet), while their photo and this review show the negative is golden/copper colored, smooth metal (don’t know if it attracts magnets). Secondly the plastic wrap is suspicious. All the photos have the yellow lightning very pronounced and obvious but on the delivered batteries the lightening barely can be seen if you look for them.

Are those fake?

Check these two articles:

http://lygte-info.dk/info/isMyBatteryProtected%20UK.html

http://lygte-info.dk/info/batteryDisassemblyUltraFire%20UK.html

The batteries I received have all the traits of having protection PCB built-in, e.g. 18.5mm diameter, slightly longer (67mm) and grooves near the top and bottom. Just the negative terminal does not seem right and the printing on the wrap is in such a fuzzy way I think they are fake, at least not as shown in their ebay listing photos.

It’s “yallstore”. They are fake. I have ordered a bunch of different trustfires on ebay in my days. I have seen about 6 different fakes. And fuzzy printing is usually a good indicator of fake. Plus the transparent colors are off compared to the authentic. A lot of the fakes have no protection or a fake protection board. Not saying that trustfire is an amazing battery but the manufacture does what they can against all the counterfeiters. I would much rather go to gearbest and get a real samsung or lg battery. But I have ordered wholesale trustfire batteries from the manufacture for my customers and they do use samsung batteries in most of their batteries and BAK chinese cells in a few of their cheaper ones. My customers gravitate to the pretty trustfire holographic wrapper.

Fast tech appears to be the only trusting reseller. Just give yallstore some negative feedback and open up a dispute about counterfeit batteries. Ebay doesn’t care but yallstore will refund you and let you keep the fakes to avoid negative feedback. . Ebay needs to get a hold of this mess. Ultrafire neon green wrappers are up to 9800mah now. And 1000 people have bought them within 6 months.

Here are some more fakes. $2 per battery. And the trustfire factory usually shrink wraps one battery together with the outer anti counterfeit hologram sticker on the outside. They have never wrapped two together.