Why are Ultrafire and Trustfire Batteries so bad??

[GunJack]

As per the title, I know Torchy doesn't think they're up to much but why? Lower than stated capacity, poor protection circuits, or something else?

Looking for UK-stocks (no fastetch this time) cheap as poss 18650 protecteds as I rather like the UDT-L, and can get a pair of Ultrafires for half the cost of Torchy's cheapest and 1st class delivery so could have UDT and batteries by middle of the week... are they really that bad? Any thoughts welcomed, hanx in advance

[gaz0012]

Dont buy anything with fire at the end not good with regard to batts lol,use mainly efest as never had a problem with them,

[giles]

Basically a lot of them are cheap rip-offs.

There's two problems with that. One is that they are likely to be less than spec - either won't have the capacity claimed, or will die earlier.

The other is that they may not be as safe. There's an inherent problem with Ni-ion batteries in that a small percentage explode. It's not confined to e-cig batteries - HP recalled a lot of lap-tops a couple of years back. It normally happens when they are being charged. The only ones I've heard of exploding while in use have been stacked.

One (respectable, chinese) supplier said, when someone complained, that only one in 10,000 of his batteries exploded, and he regarded that as acceptable.

UK suppliers will tell you to use a charging bag. Personally, I don't, but I don't normally leave them on charge unless I'm around and awake.

The less careful the manufacture, the more likely they are to explode.

I actually own a couple of trustfires - I bought them to test something out, not expecting to use them much. In practice I've used them a fair bit, and so far they have been fine. But that isn't really the point, is it?

[ChillerVapes]

Apollo have a 25% farthers day sale at the moment. I think with a code but the best batteries I have used are the Panasonic cgh18650cg (off the top of my head so the code might be wrong) but they are grey. Lol

I got them from apollo though.

[johnners]

I have Ultrafire 18650's and 18350's, purchased from different suppliers at different times. I also have Torchy 18350's and can't tell any difference between them. they've probably had about 30 - 50 charge cycles each so I guess they're relatively young.
From what I understood, the problem is that there are "bad" batteries out there with "####fire" wrapping on them. Surely, this could apply to any brand though, if an unscrupulous manufacturer wants to disguise a poor product with a brand name?
j

[vereybowring]

As has been said anything with fire in the name is usually the cheapest quality battery on the market.
I have the classic red ultrafire 3000mAh 18650 and they have less runtime than a cheap 1400mAh IMR batteries from a trusted source, says it all really, the capacity is usually way off. If they lie about storage capacity that badly then I can't trust any other claims they make.
The major concern though are the repackaged "fakes" that have flooded the market. Don't know why but the fakers tend to us the cheap brand names more often although fakes of AW's have surfaced but were spotted really quickly. Now when I say say there are different qualities of fake as well. The most reported are recycled batteries which are ripped out of old laptop batteries, recovered with the fake branding and sold on - so these batteries are essentially at the end of their usable life which means failure is imminent be it chemical breakdown or just having no capacity left. Another type seen are smaller batteries like 16340 bunged into a cheap tube along with a connection to the top and some sand/anything that happens to have been lying about the place to make up the weight. These are really dangerous as people have had them short inside the fake tube usually due to bad wiring of the +ve end or the stuff inside used as ballast is conductive. Also protection circuits have funnily enough turned out to be faked too, some are just added on as a cosmetic, some are real but the strip running from top to bottom for the circuit is made from material way out of spec to actually break the circuit is something goes wrong.

You need to follow what other users have discovered with experience now I'm afraid and only from places that others have bought from and had no issues with. I don't mean reviews on vendor sites either I mean us lot at the forums or candlepower forum. Hell some vendors with high turnover have ended up with fakes as they are all through the supply chains, the fakers are very efficient (never understood how making a few cents profit per fake is actually paid for but they do it). This is especially true of ebay, where fakes make up a huge proportion of what's on there. If in doubt, ask the vendor if they have quality/safety batch testing certificates from the manufacturer for their product. If they say no or are not willing to provide them don't buy - simple as that.

You get what you pay for is a very old adage and quite true when it comes to batteries. I want to know the thing I'm filling with loads of explosive power and I plan to put right up to my face is as good a quality as I can get.

[Perpetua]

I bought Ultrafire and Trustfire batteries in the early days and never had any issues with them GJ. Although now with a little more knowledge I stick with AW, Efest, Panasonic or a battery that Torchy recommends.

Don't pretend to understand the technicalities of a battery, but I do know that my better batteries lifetime is considerably longer than cheaper brands, my AW's are coming up to their 3rd full year of use, still going strong and have been charged many, many times.

The investment has been very worthwhile.

[GunJack]

Thanks all for the responses....looks like Torchy it will be then if/when I can't resist the UDT any longer

[andym]

I only buy my batteries from a reputable UK supplier(usually ecigwiz as they are local to me) so i feel a bit safer by doing so.