I have to retract my earlier opinion. There is something wrong with my electronic load. It has served me faithfully until now. I'm getting the same odd results with my real 30Q's too. I played with connections and switched carriers and I still can only pull low amperage with even my trusted cells that once performed well in the load.
The raised areas that I thought were remnants of other wrappers turned out to be imperfections in the wrapper itself.
I stripped one wrapper and found no date stamp or any other markings on the can:
In your picture it looks like the top part of the can is different then the top part of the fake cell. I’m willing to bet they saw this thread and changed their picture.
I’ve gone through about 50 Samsung 30qs and I’ve never seen one that hasn’t had date codes on the can there should be 3 or 4 of them. Not a bare Can. They maybe trying to pass off mh1 Cells off. Would give the right capacity and be a 10 amp cell. Just a wild guess on that.
Doesn’t make sense why liito Kala would shoot themselves in the foot and ruin their reputation.
Unless your Lii-500 is not accurate at all (my Lii-500 measures about 2% low, for example), that's a fake cell.
Buying cells whose top is for whatever reason covered (protected cells or with charging ports) makes counterfeiting easier. Cell top shape is the single most differentiating/identificating factor, as when you buy known 3-lobe top cells and you receive cells with 4 or 5 lobes you can smell the presumed rip-off.
Gosh, it stinks for me to see people posting pictures of their received cells but not clearly showing cell tops.
I believe we should do something in this respect here (in the Commercial Seller's Spot), to check if at least some known AliExpress cell sellers have something to say. There's some sort of gang behind the Great Wall which is making money rewrapping cheaper and readily available cells as what they are not.
Note, these cells were discharged using the Lii-202 and then charged with an Xtar VC4. Did this with 4 of the cells, the first number is the voltage at the time of inserting them into the charger and the second number the mAh that the VC4 indicated when the cells finished charging.
Just read your posts. It appears you and I received the same type of cell. I have sent a message to the vendor telling him/her that my cells are not real 30Q's based on wrapper and lack of can stamps. I should have included the differences on the positive terminal. I'll report back if I receive a reply.
Sorry for my ignorance. What is this mh1 cell you mention?
I’ve messaged the seller yesterday. First asking “are these cells authentic?” And I got a reply of “I gave you a box.” Then I explained some of the discrepancies I noticed and their reply was “Dear buyers, our batteries are all very good, you will know if you use them.” :person_facepalming:
Probably time to open a dispute with AliExpress. Maybe/hopefully you’ll get a better answer.
I bet I get similar replies. I'll try to work it out with the seller for a bit anyway. Thanks for that info.
Thank you BSM. Interesting the mention of the impressive matching. I have to say the same. These cells have provided incredibly similar test results. Even their arriving voltages were the same. Seems like you all may be onto something. I wonder if the MH1 has can stamps. A quick google isn't answering that for me.
I don’t know how friendly aliexoress is to customers I think barkuti had hell getting his money back and not sure if he ever did.
But just maybe people will get a refund and get to keep the cells. If that’s the case then it’s free decent cells.
Liito Kala is probably betting most users won’t notice a difference they’ll just run a capacity test and that’s as far as it will go. If they got a handful of claims they could settle. But the hundreds of other orders would all be money in the bank. I use to respect them. From now on for my 26550s shockli and Evva from richard have my business
This was my first time ordering cells from AliExpress. I’m going back to LiIonWholesale and my trusted, local eBay seller. Never had any problems there.
I usually use imr and I have one eBay seller. I go to him first help support the small business. Imr really pissed me off when the new CEO took away our discount code. Plus I get real grade a cells from my other guy. IDK how he does it. But he gets brand new toolpacks and takes them apart. Grade a cells go to oem. What the public has access to is grade b cells. There’s nothing wrong with them buy any means. But when you have to give a 3 year warranty on your batteries and you purchase millions you get the best. Good rewraopers like Basen will show you the latest pallet of cells they got and what b grade it is whether it’s b1, b2 or b3.
I just got a couple months ago 8 brand new BLUE 25r still at their factory voltage. Still test above capacity. I’m sure they’ve sat around for a few years but I couldnt resist since they are gone forever now. Resistance is right and capacity is right. Goes to show me lithium cells at there factory state of charge. Can sit for years without damaging the cell. KY latest purchase was 30 vtc 5 cells from a oem skateboard battery some German company. Perfect cells in the 3s10p I took those apart myself
I wasn’t able to find a test of an MG1 but found a Basen battery test that is said to most likely be a rewrapped MG1. The appearance seems to match what we received and I don’t see any markings on the can that was photographed for the test.
So far, it seems the fakes are coming from the “liitokala Factory Store”.
From what I’ve read, the “liitokala Official Store” has genuine cells. Has this changed? I’ve ordered from “Sunway Store” in the past, and they were genuine.
Maybe it’s just the “Factory Store” that is selling fakes? I don’t think I’d blame this on the liitokala brand just yet, unless people are reporting fakes from the other stores too.
Anyone know if they’ve gone over to the dark side?
It sucks people didn’t get the cells they paid for. But in the end everyone might get free 10 amp cells. Unless the seller agrees to pay return shipping. They can’t expect the customer to pay for it on counterfeits
The only thing that hurts this case is the picture. Before purchasing the picture shows 4 prongs and that is the cells everyone received they can and probably will use this in there defense. Someone mentioned they changed it I’m not sure if they did or not. It’s still deception calling it Samsung 30qs. But I just thought of that. The picture shows the cells everyone received they can say they clearly showed the product before purchase. I hope everyone gets a refund the part that is deceit is calling it a Samsung 30q. If they called it a liitokala 30q they could probably get away with it. Since it would be a house brand name at that point. From what barkuti went through I hope everyone else doesn’t have that much problem. And that the parent cell underneath can be found out. Soon someone with a hobby charger can do a real discharge 5 or 10 amps and see how it handles it. If it is a 10 amp cell I might take some off people’s hands if they don’t want them and can’t get a refund. I have uses for them. I already have 16 new 30qs I hadn’t used yet or I would have ordered these like everyone else. I like to hoard cells especially during hurricane season after being the literal ground 0 for katrina
Yeah, anyone ordering after Barkuti found the 4-prong picture, was knowingly taking a big risk these were fakes.
Still, if these are quality 3000mAh 10 amp cells, that’s pretty good for fakes. Should work fine in the vast majority of lights, and every single-emitter light I can think of. These fakes are way better than an old laptop cell re-wrap.
I do think a partial refund is proper. But even if you don’t get a refund, it sounds like the price was fair for a 10A cell.
