Project Farm, counterfeit batteries.

[dodge man]

Project Farm has a YouTube out on counterfeit batteries for Dewalt, Milwaukee and Makita. It seems lije it’s very difficult to tell the difference other than price. He actually tests them and compares them to real factory batteries and even cracks them open to compare the insides. Pretty discouraging this goes on.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

everything is being conterfeited, even oil filters, tools, etc... Bought a ceiling fan switch on amazon the other day. it doesn't work like the original, supposed to be the exact same one, but is different.

 

[ponytug]

"If the price is too good..." and "You get what you pay for..." come to mind. My OEM batteries are going strong a decade or so later. No complaints major complaints, though Makita has a sneaky disable switch if you try to charge an imbalanced battery several times.

I have a heck of a time finding quality items these days, bolts, pipe fittings, batteries, you name it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Eagle1]

Don't fret it's not just consumers
Boeing and Airbus may have used 'counterfeit' titanium in planes, FAA says

 

[CliffordK]

Interesting... anything for a buck.

Years ago there was a big problem with counterfeit USB drives.

I don't remember the exact capacities, but they'd sell a large one, but then use a small memory card, and then it would seem to work, until a person got a bunch of their documents saved, and when they went back to retrieve the old ones, they were all corrupted.

I hadn't found the true fake battery packs yet. But, for quite some time there were battery packs marked "For Milwaukee", or "For DeWalt". I had one for a while. Then it blinked out the first time I dropped it.

On the other hand, I found some Generic Black and Decker (NiMH) batteries that were far better than the OEM batteries.

 

[LittleBill21]

I recently opened a 2ah oem black and decker battery pack, the battery's were 1.3ah, would love to know how BD got that rating.

 

[CliffordK]

I recently opened a 2ah oem black and decker battery pack, the battery's were 1.3ah, would love to know how BD got that rating.

Did you verify the voltage and parallel/serial connections?

Nonetheless, I have been very disappointed with Black and Decker and Skill since they mostly moved overseas.

 

[LittleBill21]

Did you verify the voltage and parallel/serial connections?

Nonetheless, I have been very disappointed with Black and Decker and Skill since they mostly moved overseas.

i rebuild packs, the battery wrapper had the lg model number on it which is a 1300ma cell. 2ah packs are generally all series.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

I bought off brand batteries and they were way better than OEM

On the flip side bad counterfeits are out of control on Amazon

Sadly with tool batteries, even Milwaukee and DeWalt batteries don't last. We go thru them nonstop at work.

 

[dodge man]

If you watch the video the packaging and the battery packs are identical or near identical to the real thing. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference unless you take them apart.

 

[oosik]

I got into this many years ago. Cheap batteries for my big 'ol Canon camera. I was most fortunate. These cheap batteries did not explode or drool.

However - after only a half dozen or so recharges - these cheap things went south.

 

[ponytug]

We had a cell go bad in a battery powered tool. I took it apart to try to repair it and discovered that each cell had welded tabs that were soldered onto a board. Grrr. Desoldering all of the cells to find the bad one and then spot welding tabs onto battery cells in a special purpose jig seemed like way too much effort. My plan is to rewire it to take a battery pack from another tools system.

All the best,

Peter

 

[California]

I've read that one of the problems is Amazon puts all the 'identical' products offered by different vendors into the same bin. So when the picker fills your order, it's random luck whether he pulls genuine or counterfeit out of that bin.

 

[scootr]

Plus 1 on good results from aftermarket Ryobi batteries. Always go for the higher AH rating.
Only problem I had was the release tabs were hard to operate but a little filing on the keeper tabs fixed that.
Some of these packs are 3-4 yrs old now - going strong at a fraction of the OEM price.

 

[ArlyA]

Plus 1 on good results from aftermarket Ryobi batteries. Always go for the higher AH rating.
Only problem I had was the release tabs were hard to operate but a little filing on the keeper tabs fixed that.
Some of these packs are 3-4 yrs old now - going strong at a fraction of the OEM price.

Project farm tested and rated aftermarket batteries (not counterfeit) and that's the brand i buy. Had good luck doing that and they cost much much less. Labtec is the brand.

 

[California]

Plus 1 on good results from aftermarket Ryobi batteries. Always go for the higher AH rating.
Only problem I had was the release tabs were hard to operate but a little filing on the keeper tabs fixed that.
Some of these packs are 3-4 yrs old now - going strong at a fraction of the OEM price.

Scootr, aource for your recommended aftermarket Ryobi batteries?

I've had good luck with OEM Ryobi 18v batteries. 5 that I use all the time have '2014' that I wrote on them when I bought several.

 

[LittleBill21]

We had a cell go bad in a battery powered tool. I took it apart to try to repair it and discovered that each cell had welded tabs that were soldered onto a board. Grrr. Desoldering all of the cells to find the bad one and then spot welding tabs onto battery cells in a special purpose jig seemed like way too much effort. My plan is to rewire it to take a battery pack from another tools system.

All the best,

Peter

you don't need to desolder all of them generally if its an all series pack, its pretty easy to find the bad one, spot welding can be a bit of a learning process as well.

 

[LittleBill21]

Plus 1 on good results from aftermarket Ryobi batteries. Always go for the higher AH rating.
Only problem I had was the release tabs were hard to operate but a little filing on the keeper tabs fixed that.
Some of these packs are 3-4 yrs old now - going strong at a fraction of the OEM price.

the higher AH ones are generally lying. there is a physical limitation on the AH per cell depending on if its a high drain or high capacity battery, anything claiming higher is simply lying.

 

[California]

We had a cell go bad in a battery powered tool. I took it apart to try to repair it and discovered that each cell had welded tabs that were soldered onto a board.

Yeah, bah.

I've replaced batteries in Norelco shavers in the past. But for the first time, I found the battery in this shaver is like an integral part of the circuit board. I think it would require breaking the board to get the battery out. Gave up.

And way off-topic but a story I'll share just for fun: Long ago I described replacing a Norelco shaver battery, to a new manager who was the worst a-hole I ever met. He said in front of everyone that's impossible, I was lying 'again'.

Soon everyone had a story like that about him. Big Boss called a staff meeting. My contribution to the meeting was saying the way he moved his hands when he stood too close and talked to Susan, a shy gorgeous fox, was like he was about to put his hands all over her. That broke the dam of silence and everyone including Susan, told their stories. We rolled him, his promotion cancelled. Justice served!

Ok, back to on-topic.

 

[scootr]

Scootr, aource for your recommended aftermarket Ryobi batteries?

I've had good luck with OEM Ryobi 18v batteries. 5 that I use all the time have '2014' that I wrote on them when I bought several.

It's been many years, I'm afraid I can't give a link.
As for those nah sayers - these batteries were larger in size and had a nice charge indicator on them. I have been working them hard for years and my wife has been abusing them lol, still ticking.
Sure there are imposters and sub quality batteries out there. You do your own research and ultimately you do you.