Test/review of UltraFire 18350 1100mAh (Black-red)

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

UltraFire 18350 1100mAh (Black-red)







Official specifications:

  • Battery Capacity (Mfg Rated): 1100 mAh

  • Battery Chemistry: Li-Ion

  • Battery Feature: Rechargeable

  • Battery Form Factor: BRC 18350

  • Battery Rated Voltage: 3.7 V




The protected 18350 from Ultrafire in their new style.











Discharge curves looks very good, the cells tracks nicely and can deliver 7A, at 10A the voltage is a bit low.



















Conclusion

It looks like Ultrafire has got their hands on the best 18350 batteries around and then added a protection. The protection will increase voltage drop at high current.
If they keep making the battery this way it will be a good battery.


Notes and links

How is the test done and how to read the charts
How is a protected LiIon battery constructed
More about button top and flat top batteries
Comparison to other LiIon batteries
2

What!!? Guess I’ll be grabbing a few since aspires are discontinued. Thanks for the review this is some good news!

3

Thanks for the test HKJ!

LOL, there is not much we can trust when it comes to budget products from China, but there was one thing we could rely on: Ultrafire batteries are cr*p. Now that last straw is gone. :party:

The capacity is close, but these do not keep the voltage under load as well as the Aspire 18350, there still is a clear performance gap. And at 5 dollar/cell these are not cheap.

4

The difference between protection and unprotected cell, remove the protection circuit and my guess is that they will match the Aspire at any load.

5

Thanks a ton HKJ!
Frankly, I used to think that your tests of *fire cells serve nothing but a proof for noobs…and you’ve got enough of such proofs already.
But now you have found a gem. :partying_face: :smiley:

6

I believe that is very important.

No, you never get enough of that.

Maybe, I do not trust Ultrafire, nobody knows when they switch to another cell inside the wrapper.

7

Great! Good to see Ultrafire up their games. Now wait for GB promotion.

8

Thanks for the review HKJ! :+1:

9

I believe it too.

Here we differ.

Yes. I’m pretty sure they will disappear or be replaced soon. I view any buys of these cells to be risky, but that’s probably the last chance to get the real deal. A worthy replacement may arrive any time or may not arrive in years. I’ll take the risk of buying junk.

10

It’s not easy to remove the protection circuit on that type, protection design, of cell. I ruined a RCR123A four sevens cell trying to remove the top hat style that this also appears to have.

Be Careful!! if you try.

11

Why??

12

The brief information we got from Neal is that the 18350 size is becoming obsolete in vaping, and sales were not enough to continue production.

13

Are there other brands that re-wrap these cells with their own brand (and without protection)?

14

This is not the first good UltraFire cell though.
I bought a USB rechargeable 18650 some time ago, rated 3400mAh and it had a decent LG cell under the wrapper.

15

Like you said: reliability has more to do with predictability than with a decent performance.
It’s just like my old manager. If things went OK, he re-named your work. If not, he was the first to do a Brutus on you.
You could trust him (tot do so). And looking over your shoulder without moving your head is good for the eye-muscles.

@Jerommel I have a pair of silver Trustfire 14500’s that are way better than Olight or Nitecore cells.

16

Well that’s a pleasant surprise. I was expecting to laugh at a 350mAh cell.

Lol, I wonder if we have been missing out on 10000mAh 18650 cells all this time :confounded: :person_facepalming:

17

UltraFire is an 0K quality brand, some of their stuff is quite good for the price. However, for whatever reasons it is counterfeited. At all events, searching for whatever product in their official website is a wise advice.

Take, for example, this “ultrafire sk98” search at FastTech. Only this SKU is genuine right now (and the tailcap switch is crap, by the way).

Cheers

18

The Aspire is still available ! But they label it as 1.100 mAh nowadays, as the 1.300mAh were a little bit to optimistic !

Have a look:

https://liionwholesale.com/collections/batteries/products/aspire-18350-battery-10a-15a-1100mah-genuine-and-tested?variant=37706165649

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It is not available anywhere in China. I see that there are still some US shops which haven’t sold their stock, but shipping to Europe is prohibitively expensive.

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a german shop too

I bought them recently:

https://www.dampfplanet.de/Akku-Aspire-INR-18350-1100mA-15A