Thanks guys. I guess I will buy some more of these then. I have had pretty good luck so far with them. I just ran a test with my Keygos K-5 light and these Ultrafire batteries seem to last longer than the Trustfire flame battery as for beam brightness after 1hr on high.
Actually that is the same batteries I'm using and my 1st 18650s, up to now its still going strong and comparable to my better named batteries. I have one soaked in water for a few hours inside a flashlight and after drying, it still performs as if nothing happen, just a visible stain of rust.
The Sony are fakes. Take a look at the battery list of old4570 or the test result:
Only 970 mAh @ 500mA discharge rate.
Next point protection: I have never seen 18650 of Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo or LG with protection. They produce them for business clients (as a part for laptops) not for endconsumer.
Other people built in a protection and sell them. This are people who build AW. Redilast or XTAR batteries.
Fake for sure. I checked with a reputable Sony reseller here locally and they say the highest capacity currently available is the 2600 mAh US18650GR cell. His most recent parts catalog from Sony doesn't even list a cell with a higher capacity than that and the price per piece on the 2600s is higher in bulk than those ebay cells are going for retail.
Just buy 2 good AW or Redilast cells instead of buying a bunch of ultracrap that might blow up. Heck I even use unprotected Sanyo 2400 cells I got from laptops.
Why bother with hit or miss, how many cells do you really need?
I'd definitely avoid the fake crap on eBay, but the "good" 18650's like AW and Callie's are amazingly expensive compared to decent cells (not some of the garbage ones) on DX, etc. Will your lights really know the difference? Most of the testing I've seen says No.
One battery that hasn't been mentioned is the Hi-Max at about $6ea. My tests show they come in at about 2500+ mah. This is the cheapest battery I would recommend to a friend.
I have opened up a lot of fake / recycled batteries. One of the sellers had a 99.5% feedback so you cant gauge battery quality by feedback ratings. Most battery buyers are not on message boards and dont actually test their batteries.
If you buy the cheapest 18650 batteries your almost guaranteed garbage. Even the "real" Fire batteries seem to suffer from high internal resistance and much shorter than average lifespans, 1-2 years? (vs name brand batteries sanyo samsung ect)
Well I had a red ultrafire junker battery do better than the Trustfire flame battery. Now I don't recommend those batteries, but I'm still using them. Those Ultrafire grey batteries in my opinion are a lot better battery than you guys are reporting in my opinion. These I got are dang good batteries so far. For the money they are very good batteries.
And I agree with you. The Xtars are good batteries. But I can buy 8 of the grey Ultrafire protected batteries for about the price of 2Xtars. Now to me the Ultrafires are the better deal. They may not be as good either. But when I go through a set of them and even if they won't last as long I still have 3 more sets to use. I don't think 2 Xtars are going to out last 8 Ultrafire grey protected batteries. But like I said use what you like and pay what you want. I'll take these batteries and do just fine.