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
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?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
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
uranusfire 3000 red and white
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 Right now at TMart the “UltraFire” HD2010 has been replaced by a no-name HD2010.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!