As a general rule, you can’t trust average ratings on AliExpress. Not because there’s shady stuff going on, but because most buyers give 5 stars immediately as soon as the item arrives, before they’ve even started using it.
But they aren’t just generic cells. They’re counterfeit cells. Generic cells are fine, but counterfeit cells are fraud and the company owners should be fined and/or jailed for it.
Let’s put it this way. If you find an “iPhone X” that’s not made by Apple, but seems to be a decent phone for the price, do you buy it? How about a “Ferrari” made by Ximari that looks and sounds like the real thing? Perhaps a counterfeit replacement knee that’s a quarter the price of the one your doctor ordered? Purchasing some of these counterfeits may work out okay for you, but each purchase rewarded counterfeiters and harmed the legitimate brands.
These items may be good values, perhaps, but they aren’t what they claim to be, so buying them encourages the marketplace to sell more fakes. I’m not claiming that you can fix the world’s ills by avoiding counterfeit products and I can’t condemn anyone for buying decent batteries at fair prices, especially if they need hundreds of cells for packs or something. I’m just hoping to make a point.
I still consider myself alluded by the term “people” and I would buy the cells in their original wraps. I find this a lot more enticing than buying cells in non-original wraps. It is my will to exactly know what I am buying.
These are part of the reasons I asked Henrik to review some of the EAIEP wrapped cells found in AliExpress (he did 33Gs and 25Rs, the last ones are LG B4 cells at ultra-low unit price). The deception is acceptably lighter this way, and the price is also lower. I would like to see the EAIEP 26F one reviewed, by the way, I think it is a pretty good Heter Battery cell.
I bought some LiitoKala 100% Original 3.7V INR 18650 30Q from the liitokala Official Store. From my tests and what I have read on here, they are not 100% Samsung (as written on the product page). However, they appear to be a reasonable high current cell. How safe do you think these would be in a 5P13S e-bike battery pack, with a maximum drain of 26 amp?