TF flame 14500 judgement call

one of the two cells of flamed Protected Trustfire 14500 900mAh died on me.

it wont charge anymore (according to the green/red blinking status LED of my Ultrafire WF-188 charger), and while i've got the feeling that its capacity is not "empty" it certainly doesnt let my lights flash anymore.

During its use in one of my lights (Romisen RC-29a, Xeno E03) the light stopped working, although the cell was hardly used (rest voltage could be 3.4V). my lights did bump the ground several times and the PCB of the cell might have gotten damaged by the shocks .. but i am not sure if *this* was the cell in the lights when i dropped the lights on the ground.

This means that the cell wasnt dead right after the drops!

The cell is dead now .. and it died while i was using it in one of my lights; so it doesnt appear too logical that the cell death was caused by the drops. I am wondering if any of your Protected 14500's ever died on you and if it is safe for me to open the shrink wrap with a cutter .. to have a look.

There is some strange brown coloration on the top (and ignore the blue marking), you may want to comment:

Could i still use the cell as "Unprotected 14500"?

EDIT: here some of my own measurements:

weight:

cell0 (DX): the one above. disposed. not available for weighing. too bad.

cell1 (DX): 20.708g [21g]

cell2 (DD): 20.696g [21g]

cell3 (DD): 20.465g [20g]

Those two spots look suspicious. I would try to "peel up" the wrapper a bit to see if the metal case has any corrosion on its surface...if it does I would bury the cell underground to rid of it.

If the metal case is alright, I have read on this forum or cpf, where it was permissible to remove the protection and then use as "unprotected". Just be sure cells metal case is in perfect condition.

Be careful and let us know what you find. :)

Hi, thanks. Here is the scan of the cell dissected:

i've tried to recharge the cell as Unprotected. Ha! no go. The charger refuses to charge it! In the Quark, the cell is a flashy, in the Xeno E03, it's not a flashy.

This probably means that the circuit is intact (not damaged by the drops) but the cell itself has some damage. And yes, the brown marks seem to be rust (corrosion, oxidation).

Since the charger refuses to recognize/charge the cell, i will dispose the cell. Just FYI i have been using the cell for 7.0 weeks only. During that time i have re-charged it ~40 times max. and discharged it always "completely", i.e. until the PCB kicked in (tripped protection). Main use was runtime tests for the Romisen RC-29 3-mode, the Xeno E03, and the Quark X AA.

I am wondering what exactly was the cause of its death. Humidity? Leaked water (näähh)? Drops? Age? Bad quality cell?

It was indeed the cell which performed less well than the other one, e.g. in the runtime tests --- so i dont mind too much disposing it. What i do mind is the process of re-ordering a new pair of cells (2x 14500's, again from Dealextreme, Manafont, or similar). Well then, let's go and pull the trigger! ;)

The back side of the wrap looks very glittery. Fakes wraps wouldnt look like this!



I have also read that the TrustFire 14500's are re-manufactured and not totaly brand new. I suspect other brands may be also. This may be the Industry standard of China and other parts of World including USA. Don't know for sure

But, if you have battery corrosion going on, (as it appears), and other apparent problems, I would definitely dispose of it to avoid any hazardous outcomes.

I have seen a burn like that before it was caused by a driver spring that folded over and shorted to the lights body. That short probably cooked the battery before the protection could kick in. I have a couple dozen 14500 Flames from DX all of them perform flawlessly and I highly doubt they are remanufactured. Please take a good look at all of your 14500 lights you used that battery in for a matching burn spot on the light body near the driver before you get a really bad short that the PCB cannot stop before the battery goes boom.

Quick question: When we refer to Trustfire "flames" does this mean specifically the one's in kreislers OP, i.e. red and black wrapper with yellow flame logo? And are these reckoned to be generally better than the blue (or grey) one's?

Yes and yes.

Thanks X 2

i do have a problem with the driver: it continues to run on 14500's but has stopped working with Alkalines. and the driver boards "looks unclean" (burned?) but it's hard to tell since i cant examine it in close-up. the torch is a two-part torch and i can hardly make out what's going on on the circuit board. there is some good chance that during the drops the spring caused a short which damaged BOTH the driver (parts of the circuit board) AND the Trustfire cell.

Maybe the short/burn wouldnt have damaged the driver if it had been an Alkaline cell (because Alkalines are less powerful).

In any case it's a pity since the torch's ads say that it's a shock-resistant torch. (which torch am i talking about? i have mentioned 3 torch models in this thread. you decide.)

okay, i've ordered these here, the ones with hologram from DD:

they cost 2.50$ more than the ones without hologram. the cheapest are the ones without protection.

Dino Direct has been known to sell fake Flames, many on this forum have bought them. I only buy my flames from DX. I honestly would cancel my order and spend the $5 dollars DX charges so you know you are getting real Flames.

i shall be the LAST BLF member who buys these hologram'ed Trustfires IF they are fakes. First, let's see what the pre-ship photo says and if i really receive the hologram'ed ones. Then i will do the runtime tests with Quark, Xeno, and Romisen. If they perform equally well, then they are probably not fakes (and that's why they would cost ~7.50$ on DD).

If they are fakes, then nobody else on BLF shall ever dare to buy the hologram'ed Trustfires again, i.e. after me.

( i've cancelled my DX order lol .. because i need to check for myself what the DD quality is. )

What fake flames? I thought it was protected vs unprotected, i.e. wrong items sent. The unprotected flames they sent looks genuine to me and they perform well. I got them for free because they sent me replacements for protected flames and I can keep the unprotected ones. (Dinodirect if you are reading this I still hasn't receive the replacements, it's been 28 days).

Some have received their replacements and they appear to be not fakes.

Okay I just realized you are talking about 14500 flames.

You should read the whole thread some people also received fake flames as well.

How could you have a fake 14500? They aren't common for other uses like the 18650, right?

For me, i always test all my protected cells with a dead short on a DMM, it should just display a bit of current and really really fast drop down to 0.0A. All my TF Flames pass this test. It never showed more than 1A, the DMM could not capture the peak fast enough, probably stops it in less than 0.1 sec.

This is safe, i must have done this a couple hundreds of times, including voltage readings to check for cells balancing. Too many DRYs and 2-cell lights.

This is by far the worst advice i've heard in quite a while. It's "safe" utill the pcb works. As soon it fails the cell might behave violently. If it does, better run away while holding your breath. There are better ways for testing the protection circuit. Plain old short circuit is a crude way, but nowhere near a safe method to do it.

I've got a pair of protected with hologram from DD a while back. Both checked in at 3.88 exactly. I think they are good the time being.

I've never had issue with TF Flame 14500 cells that I've bought from DX. I just ordered a pair from DD to hit $30 on an order so I could use a discount code. I basically got them free of charge. Will let you know what I think of them when I get them. That said, the TF Flames are really the only 14500 cells I use and trust. I have a pair of greys and they are fine but the Flames are top of the line from Trustfire and are better than any other ***fire cells.

Because they are popular and well thought of, they are also chosen by counterfeiters to copy. You have to buy from a reputable source to know what you are getting. I've never bought batteries from DD so this will be my first.

Whenever i do the Secure Checkout (instead of the Paypal Express Checkout), no additional fees or insurances paid, and choose paypal as payment option, i get the pre-ship photo. For the hologram'ed Trustfires ive got the following foto:

i cant see the hologram. maybe it's on the other side. if it's not, i'd be going to complain. Paying $7.69 and then no hologram?? not with kreisler me!