Fake Samsung 25R Alert

[Mooch]

There have been some very good fake 25R's popping up lately. Thanks to some fantastic members of this community who sent their fakes to me for testing I have some idea of what's going on.

Most of the fakes are identical in appearance and performance to the 10A 2050mAh Samsung 22P battery. This battery is a terrible performer compared to the 25R. One fake was much worse than all the others. It might have been a lower grade 22P or damaged during use before I received it.

But I have one fake that is different from the others. It has the metal can code for, I believe, a Samsung 29E. But the top contact structure seems wrong for the 29E. I don't know for sure what this fake actually is. It's performance is lousy compared to the 25R though.

Detecting the fakes: https://imgur (dot) com/a/F2SzC



One HUGE problem with these fake 25R's is that the top insulating rings are free-floating and not self-adhesive and glued down to the battery! This is the first time I have ever seen this. We can no longer say that a battery with a free-floating ring is genuine.

But here's how to spot these fake 25R's:

• If there are any lines radiating out from the center of the venting disk under the top contact then the battery cannot be a 25R. There are four of these lines in the fakes, spaced at 90° intervals. If you see even one though, as they are hard to spot, the battery cannot be a 25R.

• You can see the venting disk without unwrapping the battery but you'll need a bright light source and a magnifier is very helpful.

• If you do not see any of these radial lines in the venting disk that does NOT mean that the battery is a genuine 25R. Other fakes might not have the lines.

• If there is anything other than a "5" as the second character in the uppermost four character code on the metal can, near the top, then the battery CANNOT be a genuine 25R. If it is a "2" then it's most likely a rewrapped Samsung 22P. You can see this code through the wrap.

• If there are no codes on the metal can then it's a fake 25R. It might still be a Samsung but someone has washed off the codes.

• The batch codes on the wrap CANNOT be used alone to detect these fakes as they might be genuine batch codes. The codes for the fakes I have are 2G22 and 2F34, located at the end of the second line of printing on the wrap.

• I want to say this again...these batch codes might be genuine and cannot be used as the only method to check for authenticity.

• There might be other batch codes being used for these fakes. Do not assume that having a batch code other than 2G22 and 2F34 means you have a genuine 25R. Check the venting disk for radial lines.

That's all I have for now.

If you do have any fakes I recommend not using them at all. Contact the vendor you purchased them from to see what can be done.

Please do not send me pictures of your 25R's to authenticate them. I am unable to do so via photographs.

Hoping your 25R's are genuine!

 

[Tonee N]

Thanks for your work in watching out for us. Nice catch [emoji106]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[Derek Cross]

Well this is a good post.

Mooch, as I know your "style" well enough to assume you wont be saying where these cells were purchased from on this forum, is there any chance you can say where they absolutely didnt come from? I respect that you wont bash a companies good name if they made a mistake that they are currently rectifying. Im told they (The site I know about) is taking full responsibility and making amends.

Are you able to say, at least in your experience that they didn't come from any of the three sites that we here rely on most for authentic cells. Im talking about Liion Wholesale, RTD Vapor and IMR batteries.

I highly doubt that they would have, but just want to know for sure.

Cheers!

 

[Mooch]

Well this is a good post.

Mooch, as I know your "style" well enough to assume you wont be saying where these cells were purchased from on this forum, is there any chance you can say where they absolutely didnt come from? I respect that you wont bash a companies good name if they made a mistake that they are currently rectifying. Im told they (The site I know about) is taking full responsibility and making amends.

Are you able to say, at least in your experience that they didn't come from any of the three sites that we here rely on most for authentic cells. Im talking about Liion Wholesale, RTD Vapor and IMR Batteries.

I highly doubt that they would have, but just want to know for sure.

Cheers!

I received a pile of fakes from several vapers but I don't know where they got them from. I ordered 25R's from IMR, Illumn, and Liion Wholesale as a check and all were authentic. Beyond that I just don't have any info to say.

 

[stols001]

Thank you, Mooch

Anna

 

[Derek Cross]

I received a pile of fakes from several vapers but I don't know where they got them from. I ordered 25R's from IMR, Illumn, and Liion Wholesale as a check and all were authentic. Beyond that I just don't have any info to say.

Thanks for the info Mooch!

Oh yeah, forgot about illumn. Another great site!

Nkon in the Netherlands is also another site for vapers to be aware of. As far as my experience goes, they have been great. Ive never got a bad batch of cells from them. YMMV

 

[Mowgli]

2 out of the 3 25R's I got in a private sale last week have radiating lines & 2 instead of 5 as second character in the code. 2 fakes out of 3. He says they are over 6 months old. He bought them at a dependable & trusted local B&M shop. Don't assume that they're real because you bought them at a good shop. Their suppliers get hosed sometimes too.

 

[Jim_ MDP]

I guess it had to hit me sometime as it has so many others...
A well known vendor had 25Rs at 2/$9 for quite a while last year (I haven't needed to buy anything for awhile) and up through July '16 I would add a pair to my orders... I think I bought 4 or 5 pairs.
Two of those pairs (4 cells) have the relief cap grooves and a "2" in place of the "5" in the can stamp.
Dagnabbit.

I checked and they don't have them on the site at the moment, but I'll see about sending a short note to let them know. They may have received complaints last year and stopped selling them, I don't know.
I'm hesitant to name the vendor for that reason, always pleased with them in every other way.

...
If you do have any fakes I recommend not using them at all. Contact the vendor you purchased them from to see what can be done.

At the moment... all my 25Rs are in married pairs (the HE4s ad HG2s are used in single cell mods) and I'm running pretty light builds, around 40W with modest preheats.

If these are 10A CDR 22Ps... I should be fine using them solely this way in the dual cell mods. They're now marked as such and I'll start eyeing them for reduced mAh capacity.
Of course... I'm coincidentally not even using the dual cell mods the past few weeks, may be a few days before I get around to even checking the fake batteries.

Figures eh?