Lucky to have ECF

[Xaviour]

I recently purchased a mod and seller included an AW IMR 18650. From reading Baditude's blog about batteries I knew I was getting a good battery. I went in today to a local B&M store to get a charger and extra battery. He only carried Efest which I've heard of, then proceeded to tell me AW's were just knock off's. Hmmmm......
So glad to have ECF and the members here to share their knowledge and help me navigate this flavorful journey. Smoked for 24 years, stinky free for 108 days. Thank everybody!

 

[Ripshod]

Perhaps this shop had had a batch of fake AWs previously, so are assuming they're all fakes. Did you show the one you've got?

Or more likely he just wanted to make a sale.

I'm not so sure about in the US, but over the pond here most B+Ms are purely there to make money!!

*edit*

Woohoo!! My 100th post

 

[Xaviour]

Yep he saw the one I have. I think he just wasn't knowledgeable (Efest's have a flame logo so they must be better) and wanted to make a sale. I checked pics here and mine is legit. Bubble top, +&-, CE logos, made it china and nice solid print not dot matrix.

 

[Baditude]

An informed shopper is a wise buyer. Either the sales person was uneducated and ignorant, or was just trying to make a sale of his own batteries in stock. Having a sales person tell me what he said would make me wary of anything else which comes from his mouth.

AW (Andrew Wan) is a battery distributor based in Hong Kong. He purchases batteries from the Big Boys (Panasonic, et al) in large batches. He knows that not all batteries are created equal in the factories, so he & his staff test each and every one. The best are chosen to wear the red wrappers and AW sticker logo. You will pay a couple bucks more for an AW battery, but you know you are getting a top of the line battery.

With AW batteries being the most popular brand of battery in the world, there are disreputable distributors who make counterfeit AW's. They use the rejects of the other battery manufacturers, or worse they use old batteries harvested from laptop computers, rewrap them and sell them as new AW batteries. All of the AW batteries sold on Alibaba (large Chinese vendor) are counterfeits, and many of these end up for sale on Ebay and Amazon. Buyers beware.

Buy authentic AW batteries from trusted reputable authorized AW resellers such as RTD Vapor, Super T Manufacturing, and Provape.