Do I have a Fake Battery?

[LEDBETTER122]

Last night I was noticing that my Cuboid was giving a Low Battery error after my batteries got to maybe 75% charge

It was so annoying since my battery Status Bars were saying they were only 1/4 drained. I'm running a 0.69 Ohm coil at 60 watts, so I know I'm not taxing my batteries too hard.

Ok now back to my question, I had bought some Imren 30A 3500 MAH 18650 batteries from a local vape shop and everything was fine, my girlfriend had lost one of her LG batteries so I had went a bought her an Imren like I did (from another local shop, different from the one I bought mine from previously). Well the other day my Nitecore charger for some reason didn't charge one of my Imren batteries so I took the one I got for my girlfriend and left the one that didnt charge on a different port of the charger, since she tends to sleep in late.

On Inspection of the batteries I noticed one had 4 "Slots" in the top and the other had 3 "slots".

Do I have a fake or is this how they build them, some with different tops than others.

Note***---- I also have a set of LG HE2 for myself and those dont give me a low battery signal on my cuboid

I attached a picture of the 2

 

[Susan~S]

The green 30A 3500mAh Imren is a 10A battery!

There are only a few battery manufacturers in the world who make their own "cells", including LG, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic & Sanyo.

All the other brands on the market buy the second and third tier cells from those manufacturers and re-wrap them under their own brand. These are "second and/or third tier cells" which did not meet the higher standards of the original manufacturer. In order to compete with the original manufacturers' batteries (first tier), these other companies feel obligated to publish specifications which are inflated to make them appear superior to those of the original manufacturer.

Do your research before you buy. Decide what battery to buy depending upon the application that you will use them.

• Calculating Battery Current Draw for a Regulated Mod

@Mooch has done independent testing of many of the batteries available to use.

• List of My Battery Bench Tests

Note: The non-Samsung/Sony/LG/Panasonic/Sanyo rewrap resellers above can change what is used under the wrap at any time.

 

[Baditude]

Imren used to be a battery rewrap brand. They may well still sell re-wraps. They recently purchased the MNKE battery facility, so I don't know if they will make batteries under the MNKE name or under their own brand.

"IMREN (formerly MNKE)- Since IMREN bought out MNKE, can no longer call them a top cell manufacturer. Not because they are no longer making good batteries, but because the bare cells sold to the public are grossly over inflated when it comes to their amp ratings."

"Recently companies are putting the burst amperage limit or active cooling limits on their batteries and selling them as such. Sony is an exception. The VCT4/5 in the spec sheet both state that they require active cooling for anything over 20A. They were never meant for vapers, and did not advertise them as such. It was vaping companies that labeled them 30A cells. Efest and IMREN are two of the worst perpetrators of this practice. There is no cell on the market rated for 2000mAh capacity or above that can do above 20 amps continuous without active cooling. Burst ratings are just that, they can do a high amperage for 2-5 seconds, but more than that you begin to damage the cells. You want to run batteries at their continuous rate, never for their burst. This is the danger of sub-ohming and not knowing the ins and outs of your batteries."

---- A Beginner's Guide to Lithium Batteries

 

[Ryedan]

Note: The non-Samsung/Sony/LG/Panasonic/Sanyo rewrap resellers above can change what is used under the wrap at any time.

This ^^^, but to my knowledge they don't generally do it that obviously.

I always buy vape batteries from my list of known good battery suppliers (Illumination Supply, Lion Wholesale, IMR Batteries, RTD Vapor are a few). I wouldn't buy from a vape shop I was not sure knew what they were doing and I could trust to not sell me counterfeits. That way I'm sure of what I've got and I also find the best prices available anywhere in that group.

 

[Mooch]

View attachment 550356
Last night I was noticing that my Cuboid was giving a Low Battery error after my batteries got to maybe 75% charge

It was so annoying since my battery Status Bars were saying they were only 1/4 drained. I'm running a 0.69 Ohm coil at 60 watts, so I know I'm not taxing my batteries too hard.

Ok now back to my question, I had bought some Imren 30A 3500 MAH 18650 batteries from a local vape shop and everything was fine, my girlfriend had lost one of her LG batteries so I had went a bought her an Imren like I did (from another local shop, different from the one I bought mine from previously). Well the other day my Nitecore charger for some reason didn't charge one of my Imren batteries so I took the one I got for my girlfriend and left the one that didnt charge on a different port of the charger, since she tends to sleep in late.

On Inspection of the batteries I noticed one had 4 "Slots" in the top and the other had 3 "slots".

Do I have a fake or is this how they build them, some with different tops than others.

Note***---- I also have a set of LG HE2 for myself and those dont give me a low battery signal on my cuboid

I attached a picture of the 2

They're both probably genuine Imren's but Imren (and Efest, MXJO, AWT, etc.) can change what battery they use under the wrap at any time. It may be a battery that has the same specs (roughly) or it may be a battery with much worse specs.

 

[NoFumus]

I always buy vape batteries from my list of known good battery suppliers (Illumination Supply, Lion Wholesale, IMR Batteries, RTD Vapor are a few).

Just FYI, there have been some concerns about the authenticity or quality levels of a recent batch of LG HG2s from IMR Batteries. The company is taking steps to address the problem.

Blog - IMRbatteries.com

 

[crxess]

Even with all this knowledge, at your Build and power level.................at 1/4 usage and Error should not be occurring. Either one of the Batteries is internally damaged, or your Mod has an issue.
0.7ohm
74w
7.2v
10.29amps


*Or a possible contact issue - dropping voltage

 

[skoony]

All the other brands on the market buy the second and third tier cells from those manufacturers and re-wrap them under their own brand. These are "second and/or third tier cells" which did not meet the higher standards of the original manufacturer. In order to compete with the original manufacturers' batteries (first tier), these other companies feel obligated to publish specifications which are inflated to make them appear superior to those of the original manufacturer.

In all fairness this is true to an extent. The fact of the mater is there are a lot of batteries
being sold and they all can't be second and third tier. Just as often as not they could be
from over production or,the specs requested from the buyer and mislabeled by the buyer.
One must also note that though these suspect batteries are certainly not up to spec
according to their labeling they are not necessarily defective. If used in accordance with
the true specs they are just as good as any other battery in the same class more or less.
This doesn't make it right of course. The main manufacturers would not sell defective batteries
out of spec or not. Semiconductor manufacturers and sellers have been doing this forever.
Regards
Mike