Beware!: DX Selling Fake Trustfire Flames

Ok, fair enough..

everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, Defending a company who uses tactics like this is borderline shilling IN MY Opinion. Remember this; it doesn't matter who their Distributors are, what matters is that they have not stopped selling counterfeit batteries in 3 months Even after finding out they are fake. They haven't had the decency/morals to stop.

You may be OK with this, But I don't roll over for anyone. Ill get my refund and never buy from these Chinese Rats again.

Borderline shilling? That's nothing new, not the first time i have received that comment. Cool

I'd recommend reading more posts here in BLF/CPF. Others and I have posted many many tests, pictures etc... those were correct then. I have like 70-80 cells from what 8-9 manufacturers. Can anyone keep up?

Ok, i'd stop recommending TF Flames from DX. My experience and others from DD were that they made good, just took quite a while. Looks like DX screwed up on this but did not fix this. If you want my experience with DX, i have IIRC about 30 orders now, once it was out of stock for 1 week and i opened life chat to cancel it. I got it in my PP account within 30 minutes - count myself lucky i guess? But I am in the same time zone as HK.

I do not think calling them Chinese Rats is a good idea.

Seriously to be safe I'd recommend this, good stuff. http://edcplus.com/batteries-c-2.html

Or maybe this : http://www.intl-outdoor.com/panasonic-ncr18650a-3100mah-protected-batteryone-p-333.html Disclaimer : the PCB is chinese, so might not be a good idea again.

Well, I dont really care much about fake or real. But the problem I see is: how is a typical user supposed to know if he bought crap batterys or if they are good? Is the PCB on the fake ones as good as on the real ones? Are there safety issues?

I dont really want to spend like 30 bucks on a hobby charger just to make capacity tests to see if I received good cells or not. TFs have been recommended here for a long time, and the dealers know that. Still they sold crap cells with under 1000 mAh. That just cant be it. They are labelled 2400 so they should deliver at least like 2000.

If I had known that, I'd have bought solarforces or xtars right away. Might be more expensive (7$ vs. 5$) but that would have been totally worth it for me. Now I have one pair of TF2400 and two pairs of TF3000 and for both types there were good and bad readings...

Nightcrawl, it's part of the learning process, treat it as "school fees". There really is no such thing as 100% success even with doing homework in the forums. I have easily > 50 budgetlights (stopped counting already), and at least 10 to maybe 20 if one is critical are like useless? You ever seen 90Hz PWM?

I have sold a couple. But you do not see me posting them as crap, as i know they are built to a price point. There are some good stuff. The premium lights are usually quite good, but they do cost.

Seriously when i bought the $6.71 TF Flames (first pair) I was expecting them to come in at 1200mAh or something, i could use them for my 532nm though. Just a test pair, i mean who uses a $25 cell shipped in those unless it's a > $300 high-power one meaning the pump diodes do take a lot of current (even then the TF Flames can provide the juice absolutely no issue at all). But they came in great.

So just buy the good stuff from now on?

2100 so do you think that Redilast are made in? Same stuff like IOS, Cell and IC made in Japan assembled in China.

2100: Yeah, I know. I do have few flashlights but even I notice the difference in price. And I'm OK with that.

I also see that a 5$ cell wont perform as good as a 15$ cell. Thats all fine.

But 2000mAh @ 1A isnt really an exaggerated request, seeing that the old cells did that without problems. And thats what bothers me, such fluctuation in quality or even knowingly selling fakes (they could have tested some and seen "oh, they are crap, lets send them back")... thats just not right.

To me, that's the whole reason BLF exists. So people can talk this stuff out and say where there is garbage and where there is good stuff. Some people will get garbage still, but by telling everyone else, maybe it can be minimized. I've said all along that budget lights deserve and need more discussion than good lights that just work right out of the box. So you can buy $5 cells and get ripped off every now and then, or you can buy $20 cells and get ripped off (in my opinion) every time by paying more than you need to. If you have unlimited funds and very limited patience, the latter is the way to go. But if you have limited funds and a lot of patience, you can do okay on a budget. The people who are really getting ripped off are the ones who fall for the 4000 mAh cells on eBay and don't know they are getting 1500mAh, if that.

Don't forget too, that Trustfire may have quit using the same cell and labels. To save money and increase profits, maybe they're producing genuine cells that just aren't as good as the old ones. That's assuming Trustfire is even a real company, and not just a piece of clipart that people affix to products.

This is not the first time that DX has sold fake TF Flames, whether intentional or not, I have no idea. That is why when it came time to buy mine, I bought from Manafont. I had not heard of anyone getting fakes from MF, in my research, which, admittedly, was far from extensive. About the time I ordered from MF, I had understood that DX had started carrying real TF Flames again, but I decided to not take the chance. Even their own site people had posted that they received fakes.

Are there better deals to be had than on MF? Yes, DX was cheaper and at the time I bought mine there was a thread here raving about a deal on Ebay over Tenergy 18650's. Even in that thread, some folks were getting dud Tenergy's. I would rather pay a bit more and get reliable batteries from a reputable dealer than take advantage of a limited time deal and possibly get screwed. I am no shill for MF, however, as soon as they start selling fakes of things I want to buy, then I will not order those items from them, either. Until that time, if there is a choice between MF and DX or other sources for a particular product, I would order it from MF.

+1 Well said.

Yes, DX has been a huge disappointment lately. Fake TFs, not sending orders because of obscure problems and so on. I tend to order my stuff on other websites, although I had to split my order to KD, MF and ebay instead of getting everything from DX. I paid more now, but well, DX ruined it for me. Although I find their site still the best out there. Well sorted, great search function.. very sad. :/

That so are the fake DX's flames with the recycle bin printed that also HKJ tested?

Yes. But these are good fakes. The bad one have even less capacity

if you're talking about marrsinc - test your cells when you get them (takes awhile w/ those 10A D cells!) and if there's a bad one they'll send you another - and you'll still be inside manafont's initial delivery time (to US)

That's fine. I'm not really a gambler. :) Didn't intend to run the seller down as I understand he did not have any problems with making things right. Problem is that I'd rather not have to deal with the hassle. That's me, though.

I was pretty miffed when i posted that, I apologize for implying that you are any kind of a shill. You are an asset to this BLF community, and without people like you Noobs like me would never even had known we got ripped off. I dont mind buying Chinese Made products, Hell, Its impossible not to. And its Inevitable Im going to HAVE to buy from China again, especially because I want a couple of those '3-mode Ultrafire XML P60 Drop-ins' and I cant find them anywhere in the US.

Also, just to clear the air, I wasnt calling the Chinese "Rats" in General - Just the people who are giving the OK to sell fake stuff. In China. Shoulda Clarified. This thread has served its purpose, hopefully nobody will buy TFF's anymore. The more I read, The more I have realized that TFF's arent what they were 6-7 months ago. I'm on to XTAR 18700's for now.. Until those get faked. Seems Bag for Buck, 2600 XTAR 18700's cannot be beat at only $7.99 shipped per battery here in the states.

+1 I bought at least 200 different batteries (Ds, Cs, AAs, AAAs, 9v, 4/3af, Tabbed AAs and Tabbed SubCs ) from Marrinc and only two bad cells. One email and three days later replacements were received. On capacity of the Tenergy18650s vs Xtar18700s the Tenergy were better by 150ma tested with my Turnigy 8150. Would I pay retail for these batteries? NO. But 4@$14.95 is better than any 18650 out there. I have had wrapper cracks on AW 18650s and leaks from TF Flames. Actually I am finished buying 18650s. Why buy when they are free via ”Dumpster Diving”

XTAR recently changed the color of the writing on its label from red to purple. But at the same time, the diameter of the cells changed. Since I doubt Sanyo all of the sudden changed the diameter of their cells, that's a red flag for me. I should be getting some purple ones soon and I have some red ones, so I will do a comparison.

some test and comparison would be awesome. I was just reading the group buy thread, and was thinking the same thing, "if they are sanyo cells, why did the diameter change?".. could it be the protection strip down the side? Soon I'm just going to start buying Callies Kustoms 3100's @ $18.00 per cell. Just so I know I'm getting a trusted, safe battery with a good protection circuit. Something I should have done long ago I'm starting to realize. before wasting so much money, trying to SAVE money...go figure.

Just FYI bought a couple of TF flames with my Most recent DX purchase (stl-V6). They are genuine as far as I can tell. The writing is holographic and they work well. Money is important to me and even though they are slow, DX has never sent me anything that I could tell was fake. Believe me , I’d like to only use AW cells and CK but those batteries cost more than the lights I’m using them in. I also believe that application is an Extremely important consideration. If I was running extremely taxing, high drain lights or a 5 grand night vision setup, then I’d want the best quality to be found. But for my uses the cheapies are fine for now. :slight_smile:

I received fakes from DX. Thats why I switched to HiMax cells.. 6$ per cell, not that expensive either.