Beware of fake batteries on ebay!
CuriousOne
Posts: 931
All you know, there are myriads of bogus named batteries on ebay like BTY, ULTRAFIRE and so on, which claim huge capacities (say 3000mah for AA cell) and are super cheap ($1 around). Their real capacity is 300-400mah and it's clear that such purchases should be avoided. But recently, another trend started - chinese started to fake 2nd tier brand batteries, but selling them for almost a retail price, so you think that you're buying genuine product. One of such examples is these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/310595849696?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 These are fake, first of all, genuine Tenergy batteries have white, pearl-like gloss shell. These batteries have more ivory, non pearl-gloss shell. Also, real capacity is 300mah (measured with lacrosse BC-700), instead of advertised 1000mah. Seller wants me to return them and then refund, which I won't do for $5 purchase. So I've filled claim to ebay about counterfeit/replica items, let's see what happens.
Comments
Al
Picture shows one battery untouched to the right and one other similar battery with cover removed. The cylinder contains something in the upper half end, the rest of the cylinder was filled with a small plastic tube, probably to keep the inner contains stable.
Expect what ever comes from China to be junk, and be surprised and pleased if parts function in your hobbyist project. Its marginal and can be useful, but its still junk.
However, I have bought things from China (8089 !/O processors) that work fine. They are Intel marked, and could very well be copied, but they work perfectally except for one that had its pins smashed in transit. I bought 15 of them. I have also bought little things such as LED display modules (as described somewhere here in the forums) both in red and multi-color. Those work as well. I am awaiting two LED voltmeters for use on my Hexcrawler. If they work, great. If not, they cost four dollars and some change, free shipping. It won't bankrupt me. So for things that should cost a relatively large amount of money, such as battery packs, and servos, I will not buy Chinese. But for little electronic components and obsolete chips, I have no problem with Chinese companies.
Best,
Joe
Oh for the love of......
Disgusting.
So, just batteries and capacitors, huh?
RIIIIIGHT!!!
ITs not too hard to spot candidates that are going to be satisfactory, and to spot canddates with a high chance of unhappiness.
Low dollar items are not worth it to fake, and high reputation sellers are interested in preserving reputation, its in their best interest to "pre-screen" parts to prevent duds from getting shipped. On two occasions I recieved the wrong part, and they re-sent the correct part, no return and no charge.
High dollar items have a greater incentive for tricks. I took a change on ordering a 3 TB hard disk for $15, and got an old silver dollar. Canadian. It was worth the experiment.
I still buy stuff on ebay, but I wouldn't use those parts for say a pace maker for somebody I want to keep around.
So far that has been my experience. And even then, it has been only a very few of the caps and batteries ordered. But I wonder if fakes are on the rise, particularly with regard to large electrolytic capacitors. The fake ones I recently received were represented as 100V parts, but testing revealed them to be 63V. I still used them - just in a different application. Meanwhile the vendor was very quick to refund the purchase price - even though I told him I just wanted the right parts, not a refund. Maybe he'd been hoodwinked by his supplier.
At the same time this went on, all the other caps I received from all the other vendors were great. As long as the incidence remains low and the response to the occasional fraud quick, I'll continue to do business with Chinese suppliers on eBay.
Is is possible to build 100v / 250v capacitor without killing onself? This might be a next maker product.
However, chinese capacitors can be really bad fakes, as this ad shows:
The overall idea is as follows: "Real capacity is 240uf, but good enough for sales"
You could probably demonstrate the concept easily enough, but the resulting capacitor would be bulky, short-lived, and of very low capacity. It is an enormous trick to achieve the density, reliability, convenience, low ESR, and low price of a modern chemical capacitor. The ones I bought had a nominal capacitance of 10000uF and cost only a few bucks.
Aluminum foil, blotter paper, and a few teaspoons of brine might get you a few microfarads and last a few days. Then the foil would corrode.
WRT "second tier" batteries, I thought it was funny that there are lookalikes of "non-prime" brands, too. UltraFire is a cheap Chinese Li-Ion, which I have several of. Other than low capacity (much lower than claimed), they work fine. Recently I received some that looked (at a quick glance) like UltraFire, but in reality are UitraFlrc. Some of those were leaking electrolyte on arrival, and most of them leaked shortly after charging. Obvious factory rejects. Wasted time and money, but at least the Ebay seller refunded 100%.
Check the reviews here, mentioning UitraFlrc: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CHARGER-18650-3000mAh-Rechargeable-Battery/dp/B0080A37BG
utter Smile.
Oh yes, watch out for copper-plated aluminium wire... That was UK dealer, presumably they sourced their "oxygen free copper"
(read "copper-free copper") wire from china and couldn't tell the difference!)