# Ultrofite 18650 4200mAh batteries



## John

Hi everyone,

in anticipation of my soon-to-arrive (I hope) Sub-ohm tank and battery I've been doing some research into the gear, building coils and so forth and am now reading up on batteries, safe current draw limits etc. I have a few of these Ultrofite brand 4200mAh batteries lying around which I use in my 5W LED torch. They seem to last quite long in the torch (it takes two of them) and the torch is like a bloomin searchlight when the batteries are fresh of a charge...so I got to wondering how safe they'd be to use in say, a DNA30 or some other sub-ohm box mod with a .5ohm coil

This is my first venture out into the world of rebuilding and so forth and so please forgive me if my questions seem elementary. Its an exciting part of my vaping journey - I love tinkering and making things so this really appeals to that side of me.

Hoping to get some advice or information from the experienced Mech Warriors. Has anyone ever come across/used these batteries or would advise against their use? I know for one that the 4200mAh rating may be bogus - these things are from china and the well-known marketplace dx.com lists a similar 5800mAh model with a "specified rating" and an "actual rating" of 650mAh which is already dodgy straight off the bat. There is another, more reputable manufacturer called Ultrafire of which I suspect these UltroFites are knockoffs.


John


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## Arthster

well it depends on the Amp ratting they give. does the label give you amp ratting?

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Alex

Have a look at the Samsung 25R batteries.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...vtc5-lg-icr18650he2-samsung-inr18650-25r.html

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## BumbleBee

Not a good idea @John 

The higher the capacity of the battery (mah) the lower the amp draw. 4200mah for an 18650 already seems unbelievably high, I call BS on that rating. Personally I wouldn't trust them for vaping, not even on a 1.5 ohm clearomiser.

The efest 18650 3100mah is right on the edge of the safety limit with a 0.5 ohm build and might be better suited to 0.8 and up, I'd rather be looking at the purple efest 2500 or the blue samsung 25R starting to become more readily available.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 5


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## Arthster

fully agree @BumbleBee, the other thing is I don't personally know that brand and wont easily trust what it says on the label.


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## BumbleBee

As a general rule never buy anything with "fire" in the name

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 6


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## Arthster

agree


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## free3dom

BumbleBee said:


> As a general rule never buy anything with "fire" in the name



Wise words indeed

Reactions: Agree 1


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## BumbleBee

BumbleBee said:


> As a general rule never buy anything with "fire" in the name


especially if they spell it wrong!

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 3


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## Derick

Yeah battery companies are infamous for overstating their mAh rating (especially the re-wrappers) , because it is not like the average consumer will be able to verify it.

There are some battery chargers that can charge & discharge your battery and tell you the mAh rating afterwards, but it is not common for people to own high end chargers like that

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Necris

I have the same torch, those are fake ultrafires, which aren't great original.as stated above. .DONT VAPE ON THEM!

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## Riddle

They sell those batteries at fleamarkets. The ultrafite is the ultrafire ripoff. I would strongly recommend not using them. I had an ultrafire in my first SVD. Got rid of it as soon as I upgraded.

Reactions: Like 1


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## John

Arthster said:


> well it depends on the Amp ratting they give. does the label give you amp ratting?


Surprisingly there is NO amp rating, (I'm not entirely surprised though.) Thanks to all that replied, you've confirmed my suspicions, I guess these batteries will remain in my torch where they belong. 

Thanks also to those that recommended the Samsung battery, from the reviews they seem like great little powerhouses. I'll be getting a few of those


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## Dubz

@John "Debben" that's so classic

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## John

@Dubz I thought 'DirtBin' was a bit too much ha ha

Reactions: Funny 1


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## n0ugh7_zw

Ultrafire are not suitable for any kind of vaping... They're the batteries that people lose limbs to and burn their houses down. they are seriously bad mojo

Reactions: Like 1


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## Necris

What's scary is that in the torch, they are literally strapped to the back of your head.had mine a week and intend to upgrade batteries asap.doesnt like flat tops or I would run my spare efests

Reactions: Agree 2


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## John

I have one of these, so if they exploded I'd likely lose a finger instead of brain damage haha

Reactions: Agree 1


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## n0ugh7_zw

lol, in a torch i think they're fine... but running a heating coil, puts a lot more stress on the battery.

Reactions: Like 1


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## johan

LED torches hardly ever utilize more than 5W LED's, haven't seen any available with higher powered LED's yet, thus I assume those batteries are good for anything less than say 10W.


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## JakesSA

For what its worth I have never seen a 4200 mAh 18650 from a reputable supplier, but as @johan says the power draw on LED torches is low. Best is to use protected cells in them as they may be required for long periods.

This reminds though I do have a 10W LED and focusing lens lying around here somewhere .. maybe that can be my holiday project!

Reactions: Like 2


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## johan

JakesSA said:


> For what its worth I have never seen a 4200 mAh 18650 from a reputable supplier, but as @johan says the power draw on LED torches is low. Best is to use protected cells in them as they may be required for long periods.
> 
> This reminds though I do have a 10W LED and focusing lens lying around here somewhere .. maybe that can be my holiday project!



Yip, Ive worked with 100W cob LED's in the past, but never seen bigger than 5W in a torch utilizing size 18650 batteries.


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## Dassie

Went to a Chinese market the other day, and saw these in a box - about half of them were Ultrafire and the rest Ultrofite.. I know all of our stuff basically come from China, but at least with the re-wrapped batteries (Efest, etc) we have some hope of QC.. When the Chinese start ripping off their own products - I run the other way!

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## n0ugh7_zw

I guess. but MNKE's which are unashamedly as Chinese, as Chinese can be, are among the best batteries you can get. Specially the 26650 ones.


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## Dassie

n0ugh7_zw said:


> I guess. but MNKE's which are unashamedly as Chinese, as Chinese can be, are among the best batteries you can get. Specially the 26650 ones.


All of my kit is Chinese - that is not the problem - my problem is the UltroFite is a misspelled ripoff of UtraFire..

Reactions: Agree 4


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## John

Dassie said:


> All of my kit is Chinese - that is not the problem - my problem is the UltroFite is a misspelled ripoff of UtraFire..



Like Nokio cellphones, GUASS jeans or NLKE sneakers


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## Dassie

John said:


> Like Nokio cellphones, GUASS jeans or NLKE sneakers


Exactly, but non of those can set you on fire

Reactions: Funny 3


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## free3dom

Dassie said:


> Exactly, but non of those can set you on fire



Jeans can...if you are a liar

Reactions: Winner 2 | Funny 2


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## John

Haha, you guys...

So on a more serious note... I'm hopefully getting my BEC Pro tomorrow and dont have a battery for it. Not really a train smash because my subtank will only arrive later in the week but i'd love to be able to fire up the subtank the SECOND it gets here haha. I've been looking around for 25Rs and they seem pretty hard to come by. Where are you guys getting them from?

Reactions: Like 1


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## free3dom

John said:


> Haha, you guys...
> 
> So on a more serious note... I'm hopefully getting my BEC Pro tomorrow and dont have a battery for it. Not really a train smash because my subtank will only arrive later in the week but i'd love to be able to fire up the subtank the SECOND it gets here haha. I've been looking around for 25Rs and they seem pretty hard to come by. Where are you guys getting them from?



SkyBlue will be bringing them in soon (prob around 2 weeks time). 

Not sure who has any in stock right now, haven't seen any.

FYI Vape King currently has Sony VTC4s


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## John

Sweet thanks @free3dom, forgive my ignorance but whats the difference between the 25Rs and the VCT4s?


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## free3dom

John said:


> Sweet thanks @free3dom, forgive my ignorance but whats the difference between the 25Rs and the VCT4s?



The VTC4s are 2100mAh but with 30mAh continuous current draw (i.e. you can build lower resistance coils and fire them at higher wattage).
The 25Rs are 2500mAh with 25mAh current draw.

Basically the 25Rs will last longer but does not allow you to go too low resistance/high wattage - but we are talking very low anyways, so the 25Rs are better for most people. I just mentioned the VTC4s because they are available now, and they are fantastic batteries


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## free3dom

Also @John check out the description in this link for the 25Rs...they are the business


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## John

Ok, I'm sold on on the 25Rs - looks like the Sonys are a good option in the interim. 

about the chargers - I have two 18650 chargers, one that charges two batteries side-by-side and another that charges one at a time. they're the chargers that came with my flashlight (the dual-charger came with the flashlight, a Smiling Shark T6 SSE3) and the single charger I bought separately with the spare batteries. Would these suffice for charging the 25Rs or VCT4s, or should I invest in something better?


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## free3dom

John said:


> Ok, I'm sold on on the 25Rs - looks like the Sonys are a good option in the interim.
> 
> about the chargers - I have two 18650 chargers, one that charges two batteries side-by-side and another that charges one at a time. they're the chargers that came with my flashlight (the dual-charger came with the flashlight, a Smiling Shark T6 SSE3) and the single charger I bought separately with the spare batteries. Would these suffice for charging the 25Rs or VCT4s, or should I invest in something better?



They should be fine...but the lower end ones can take a very long time to charge proper batteries. I have an el-chaepo that takes 9+ hours (yes, and I'm not exaggerating) to charge a 3100mAh 18650 (it can do two at once, but the time remains the same). The better ones do it in a fraction of this time.

Reactions: Like 1


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## John

Ok cool, I don't really mind if they take longer to charge as I have a couple of backup devices my main concern is damage to the batteries


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## Derick

John said:


> Ok cool, I don't really mind if they take longer to charge as I have a couple of backup devices my main concern is damage to the batteries


It really depends on the charger, some of the low end ones can overcharge the battery, causing damage over time - they don't measure the voltage correctly due to cheap components, or they might not detect a short and keep on trying to charge a faulty battery, causing the battery to vent and melt your charger, possibly set fire to the house

Reactions: Agree 3 | Informative 1


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## Arthster

At the end of the day when it comes to vaping, stick with brands that you know (Efest, Sony, Samsung,...) and get them from suppliers that you know wont sell copied stuff.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## free3dom

Derick said:


> It really depends on the charger, some of the low end ones can overcharge the battery, causing damage over time - they don't measure the voltage correctly due to cheap components, or they might not detect a short and keep on trying to charge a faulty battery, causing the battery to vent and melt your charger, possibly set fire to the house



And now I'll sitck to charging on my Efest chargers exclusively  Actually, I retired that slow piece of crap a while ago already, but now I think I'll beat it with a hammer, just in case

Reactions: Funny 1


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## John

Well if that didnt scare the bejeezus outta me

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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## Derick

John said:


> Well if that didnt scare the bejeezus outta me


Heh, well that one was part user, part charger fault - the charger had an option to speed charge for 3 minutes, then it doesn't check anything, just pumps 1 amp into the batteries for 3 minutes. The guy used it many times until the one day his battery had a short...


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## John

one would think that a fast-charger like that one would have some sort of short-circuit protection at least

Reactions: Agree 1


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## free3dom

John said:


> one would think that a fast-charger like that one would have some sort of short-circuit protection at least



I've always steered clear of "fast charging"...if it was a good idea, all chargers would use it by default

Reactions: Agree 2


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## John

I had a fast-charger a few years back which charged AA and AAA batteries, it had a huge fan built in to keep the batteries cool and such. one day I hooked it up to juice up my camera batteries and the fan ran a bearing and failed within like 3 minutes of use after the third or fourth use. I never used it again and I never got another fast-charger after that one. perhaps it was for the better. I'm now put off fast chargers forever.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## free3dom

This is my biggest concern...any charger can fail. It's an unfortunate side effect of all electronic devices.
So whenever I have batteries on charge and I have to leave the area, I feel very nervous while I'm gone. Mostly now I just unplug them if I'm going to be away for longer than 5 minutes...better safe than hole in the floor


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## John

Have you ever had a battery or charger explode or burn on you @free3dom? Im starting to wonder how often these types of failures occur.


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## free3dom

John said:


> Have you ever had a battery or charger explode or burn on you @free3dom? Im starting to wonder how often these types of failures occur.



Thankfully no  but I've had one battery heat up way too much once, luckily I was around and caught it in time...that scared me into over-carefulness  I also stick with "trusted" brands exclusively...they can fail too of course, but it is at least less likely 

Someone on here also did a post a few months back where juice leaked onto the 510 of their spinner and they charged it without checking and it melted the charger...they caught it too, but that was my first "wake-up call"  Now I always check the 510 on those devices before charging


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## John

free3dom said:


> Someone on here also did a post a few months back where juice leaked onto the 510 of their spinner and they charged it without checking and it melted the charger...they caught it too, but that was my first "wake-up call"  Now I always check the 510 on those devices before charging



Ah, so that explains this...

Reactions: Agree 3


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## free3dom

John said:


> Ah, so that explains this...



Sure looks like it  
Clearomizers can leak a small amount of juice easily through the coil bottom, right onto the 510 pin. This causes a short of sorts, which causes heat to be generated...and the plastic goes soft  Probably won't explode, but it can catch fire.

Best to just clean out the 510 before charging...to be safe

Reactions: Like 1


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## John

I'm obsessive about keeping my gear clean, rinse my tanks out in vodka every day or two, clean my connectors with q-tips and IPA etc... I think what caused this was when a work mate borrowed my charger for her twisp once, she isnt as obsessive as I am. I may only have noticed it after I used it again.

Reactions: Like 1


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## free3dom

John said:


> I'm obsessive about keeping my gear clean, rinse my tanks out in vodka every day or two, clean my connectors with q-tips and IPA etc... I think what caused this was when a work mate borrowed my charger for her twisp once, she isnt as obsessive as I am. I may only have noticed it after I used it again.



Good man 

Better safe than blow up

Reactions: Like 1


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## John

So I was unable to get a VCT4 or a 25R.. I got an efest IMR 2500mAh 35A instead, my BEC Pro and Lemo will arrive tomorrow so I have to have something to play with in the meanwhile  Should be good for a while right?

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Yiannaki

John said:


> So I was unable to get a VCT4 or a 25R.. I got an efest IMR 2500mAh 35A instead, my BEC Pro and Lemo will arrive tomorrow so I have to have something to play with in the meanwhile  Should be good for a while right?


The 2500 efest is a decent battery so you'll be good 

@KieranD has just recieved stock of the LG 18650 batteries if you're looking for another good battery.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1


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## John

Well if the efest is good then I can wait for the Samsungs or Sonys. They've been recommended by a good few so I think I'll hold out. Thanks @Yiannaki

Reactions: Like 2


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## Yiannaki

John said:


> Well if the efest is good then I can wait for the Samsungs or Sonys. They've been recommended by a good few so I think I'll hold out. Thanks @Yiannaki


A good move  I love my Sony's. They are great batteries!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Arthster

@John just remember to treat that efest 35A like its a 20A. apart from that they are awesome batteries.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## free3dom

Arthster said:


> @John just remember to treat that efest 35A like its a 20A. apart from that they are awesome batteries.



Very good advice...I bugs the crap out of me that they don't list the continuous discharge on the batteries as well 
I might have to get me a magic marker and start adding it manually

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## John

Arthster said:


> @John just remember to treat that efest 35A like its a 20A. apart from that they are awesome batteries.



Thanks for the heads up bro, I read that on the site. VapeClub was good enough to state that in the product description  I just got the highest rated battery they had


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## BumbleBee

free3dom said:


> a short of sorts


shay this sheven times fast

Reactions: Funny 2


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## free3dom

BumbleBee said:


> shay this sheven times fast



This this this this this this this

Reactions: Winner 1 | Funny 3


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## John

Hey fellas, So my brand-spanking-new battery is inbound, one question - does it need to be charged fully before use?

Reactions: Like 1


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## BumbleBee

John said:


> Hey fellas, So my brand-spanking-new battery is inbound, one question - does it need to be charged fully before use?


Yip, pop that sucker on a charger first

Reactions: Like 1


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## free3dom

John said:


> Hey fellas, So my brand-spanking-new battery is inbound, one question - does it need to be charged fully before use?



Depends how much charge it has when you get it 
If if has some charge (which it should) you can use it immediately and charge it when the initial charge runs out. Modern batteries no longer need that initial first charge


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## BumbleBee

hmmm, now I'm confused again..... age 

Maybe @johan can clarify?

Reactions: Funny 2


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## free3dom

BumbleBee said:


> hmmm, now I'm confused again..... age
> 
> Maybe @johan can clarify?



I've read on many forums about the need for batteries to be charged initially being outdated - mostly related to Li-Ion (but should be the same for Li-Mn). I'm no expert, so if anyone can chime in and clarify, that would be great 

And I'm too impatient to do an initial charge...also age I guess

Reactions: Agree 1


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## John

I've read that too @free3dom, I treat other electronic devices as such, but just wondering if there were any specifics for the high-drain batteries used in mods. this dark art of vaping has so many specifics  

But then I suppose a full charge couldnt possibly hurt it, I also read that Lithium batteries go wonky when the charge level is too low. I've seen that happen with laptop batteries. Some laptops have chips in them that permanently deactivate the battery if the charge level gets too low 

on the other hand, the suspense is killing me. all I can do now to look at this device with longing eyes

Reactions: Like 1


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## free3dom

John said:


> I've read that too @free3dom, I treat other electronic devices as such, but just wondering if there were any specifics for the high-drain batteries used in mods. this dark art of vaping has so many specifics
> 
> But then I suppose a full charge couldnt possibly hurt it, I also read that Lithium batteries go wonky when the charge level is too low. I've seen that happen with laptop batteries. Some laptops have chips in them that permanently deactivate the battery if the charge level gets too low
> 
> on the other hand, the suspense is killing me. all I can do now to look at this device with longing eyes



I did not do any initial charges on any of my 18650 batteries and have not noticed any (damn than's many "any"s ) adverse effects. Just used them until the initial charge ran out then recharged as normal. So far it's worked for me on all my batteries + devices 

Batteries can definitely "die permanently" when the level goes too low, but most (all?) regulated mods won't work once they reach a certain level...and on a mech you can feel the vape getting very weak before you reach that level and you will re-charge anyways

Reactions: Like 1


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