Ultrafire fakes, opened up and refunded !

I just got a 21550 "Small Sun 4500mah" battery, which is supposed to be designed for 3AAA lights. First thought it was a brilliant idea for the coule AAA lights I have. But it turned out to be a 14500 stuck inside a plastic tube with a spacer at the bottom and then wrapped up. Except they even botched that the battery appears to be lopsided inside so the button on top is offset and at an angle....

ledoman, Here is a pic of the ends. If you look closely at the flame area their not quite the same on all ultrafires. I don't know if its an indication of fakes or not.

Is that the protection curcuit in the bottom with the ultrafire stamp on it ?

Boaz, yes this is the protection circit from the protected ones, the unprotected ones where not marked, they just had a thin metal cover to hide the old welds.

Here is the picture of mine purchased from BuyInCoins. Haven't had any issues with them but only used in low current flashlights. I don't have ability to test theirs capacity. Mostly I give them away with some zoomies.

So after this Ebay experience, are you going to continue to shop there?

Is the risk the same @ Dealextreme?

I've never shopped at either, so just curious.

I do not like the Ultrafire 3000 - so I wouldn't buy them.

DX is ok (you can buy there the famous trsutfire 2400 flame version):

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/trustfire-protected-18650-3-7v-true-2400mah-rechargeable-lithium-batteries-2-pack-20392?r=28318244

Hm, that justifies when I saw Jim at Manafont go out of his way on here to stress that he sells "genuine" UltraFire. I have a friend who thought that was funny, seeing UltraFire I think started out making something approaching a knock-off of SureFire, right down to the name (now much-expanded in product line, of course). I thought it was funny anyone would knock off UltraFire, but it's not so funny now.

I'm still wondering if that so-called "new style" 504B discussed months back (completely different, not as good) is an impostor too.

I have the BRC 3000's from DX, but the unprotected version. While I think I overpaid, they're consistent and work okay. Mine have a white plasticky or papery disk covering the (+) side.

A few months ago I posted a similar concern about high-end Panasonic 18650 cells from Ebay, but people here assured me they were probably okay; however that seller was more 'known' or had a good reputation. I did find it ironic or worrisome that Japanese cells would ship from China (Hong Kong), but they said that's how it goes.

I've read about reclaimed batteries being re-wrappered as no-names, but not as counterfeits. That's shocking. Thanks for the pictorial.

I got three of these free with some flashlights I got on ebay. Runtimes (If I could figure out why my multimeter won't talk to the computer I could get capacity numbers, but I can't) of the three were about 2 hours, 1 hour, and 15 minutes. The protection boards are an exact match for the counterfiets posted above, not the (believed to be) genuine ones. The different font is the most obvious difference between the two. The seller is sending me two more batteries, but I have no hope they'll be any better. If they weren't free I'd be demanding a refund too...

--Bushytails

It really makes me wonder how many of the people who complain about these batteries got fakes, never opened them up and decided all ultrafires are junk. If you look at this test the ultrafire 3000 actually held more than the AW2600???

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/Battery%2018650%20UK.html

So besides the Panasonic what is a good budget priced 3100 protected battery on the market?

http://www.rzbiker.com/20120527_184518.jpg
:slight_smile:

Welcome to BLF! You'll love being here.

Nice first post. :)

Now, that gray powder might be worth something… chuckle chuckle wink wink

Whoa, now you've done it, I gotta open up my 2mAh blue BIC batts now. And welcome, tolstick.

Welcome!

Very amusing first post! :)

I had one fake grey Ultrafire, it had some smaller battery inside. Outer diameter was enlarged with black PVC tube.

The battery itself was about 4mm shorter and 2-3mm thinner. Bad capacity...

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing the results of the autopsy.

Aloha and welcome to BLF tolstick!

Welcome to BLF tolstick!

Welcome to BLF and I would never ever open a LiIon cell.. how/why did you do that? :D I wonder what other popular cells look like on the inside..

Is that cell fake or genuine?