Test / Review: GTL 18650 5000mAh (Blue)

Haha, they’ve wrapped one cell with 5000mAh instead of the full, 4 cell pack :bigsmile:

BTW, want to thank you for your efforts on your web improvement :beer: That “new” cell comparison is awesome! Great job, man :crown:

Thanks for that… not very surprising, but good to have the numbers/charts to see.

1000mah? good enough, lolol

Through some oversight, I managed to purchase a few of these GTL batteries at a time when I mistakenly purchased some low cost junk. One by one, they DROP DEAD.
Steer clear of GTL batteries.

These batteries are total junk, they are 500mAh at best, and often after discharge won’t charge.
I purchased several, and ended up throwing away even the unused ones !!!

I purchased similar (identical looking blue shrink wrap with white disc on top) when I didnt know any better except they are similarly printed on the outside shrinkwrap in black text: “+ GOOD 18650 5000mAh 3.7V -” and underneath this “www.acce-mall.com” which seems to be a dead site. They are about 750-500 mAh for certain, assessed via comparison of runtimes on several lights versus Orbtronic 3400mAh batteries.

I tested them about 10x too on various walks of recorded run time this winter. I use them in my SRK, they last in total one walk approximately if I dont use the light for most of the trip, then I take them out and charge them….never keep them in the light or take them on any trips I drive to and I’ll probably discard them as soon as I get more, I just wanted to get SOME use out of them and I was kind of curious about seeing if they show any signs of getting old/used batteries…I test them with a voltage meter when the SRK dims and before I charge, and voltages are always within .01-.02V of each other, so I’m also pretty certain they are actual 500-750mAh batteries purposefully mislabled, not used batteries.

Yes, those are the ones, they should have called them “BAD 18650 5000mAh 3.7V -”
I have found the UltraFire red and silver batteries also suck. A lot of China battery cheating going on, but what’s new.
They will learn like Japan did years ago, and now produce high quality items.
The UltraFire Black Gold 4000 mAh are not bad, and actually come in at around 2000mAh and are really protected by a pc board with a chip on the end of the battery. I also tried the white ENERGY batteries that are also not too bad.

Yes, my guess is they were old “500mAh” formula 18650s that a factory produces and got relabeled as “5000mAh” to sell. Check out HKJ’s links above, he does great battery tests and reviews on his site. Ultrafire brand in general is “LiarLiarPantsOnFire” for battery mAh and flashlight lumens, and worse for batteries. This is gone over on other threads here, but Ultrafire is one of the worst since lots of other factories produce and/or relabel low quality batteries under the Ultrafire name. I’d go with Orbtronics or AW protected cells if you are the new to Li-ion cells kind of guy I’m assuming you are (I was also when I bought the “GOOD 5000mAh” batteries). And welcome :slight_smile:

They probably meant to print “1/5th of 5000mah” on the sides of those cells. Hey… its a simple mistake that anyone could make, right?? :smiley: :smiley: At least they fall in line with the rest of GTL batteries ——-> slingshot ammo!

More like 1/10th of 5000 mAh. I dont think they are the ‘GTL’ that HKJ reviewed, but a similar wrapped battery (probably same factory).

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!


There is just almost nothing that can even be said about that.

These manufacturers have gone from

1. a slight exaggeration

2. To a HUGE exaggeration

3. To being just plain full of crap

4. To LOL now your just being stupid!!

HKJ, thanks for warning us about this junk. Do you have some way I can contribute to a "battery-charger-xxx" fund to aid in your testing?

Looks like HKJ needs to box up all those crap… I mean GTL cells and mail em to this good ol boy. They should make for some pretty good slingshot ammo.

No, the best help is telling me about new interesting stuff and asking companies to send review copies to me.

I will try to do that.

gotta buy the items blind.
otherwise you get golden samples.never did trust manufacturer provided test samples.

In this review the official specs say this is a Japanese battery.
From reading other battery threads here, I thought that
Japanese batteries were supposed to be good

The official specifications is what the seller writes, it is obvious not true for this cell.

So the eBay seller is lying. This is not a Japanese battery. He should be shunned.
I now shun this seller and also this battery.

If I were a judge or police officer in China right now I think I would be collecting the top 5 executives of this manufacturer to discuss jail time.

This is by far the most hilarious example of having gone completely off the deep end I have ever seen.

I would bet 10,000 OTF lumens that those cells are actually harvested from DEAD laptop battery packs or something very similar.


The only thing I have ever seen that rivaled this in stupidity was a flashlight being sold as thirteen thousand eight hundred lumens that tested a 2200 OTF. This battery still beats that though, because with some modification several thousand OFT lumens were at least possible with some modification. But what mod can you do to a battery.


HKJ,

Thanks yet again for you continuous effort to bring the truth to light, and protect us all from the unscrupulous.