Ultrafire fakes, opened up and refunded !

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?

Sad thing is a lot of people tried to buy quality batteries with the (fake) Ultrafires, and couldn’t win for losing.

Any reason the link gives a 404/not found? I imagine the deal ended, but… deleted?
I remember a guy who was “paid by a customer in batteries”, selling them here, but you had to buy a lot of them; I thought they were Sanyos–was that the deal above? Any hot deals in quality batteries right now?
You know I’ve noticed the price of high-end batteries (Panasonic and Sanyo brands, especially on Ebay) now not being much more than say Chinese 18650’s on DX. The cheapest new Panasonic 18650’s on Ebay start at $5/battery, shipped. That’s the same price as Ultrafire Flames on DX. Sanyos start around $6. New NCR’s are now at around $7.50 shipped each! If Protection circuit is not considered (I know it can be important, but for comparison purposes), is there any reason NOT to get these over the Trustfire Flames, other than protection circuit?
I just got a pair of Panasonic CGR18650CH (“Hybrid” chemistry) from a US seller on Ebay for $17.49 shipped ($8.75/batt), shipping only took a couple days. Almost double the price of protected Flames, but one of the lowest (‘the’ lowest?) internal resistance 18650’s out there, and while unprotected, not an “exploder”.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PANASONIC-CGR18650CH-HIGH-DRAIN-10A-Hybrid-IMR-Li-ion-18650-Battery-CGR18650-x-2-/230794118631
Ebay seller is “Titanium434”, but inside the listing has the logo “Orbtronic”, who is known for rebranding high-end batteries like Callie’s Kustoms and AW, some reviewed here. (If someone can confirm the seller, I’d appreciate it.) I don’t know how they’re making money off them, considering HKEquipment is selling them at the same price from Hong Kong, and Callie’s Kustoms (first to sell these to end users) used to (and still) sells them for so much more. Even CnQualityGoods or Intl-Outdoors (I get them confused) is selling those at at the same price per battery, but you can just buy a single.
The one thing I have noticed about the Panasonic/Sanyo’s is they’re most or all unprotected (made for the laptop market). Zebralight, who does not like rechargeable Lithiums due to safety concerns, especially for 14500’s, seems to think the quality of the cell itself is more important than whether it is protected or not. That’s something I don’t totally get. Because anyone can get stupid or make a mistake and end up with a short-circuited battery. My friend tried to get an amp reading from a protected Trustfire Flames from Manafont, and the short-circuit protection kicked in perfectly, denying him a reading. Some of these newer high-end unprotected cells will short-circuit, but supposedly not fail as dangerously (I imagine you could still get burned with one in your pocket). After witnessing my friend’s “test”, the protected one one seemed actually safer(?). Almost stupid-proof, within reason.

NightCrawl,

My first thought was that it's a protection board that is broken (cell is labeled as protected). So I removed label, no sign of protection whatsoever. Maybe it's a new design, protection inside?? :0

Then some work with pliers and voila, сhinese li-ion matrioshka is revealed.

If someone interested here is the link to the product :)

http://dx.com/p/new-202c-cree-xm-l-t6-1000lm-5-mode-white-led-zoom-flashlight-w-holster-charger-gray-2-x-18650-125368

Batteries were included with a flashlight so one can expect to get the the cheapest species, but this one goes beyond all expectations :)

BTW it's the first time I met such a fake cell on DX in some 20+ cells purchased in last 3 years..