Speaking of fake electronics

While looking for some 18650 batteries on eBay I came across some

4000, 5000, and even one seller offering 6000 MAH ones. I'm pretty sure that even a 4000 MAH claim is exaggeration. Looking online I see that there are all sorts of Chinese companies that buy cells from other vendors and just add their own wrapping with false specs printed on them. With all the emphasis eBay puts on money back guarantees and other buyer protection I wonder why they allow such obvious fake claims. I know that eBay can't police all the items being sold to make sure the claims are accurate. But something as common and obviously fake I would think eBay would stop allowing to be sold on their site. Eric
Reply to
etpm
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Would the average "vapor smoker" know the difference between a 1 AH and 6 AH battery? (Well, the latter would last longer, but how would he quatify that?)

A guy I'm working with is making some lighted clothing and using lots of

18650s. It seems that not all 18650's are even the SAME SIZE, which seems hard to believe, as the part number IS the size in mm!! Geez, how hard can THAT be? Maybe the last time they tried to measure one, the caliper got welded across the cell and somebody got hurt.

I'm scared to death that once the cells get a little worn, they will start catching fire in his garment things. Yes, he ONLY uses eBay batteries, even though I warned him.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Ebay will stop allowing when doing so would result in greater profit for EBAY.

Reply to
mike

I stopped buying batteries off Ebay some time ago. Too many fakes. You used to be able to tell them with their poor quality printing and spelling mistakes but they seem to have overcome that nowadays so It's bloody near impossible to tell until you put them into service and they leak, go open circuit or catch fire.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Worse. I ran them through a West Mountain Radio CBA II discharge tester:

This is a new Ultrafire 3000 ma-hr cell at a 1300 ma constant current discharge (which is approximately what the flashlight was drawing): About 800 ma-hr capacity. I've seen a few of the "fire" type cells deliver 1200 ma-hr, but most are like the one above. Garbage.

Note the high tech battery holder and connection enhancer:

More: At 1A discharger rate, most of the cells tested were around 2500 ma-hr.

Yep. They pay extra for the larger ma-hr numbers.

Caveat Emptor. If the batteries actually met the stated specifications, they would be seriously dangerous if shorted. Think of this as a "safety feature".

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

There's more differences than just the dimensions: Button top or flat top? Cells with built in protection circuitry are about 1.5mm longer:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

There are a lot of videos on YouTube about fake batteries and how to detect them. From what they say Amazon and eBay both sell counterfeit batteries.

Reply to
dangerous dan

Ebay would stop that if enough buyers complain. But look: such sellers typicall have thousends of five star "reviews". Besides batteries charger specs have little to do with reality: nominally

1A chargers (Apple style flat plug) above 450mA show significant voltage drop and above 500mA voltage drop is way too high to use them at such current. Nominally 2.1A chargers (square plug) tops at 850 mA. Nominally 3.1A charger delivers a bit more than 1A. They have thousends of positive opinions even from folks who know that they perform way below specs. I bought a few and while I did not give them positive opinion I also did not fill a complaint: for one I expected that they perform below specs (but had to measure them to find out real specs). And I still find them good bargain given price and real performance.
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                              Waldek Hebisch
Reply to
antispam

Ebay is unconcerned

On Fakes, I once bought 4 4 packs of NiZn rechargeable AA Batteries.

Packaging looked factory legit, blister and cardboard. The batteries were all bad, one or 2 holding a poor charge briefly. Close inspection revealed the negative terminals were all scratched up. They were bad used batteries repackaged.

Got a refund but ebay did nothing else. I see boatloads of AAA versions on ebay right now.

Reply to
Splork

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