I found some Trustfires from 3-4 years ago, and noticed brown spots on one of them near the positive terminal-
Is it okay, or should I get rid of it, or even both?
“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” is my guide for suspect li-ions.
I’ve had just one that I found looking like that, some years back. I took it to recycling without hesitation.
Check 'em with a multimeter. As far as I know any decent li-ion cell should live very long if stored adequately (heck, my MX1000s internal li-ion batteries still work more than 13 years later 
). I doubt these spots have been caused by any kind of gut material leaking, to be honest.
Anyway, a pair of decent 14500s can be had for under $5. 
Cheers ^:)
The one showing the brown stain has experienced some sort of oxidation or rusting. Notice that the button top has lost it’s shine compared to the other one. Personally I think it’s no good. I would guess internally shorted and released all the pixies. 
Thanks everyone!
No such thing as a trusty Trustfire.
Funny thing about these batteries a few years back on vaping forums people would swear by the trust fire 18650
Cells are cheap. Replacing a melted charger isn’t. Repairing HF damaged lungs is impossible. You know my answer by now 
Phil
I don’t know about that. I’ve been vaping for 3 years and I’ve never heard any good things about them on any forum, only negative. (VU, reddit, ecf, etc.) Since all these chinese xxxfire companies re-wrap questionable cells, there is no reason to buy them in the first place. Quality LG, Samsung, and Panasonic/Sanyo cells are only 5 or 6 bucks for flat-tops from several trusted vendors like Liionwholesale, Illumn & IMRbatteries to name a few.
I agree-
I've always stayed away from any battery ending in 'fire', but years ago, the word was 'Manafont' (anyone remember them?) had authentic Trustfires, so I grabbed a couple-
Trustfire is not a battery manufacturer. They re-wrap questionable cells from other company’s rejects. Sometimes even recycled cells.
It's being recycled and replaced with a couple of LG HG2 18650's/3000mAh 20A's-
I guess I should have been more specific I’ll try to dig up the threads if you wish the dates would have been 2010-2011ish. Came up during Google searches for older units and batteries it popped up
HG2’s are great cells. I have a half dozen of them I cycle through in a vape mod on a daily basis. Just make sure you buy them from a trusted source. There have been tons of counterfeits of the HG2 over the last year. Jon at liion is a highly trusted source in the vape community. If you need button-tops, he sells the LG MJ1 which is another very good cell for flashlights
I think everyone knows that trust fire or any other battery besides the big four is a rewrap. To me it’s just funny how mindsets change. I couldn’t find the old forum post I was talking about. But I found one from 2013 the guy rates the 18650 trust fires as #3 on his list of top batteries for vaping
By 2013 it was known about the quality of them.
For me I’ve never bought a rewrap and never will not even efest. Even if its s good cell underneath its always more expensive then name brand
aL1, you mean those Turdfires you showed in the OP are 18650s?
They seemed 14500s to me, maybe it's because I have a pair of them… LOL! 
Cheers ^:)
I got them from liionwholesale-
Yeah, 18650's --
I have 4 TF 10440 cells and they are OK. Buying them today might not be. Mine came from a time where some respected members here had recently purchased them, and had checked them, and all went well. But you might get a different cell in that same wrapper today. I had no LiIon cells back then and precious little money, but I’ve grown from there and only use top-rated cells now which are worth their slight extra cost. And even one highly regarded brand had issues with some cells not so long ago. Which is why-
I don’t give a crap who’s brand name is on anything I own. I’m only out to impress me, nobody else, and what impresses me are performance and value in that order. Nobody is perfect and neither is any production brand. It’s either individually good or it ain’t.
Phil
While I’m not going to defend buying Trustfires given how cheap quality batteries are these days that wasn’t the case 3-5 years ago. The reviews HKJ did on the Trustfire flames back then showed them to be acceptable for cheap batteries. In fact the Trustfire flame 3000mAh 18650 doesn’t look that bad compared to the Sanyo 26F at 2A or less.
But that was then and things are much different today. And of course QC and questions on how the old TF’s would age are legitimate questions (very likely poor and poor :person_facepalming: )