I tried over TWENTY times to post a negative review on for this EXACT cree light and is now heavily censoring it's reviews to avoid negative. I believe they know they have 3rd party sellers selling totally counterfeit product and this light is at the top of the list. Even though made in China, I have now ordered over a dozen of this very light from various 3rd party sellers on and over half I received were not even real Cree Ultrafire and were dead counterfeits. Buyer beware!
Ultrafire is a generic brand. It's not likely there are counterfeits, rather merely the typical wide variance in quality that comes from not rejecting the worst of the bunch they manufacture.
However it's hard to end up with a "dead" one in this configuration to the extent that it can't be fixed yourself. Check the LED by using a couple wires direct from the battery to it. If the LED lights up then it's either a contact issue that can be resolved by cleaning residue and/or oxidized aluminum, or a switch issue where you could (worst case scenario) use a piece of wire to short across the switch contacts and put a foam piece cut into a washer shape to turn it into a twisty on-off light, or a bad driver were you could just solder a jumper wire between the battery input and LED output pads for direct drive.
In other words, no matter how bad it is, the aluminum is still conductive and Cree has good quality control so the LED isn't likely to be the fault. You can get it working if you want to.
On the other hand, buying a major brand light instead of an Ultrafire/generic will greatly reduce the risk that you'd need to do any of the above, though for an XM-L or brighter it would cost > 4X as much.
These are fine flashlights. I have an $80 Fenix that is my everyday carry, but I have a half dozen of these lights around the house and in every car. Even the generic ***fire 18650 batteries provide a full 3.7V charge and once charged, have a very long shelf life.
Holy hell what is the obsession with a flash light
I use flashlights a lot, got tired of generic ones failing. They're often easy to fix, but that doesn't help much when you need to use one and find out it's not working.
Uses non-standard, funky batteries... and it doesn't come with them... me no likey....
18650 cells pretty much are the standard today for high powered flashlights. The merchant could have charged twice as much to include a battery and charger but you can pick those up on and have your choice of which charger and batteries you buy.
The ones normally bundled with lights like these are generic/junk cells which don't live up to their rated capacity so many people prefer to buy them separately and get a major brand like Samsung, Sony, LG, or Panasonic though there are many brands who relabel Panasonic cells to their own name.
Comments & Reviews (13)
However it's hard to end up with a "dead" one in this configuration to the extent that it can't be fixed yourself. Check the LED by using a couple wires direct from the battery to it. If the LED lights up then it's either a contact issue that can be resolved by cleaning residue and/or oxidized aluminum, or a switch issue where you could (worst case scenario) use a piece of wire to short across the switch contacts and put a foam piece cut into a washer shape to turn it into a twisty on-off light, or a bad driver were you could just solder a jumper wire between the battery input and LED output pads for direct drive.
In other words, no matter how bad it is, the aluminum is still conductive and Cree has good quality control so the LED isn't likely to be the fault. You can get it working if you want to.
On the other hand, buying a major brand light instead of an Ultrafire/generic will greatly reduce the risk that you'd need to do any of the above, though for an XM-L or brighter it would cost > 4X as much.
These are fine flashlights. I have an $80 Fenix that is my everyday carry, but I have a half dozen of these lights around the house and in every car. Even the generic ***fire 18650 batteries provide a full 3.7V charge and once charged, have a very long shelf life.
http://www.amazon.com/UltraFire%C2%AE-Ultrafire-Flashlight-battery-Included/dp/B00OMUAH3Y
Fulfilled by - no long wait for shipping from overseas - and if there's a problem, returning to is easy-peasy.
I use flashlights a lot, got tired of generic ones failing. They're often easy to fix, but that doesn't help much when you need to use one and find out it's not working.
18650 cells pretty much are the standard today for high powered flashlights. The merchant could have charged twice as much to include a battery and charger but you can pick those up on and have your choice of which charger and batteries you buy.
The ones normally bundled with lights like these are generic/junk cells which don't live up to their rated capacity so many people prefer to buy them separately and get a major brand like Samsung, Sony, LG, or Panasonic though there are many brands who relabel Panasonic cells to their own name.
If you just want cheap batteries then here's a $5 pair with charger for $5 (under "Other Sellers" on the right column):
http://www.amazon.com/UltraFire-3000mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-Charger/dp/B00MCJNIL0
Thank you!