Fake or Malfunctioning Samsung 25R?

[makuto]

Hello, so 6 months ago I bought a pair of Samsung 25r that worked great on my sigelei 100w Plus. Now I ordered another pair from an eBay seller stating they were authentic. Now I received the 25R and everything seemed ok, charged them on my Nitecore i4 overnight and in the morning popped them in my sigelei, now the problem is that at 75W it says CHECK BATTERY and will not fire unless I bring the wattage down to 55.3W and it will pull all the battery meter to around 73%

The other pair of 25R I own work fine at 75W all day long! But the new pair doesn't... What do you think? Is it a fake 25R or maybe I received a bad pair.

 

[Baditude]

What do you think? Is it a fake 25R or maybe I received a bad pair.

Either scenario is possible.

As a battery manufacturer, Samsung is one of the more reputable and highly recommended brands. Samsungs are frequently used in power packs for a wide variety of OEC power tools, so its possible that these were moderately used older batteries pulled from industrial tools and sold by a disreputable vendor to make a quick profit.

There has been at least one incident of a fake batch of Samsung25R that were sold by Illumn. Illumn later discovered that batch were re-wrapped cells by a disreputable manufacturer after becoming suspicious and doing their own testing, and promptly contacted all of their customers for a refund or free replacement.

Ebay, Amazon, and Alibaba are not recommended vendors to purchase batteries from. Fake batteries are rampant from these places and this forum is full of stories of customers who have been swindled. ECF veterans recommend purchasing authentic brand name batteries from known reputable e-cig battery vendors like:

RTD Vapor
Illumn
Orbtronics
Lighthound​

 

[makuto]

Either scenario is possible.

Ebay, Amazon, and Alibaba are not recommended vendors to purchase batteries from. Fake batteries are rampant from these places and this forum is full of stories of customers who have been swindled. ECF veterans recommend purchasing authentic brand name batteries from known reputable e-cig battery vendors like:

RTD Vapor
Illumn
Orbtronics
Lighthound​

Thank you Baditude. I already contacted the seller and he still hasn't responded. So I went ahead and ordered a couple of LG HE4 that I always wanted to try out from Illumn

 

[edyle]

Hello, so 6 months ago I bought a pair of Samsung 25r that worked great on my Sigelei 100w Plus. Now I ordered another pair from an eBay seller stating they were authentic. Now I received the 25R and everything seemed ok, charged them on my Nitecore i4 overnight and in the morning popped them in my Sigelei, now the problem is that at 75W it says CHECK BATTERY and will not fire unless I bring the wattage down to 55.3W and it will pull all the battery meter to around 73%

The other pair of 25R I own work fine at 75W all day long! But the new pair doesn't... What do you think? Is it a fake 25R or maybe I received a bad pair.

Well maybe they are perfectly authentic but maybe they are used? People do sell used stuff on ebay

 

[makuto]

Well maybe they are perfectly authentic but maybe they are used? People do sell used stuff on ebay

Yeah but he advertised as new and it even came in a plastic baggie inside the case. I would never buy an used battery .. I just ordered on ebay because I also ordered an ohm reader and a coilmaster jig he was selling and saw the batteries and said why not?

 

[Froth]

Yeah but he advertised as new and it even came in a plastic baggie inside the case. I would never buy an used battery .. I just ordered on ebay because I also ordered an ohm reader and a coilmaster jig he was selling and saw the batteries and said why not?

Plastic bag inside the case? I've ordered over two dozen Samsung batteries from differing sources(never eBay...) and none of them have ever had a plastic bag inside the case.

Post the auction link or sellers name here so we can alert others if possible fakes are being sold.

 

[makuto]

Plastic bag inside the case? I've ordered over two dozen Samsung batteries from differing sources(never eBay...) and none of them have ever had a plastic bag inside the case.

Post the auction link or sellers name here so we can alert others if possible fakes are being sold.

This is the link: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=181778333239&alt=web

They even have a 100% Authentic Guarantee but they havent responded my messages about this.

 

[makuto]

Ok so I took some pictures. The ones on top are my old and functioning 25r the ones on the bottom are the fakes.

I can see a different shade of blue on the wrap. Also the lettering is darker on the fake ones. And the positive contact is totally different.

 

[Mooch]

Yup, those aren't 25R's. The real ones only have three supports coming down off the central positive contact.

Here's an example: Dropbox - samsung 25r blue wrap top.jpeg

 

[Froth]

Yeah those are very fake. Shame on that seller if they knew what they're selling, either way I'm reporting the listing as they should have visually inspected them to verify authenticity, especially with a claim like they're making. Well, I knew it wouldn't be long once they gained popularity...here we go again.

Bottom line is to pretty much never buy batteries on eBay...90% of the stories of counterfeits seem to originate from eBay.

 

[Monotremata]

Wow you didnt even get two matching rewraps either they both have different positive tops on em, you got two different batteries altogether! The blue wrap does look a little off too.. Did you already order the HE4s?? Id say just go to Illumn or any of the other vendors Batitude mentioned and just get some 25Rs.. Not knocking LG at all, but I have both HE2s, HE4s and 25Rs, and over time the 25Rs are the more 'hearty' of the three. I bought them all around the same time and the 25Rs clearly outlast the LGs after all this time.. I dont even push any of em past about 5A at my wattage/resistance either. Last I checked they were only $5 a piece from most of those listed vendors.

Oh and yeah all my batteries came as is, no plastic bags or anything. Illumn always gives you a free plastic case when you buy in pairs so thats how my 25Rs have all arrived. Only batteries Ive bought that were in any kind of packaging were my Efests which I dont recommend for various reasons..

 

[Cullin Kin]

This exact same issue occurred a few weeks ago. Someone bought two Samsung 25R's of eBay to use in his Sigelei 150W and it gave off the same error message. I wouldn't doubt it if it was the same seller. Please leave some negative feedback so no more get duped.

Moral of the story? Don't buy batteries from Ebay. Only buy from trusted sites like Authentic AW Batteries - RTD Vapor

 

[Haadkoe]

You should report the seller to eBay for selling counterfeit, dangerous goods.

Hope you left negative feedback so future buyers don't get bamboozled.

 

[makuto]

Seller agreed to send replacement batteries. Will wait for them and will let you guys know what's up. Feedback hasn't been left yet, I was waiting to see what he will do.

 

[RandyF]

Seller agreed to send replacement batteries. Will wait for them and will let you guys know what's up. Feedback hasn't been left yet, I was waiting to see what he will do.

He already did it, he sold you fake batteries.

If he has to "make right" 1 in 50 sales, then it is worth it for him. That still leaves 49 other less informed people that may stick these in mech mods and will not have the protection you did.

 

[stillnotsmoking]

I purchased my 25r from eBay seller "recyclablepower" I bordered blue ones a while back and recently the green 25r no issues with any of them.

Sent from my QTAQZ3 using Tapatalk

 

[oplholik]

Also the #'s are a little different. Your auth. are 2E43, and the fakes are 2EA3. Not sure what that means, but they are different.

 

[Monotremata]

Also the #'s are a little different. Your auth. are 2E43, and the fakes are 2EA3. Not sure what that means, but they are different.

Those will be different, those are batch numbers signifying when/where that particular run was made.

 

[oplholik]

Ahh, ok. Now I know.

 

[makuto]

He already did it, he sold you fake batteries.

If he has to "make right" 1 in 50 sales, then it is worth it for him. That still leaves 49 other less informed people that may stick these in mech mods and will not have the protection you did.

You are right. I will leave negative feedback to beware potential buyers