EDIT: worse than I thought "Make" your own UltraFire 18650s!

I am posting this as a new forum topic because I discovered this site while researching heat shrink tubing. This site sells “UltraFire” wrappings for 18650s. What this means of course is that there can be no “official” UltraFire” battery. The site sells them for $4.50 for a pack of 150, with 7800 packs available, enough for over 1 million cells.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7829345615

and HERE

It is MUCH worse than I thought. It seems there are sleeves for any battery you can think of UltraFire (all colors and capacities) UranusFire, NCR and even Panasonic!

Also all parts for constructing fake batteries are available to anyone.

Here are some links with my notes. Sorry for the sloppiness, I didn’t want to waste too much time on this. I just think we should all be aware of this. (like we didn’t already know)

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=14126029702&ali_trackid=2:mm_14507416_2297358_8935934:1352428415_3k3_2021092439
generic ICR 18650

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16878923434&ali_trackid=2:mm_14507416_2297358_8935934:1352428535_3k7_1161381520
black 2200mah UltraFire

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10225073573&ali_trackid=2:mm_14507416_2297358_8935934:1352428598_3k3_966671764

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.0.110.oTotGf&scm=1007.77.0.0&id=10446472543&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=
many assorted UltraFire

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.0.107.moguHX&scm=1007.77.0.0&id=16337951105&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=
ultrafire red 3500mah and kingfire

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10225073573&ali_trackid=2:mm_14507416_2297358_8935934:1352429331_4k8_819759383

black 3600 white 3000 blue 2200 gold 3000

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.0.110.ick5wg&scm=1007.77.0.0&id=10260525965&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=
gold 4000 - my first ever purchase was 2 of these for $10! I didn’t know there is no such capacity

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.0.122.vwchUF&scm=1007.77.0.0&id=10427183151&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=

uranusfire 3000 red and white

http://18650brc.taobao.com/search.htm?spm=2013.1.w6.14.ick5wg&scid=392388995&scname=MTg2NTDM19ewxeS8%2Fg%3D%3D&checkedRange=true&queryType=cat

others including NCR and other battery parts

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3.0.63.saBKb5&id=12670817495&
panasonic 3200mah

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3.0.77.saBKb5&id=10193523421&
NCR etc

I am convinced that there are a lot of independent contractors that buy components and assemble both lights and batteries from these parts, possibly even in their own homes, from off the shelf parts that are available on the open market. Sort of like the ads we see here in the States for “work at home opportunities”. The vendors (TMart, DX, etc.)probably buy from a central supplier, but the supplier gets their lights from these various assemblers. Right now at TMart the “UltraFire” HD2010 has been replaced by a no-name HD2010. Seems to work the same, according to BLF members that have received them. The parts are pretty much the same but the assembler did not have access to silk screened tubes (“branded” parts). Some members here on BLF assemble there “own” light when they buy a host and a separate drop in.

I have little confidence in the quality of batteries purchased my mail, there is no real way of knowing where they originally came from. All you can do is order from a trusted vendor. But even a good vendor can receive bad stock. Look at what happened to the vendor that put together a special batch of Black Sky Ray Kings.

Bad cells are dangerous, bad flashights are just bad flashlights.

Buyer Beware!

Very interesting… AND sobering. Thanks, dchomak, for bringing this to our collective attention.

Nice info. really feel sorry for those people who fall for it. Esp. those who gotten bad lights in the past. Most notably the ones who think their BLF Mini’s have a green tint. Also those how gotten the Direct Drive Skyray Kings etc… Yea it’s only a matter of time before we see the 5500mAh and the 6000mAh Ultrafires.

WOW!!! Are these wrappings have custom labels? I need one with 10,000mAh Collectors’ Edition.

Ignorant buyers = Smart sellers. :wink:

What was wrong with the black skyray kings? It appears everyone seemed happy with them on the thread here.

I ordered one from his new batch and will do a quick review when it comes.

Wow, I could make some “sleeper Panasonics” wrapping them as Ultrafires :wink:

As I understood it, the first batch wasn’t as good as it should have been. The second batch is better. The point is that the vendors are at the mercy of the suppliers, they too do not always know what they are going to get. Last year I got some C10s that said XM-L on the outside, but were in fact XR-Es. This was from DX. They are huge and even they got bad stock from a supplier.

Ha HA. When I was a kid I had a “sleeper” car. 1963 Chevy II (4 door) that I put a 327 in. It looked completely stock.

If you want to get paranoid, do you really know that you have authentic Panasonics? the only way to know is to test the performance. If you can do that, then you can have some peace of mind.

I once ordered 5 Motorola blue tooth ear pieces for our phones from what I thought was a reputable online dealer. What I got was cheap imitations that did not work well enough to use. Side by side they looked like the real deal.

Right now there is a big problem with copied merchandise in the world. There are counterfeit goods everywhere.(sometimes the counterfeits are as good or better that the real deal, usually they are not.) Gucci, Rolex, Apple, etc. They are all being copied.

Is there such a thing as a real UltraFire battery of FlashLight? I think not.

Don’t forget, It is just as easy to print up some TrustFire Flame tubes or KeepPower, or whatever.

Yeah, but there are reputable shops and shops where you expect to be scammed with batteries.

And as the old saying goes, “if it sounds too good to be true …”

Yes. I don’t know about the batteries, but genuine UltraFire lights are of noticeably superior build quality when compared to the array of UltraFire branded products out there that aren’t actually made by them at all. Still budget, and not necessarily great, but better.

There is a joke about a farmer that had a watermelon patch. He spent all spring and summer working in the field to cultivate watermelons. However as they ripened, he noticed that there was a thief that came in the middle of the each night and stole 1 watermelon. He set up traps, tried staying up all night to catch the thief. Nothing worked. One day he had a great idea, he made a big sign at put it in the patch. It read “DANGER, one of these watermelons is poisoned” He went to bed that night and slept well, thinking surely no one would risk stealing the poisoned melon. He woke up the next morning and sure enough, no water melon had been stolen. However he was horrified to notice that someone had added to sign “now there are two”.

The moral is that if you can’t tell the real from the counterfeit, then you must assume counterfeit.

I think this is a huge discovery,and a ridiculous show of stupidity.Any one can buy these and put bunk cells in them and pawn them off as new.It makes you wonder if the one you have or had isn't a salvaged battery in a new wrapper.You could probably see this just encourages scammers and is even another reason to stay away from these batteries.

I may order some for my scavenged batteries. :P I had been planning on getting some heatshrink but I might as well make them Ultrafire. :P

At a good price?

I did a search for “fake batteries and people are complaining of fake batteries in all kinds of forums for many hobbies and activities that use Li-Ion cells. We are not alone. RC enthusiasts, ecig users etc.

I also have found many other sleeves for other brands and other battery parts for rolling your own, possibly from recycled cells. Even NCR and Panasonic. I have edited my first post and included many more links.

Ordering 10 of the NCR18650 ones. :D I will post up pictures when (if) they arrive.

I have send numerous emails to different eBay sellers of 18650 batteries.
All with ‘……Fire’ in their brandname of batteries.

I’ve told them that I was very concerned about explosive batteries…
Could the seller guarantee that his battery was safe?

This is one of the answers I got back this night…


“Thanks for your message.
Oh, i am so sorry for you, I understand you.* I am
not sure that they will exploding when you use it.* But i have sold so many
many, there was not any customer report said it is exploding. So i believe
it is safe. But my friend, if you are a little worry about it, i suggested
that you could purchase in your location. I think it will more safe. Do you
agree?

Kind regards!
———————————————————————————————————-

Wow, it’s scary to see that trustable brand (Panasonic) labels are getting faked too.
I’m trying to make it safe for myself (I test every cell ‘on arrival’), but some users who rely on label might get deceived this way. :confused:

eBay is selling potentially dangerous goods.
Has anyone informed them about the dangers of fake 18650 batteries?

Is it possible to organise some kind of platform to make eBay ban the 18650 sellers, who can’t prove that their product is genuine new and safe?
Something like www.18650Dangers.com?

If there are so much more people who are complaining about the Chinese 18650 Fraud, then it must be possible to put the pressure on eBay.