Louis, from Tmart recently contacted me and asked if I'd mind reviewing the Trustfire cells that they now stock at their US warehouse. A while back I noticed that they only had Ultrafire cells at the US warehouse and commented to Louis that the Ultrafire cells were garbage and they really need to change that and get genuine Trustfire cells to support the US customers with quick delivery and good prices. Well, they listened to me and did just that. While I'm no HKJ when it comes to testing cells I told him I would give my impressions and that's really all he wanted form me so here you go.
Genuine they are. Louis had the US warehouse ship me a pair each of protected 16340 cells and 26650 cells. Here is what I received...
Both pairs were wrapped with clear shrink wrap and had the genuine holographic stickers from Trustfire. The 16340 cells were sealed in an additional anti-static bag.
Below you can see the holographic stickers denoting these are indeed genuine Trustfires.
Wrappers on all cells are also genuine Trustfire with holographic labels.
Both types are button top but not overly tall. Just right, IMO.
Total length for the 26650 cells is 69.12mm
Total length for 16340 cells is 36.42mm
26650 cell diameter is 26.42
16340 cell diameter is 16.64mm
Voltage on each of the 16340 cells when received was 3.78v
Voltage on each of the 26650 cells was 3.83.
I do not have a hobby charger that can measure actual capacity but I have been using them for a couple weeks and am extremely happy with them I've used the 26650's in my BLF A8 and had a few cycles on the 16340's in my Nitecore EC1. If you are in the states and need some good quality cells in a hurry Tmart can get these to you in 5 days or less which can be a real life saver compared to waiting 2-4 weeks for the same cells from a different Chinese reseller and still not knowing if you are getting genuine cells. I can confirm that these from Tmart are indeed the genuine article. ;)
I also received two TF flame unprotected 26650s from them as a replacement for UF crap I purchased. I had to pay the difference, but they were good. I measured right around 4000mAh @ 1A. Internal resistance was quite low as well. This seems pretty good and they do look like the real thing.
Sorry for the delayed response. Tmart marks protected cells by “with cover” tag at present, we will consider to modify them for a unified, standardized tag to make more intuitive.
Tmart state clearly that which warehouse the items will be sent out, thanks.
Hey I see you have the Trustfire “flame” 18650 3000mah, but only at the international warehouse, can you see about getting them at the US warehouse? thx
might be someone here interested in the 20% off coupon BATTERIES that i received in the mail from tmart
if you order $15+ chargers or batteries you can use the coupon. so those 26650 would be $18,46 then
I don’t see any TF 18650s in US warehouse. I did notice the 3000mAh TFs in HK. They are pictured with hologram and seem to be a good price (normally $8.69/pr) esp. with 20% off. Are these any good?
Well, they’re here. Initial top up and discharge tests are not matching the graphs for capacity. I bought four cells.
Charged to 4.20V, discharged at 1A down to 3.0V:
1 - 2040mAh
2 - 2043mAh
3 - 1969mAh
4 - 2263mAh
I’m a little disappointed because I was hoping for something similar to the capacity in HKJ’s graph. The curve looks different too, not as high during the discharge like the Sanyo 2600 cells often do.
Since I got all four for $13 shipped, I’ll probably just keep them. In case anyone is wondering, they did have the TrustFire hologram sticker on them.
Just another example of how much variability there can be in xxxFire cells. Forest Gump said it best…
oh, that’s disappointing! i bought 6 of them, because they seemed to be the best bang for your buck since the xtars from wallbuys christmas sale… i think i paid $20.86 for them, or $3,48 each.
i really should either get me a hobby charger, or troubleshoot and finish my arduino capacity tester project i started a while ago.
are you going to complain to tmart, and ask if the batteries really are genuine? considering the poor mAh compared to HKJ’s and fasttech’s tests (~2500 mAh)
(being cheap and budget-minded might not save you money in the long run, since you often can’t be sure about the quality of the cheap stuff you buy. but in the chase after the items that defy the common price/performance ratio that is part of the game!)