You might have heard that there have been an unknown number of counterfeit or low grade LG HG2 batteries sold recently by multiple vendors. Below are the results of the testing of the HG2's that IMR batteries was kind enough to send me along with two other donated batteries and some of my own.
IMR Batteries sent six from the batch they received that is performing very poorly (hereafter called the "bad" batteries) and two each from previous batches of good HG2's they sold. I also received two of the bad IMR Batteries HG2's from Zac Field of ECR. Thank you Zac for donating them for testing! I also tested two of my own HG2's that I knew were "good" batteries, i.e., genuine HG2's.
Test Results :
-- Bottom Line --
The bad HG2's are identical in appearance to genuine HG2's but they have a different white top ring insulator. It's shiny/smooth on the bad batteries I tested but matte/textured on the good ones. There are tiny differences in wrap color and printing from the good HG2's but you'd never notice without a side by side comparison. The bad ones perform as really crappy 10A batteries and shouldn't be used above about 30W each. I recommend not using them at all though. Multiple vendors are selling these batteries. If you have poor performing HG2's and their insulators are shiny/smooth then contact the vendor you bought them from. For now, I recommend buying Samsung 30Q batteries until vendors can clear out their stock of bad HG2's and restock with good ones. My thanks to Battery Bro for their HG2 blog entry that helped bring all this stuff out into the open!
-- Test Comments --
IMR Batteries sent six from the batch they received that is performing very poorly (hereafter called the "bad" batteries) and two each from previous batches of good HG2's they sold. I also received two of the bad IMR Batteries HG2's from Zac Field of ECR. Thank you Zac for donating them for testing! I also tested two of my own HG2's that I knew were "good" batteries, i.e., genuine HG2's.
Test Results :
-- Bottom Line --
The bad HG2's are identical in appearance to genuine HG2's but they have a different white top ring insulator. It's shiny/smooth on the bad batteries I tested but matte/textured on the good ones. There are tiny differences in wrap color and printing from the good HG2's but you'd never notice without a side by side comparison. The bad ones perform as really crappy 10A batteries and shouldn't be used above about 30W each. I recommend not using them at all though. Multiple vendors are selling these batteries. If you have poor performing HG2's and their insulators are shiny/smooth then contact the vendor you bought them from. For now, I recommend buying Samsung 30Q batteries until vendors can clear out their stock of bad HG2's and restock with good ones. My thanks to Battery Bro for their HG2 blog entry that helped bring all this stuff out into the open!
-- Test Comments --
- The HG2's from the two older batches that IMR Batteries sold all tested out as genuine HG2's.
- The bad batteries look identical to good HG2's but performed worse than any low grade battery I have seen. LG MH1's and HE2/4's also look identical to these bad batteries. But the discharge curves of those don't match the bad batteries either. I do not know if these bad batteries are a rewrap of another battery or if they are low grade HG2's.
- The bad batteries test out to about 2800mAh at a 0.5A discharge. This is too high for them to be HE2's or HE4's. They could be lower grade HG2's or a higher capacity battery like the MH1 though. But, as mentioned above, the shape of the discharge curves was wrong for the MH1.
- I have never seen a LG battery (or Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Sanyo) ever have a self-adhesive top insulating ring like these bad batteries have. The high-volume automated assembly lines of the big manufacturers don't need the adhesive to hold the rings in place until the wrap can be shrunk tight onto the battery. Self-adhesive insulators are often used in smaller, manual or semi-automated, assembly lines where there's a chance that the ring might blow or fall off during handling. But if these bad batteries are a rewrap, what are they a rewrap of?
- It's possible that these are Chinese manufactured batteries created to look like the HG2's. But everything looks identical to real HG2's, including the tooling marks. It seems unlikely that this would be the case. Perhaps a factory that was licensed to produce HG2's under contract decided to whip out a batch of fakes using whatever internals they had laying around? This is all conjecture though.
- The internal resistance of the good batteries ranged from 22mOhm-24mOhm (0.022-0.024 ohms). The bad batteries had internal resistances of 39mOhm-41mOhm, a significant increase. This high internal resistance causes huge voltage sag which leads to very early weak/low battery messages from the mod. This is one of the best ways to determine if you have one of these bad batteries.
- The bad ones from IMR Batteries all had silver stickers approximately 1/2" wide on the outside. I do not know if all of the bad batteries sold by IMR or other vendors have wide silver stickers too.
- I do not know if there are any bad HG2's that have different wrappers or stickers than the ones I tested.
- I do not know if all the HG2's with 1/2" silver stickers are bad batteries.
- During testing, the bad HG2's never reached temperatures that could cause them to vent. Their voltages dropped so low, so fast, at high discharge current levels that they never had time to get hot.
- While these bad batteries never reached dangerous temperatures when overstressed I do NOT recommend continuing to use them at any power level. My tests only reflect the performance of the batteries I have. There might be bad HG2's out there that do get too hot.
- IMR Batteries has posted a blog entry that describes what happened and how you can arrange to get your bad batteries replaced (if you purchased them from IMR). The link is LG HG2 with gloss finish insulator
- XTAR Direct and VapeNW have also been reported to have sold bad HG2's. Please contact them for more information.
- I have more bad batteries coming in from at least one more vendor and will post my test results as soon as I have them.
Last edited:
.
