Possible fake Samsung 30Q 18650?

While IMR has a nice selection and good pricing on some cells, be VERY careful on some of their protected cells! They are currently selling a Sanyo NCR18650GA that is capable of 10A continuous output, BUT it has a third-party protection circuit added that is only capable of 5A continuous. They don’t mention that 5A limit anywhere which seems very misleading to me.

i got 10 recently from 18650 battery store, should i be concerned?

More reason to buy here.Jon lists all the specs for the batteries.Liion rewrapped GA’S with quality FNK MOSFETs for 20A high current cutoff. Not 5A!

Just noticed Average shooter has not been around for 1 year 9 months! lol!

I just had a closer look at these 30Q batteries and I can actually see a very faint print under the wrapper:

On one side I see: L0I9, 68VB1. On the other I see 64F2, 64F2

I have no idea what that means.

How can I test impedance?

You got 10 of what? You posted right after mine so I thought you were talking about the protected Sanyos, but now I see you said the 18650 Battery Store and not IMR Batteries.

If you have a voltmeter then just do Google search to find an existing good step-by-step explanation. Some chargers can measure it too.

No. 18650batterystore is legit.

I tried in the liitokala, but it was showing very inconsistent results. Of course I should have googled how to do this before I asked. So as I gather, you get a large resistor like 10ohm, do a quick voltage measurement with no load, then again quickly with load (like for a second or two), plug the values into a formula and you get the resistance. I wish the charger was more accurate and consistent.

Yes, many meters don’t give consistent readings. My Vapcell S4 Plus gives actually pretty steady results, but according to HKJ’s review the values are lower than reality. I have noticed that measured value does seem to change based on the charge level of the battery.

No worries, I just wasn’t sure I would recall it correctly and didn’t want to post something from memory.

Heres a link to the datasheet. Proving that Samsung 30Q 4 leg batteries are fake | E-Cigarette Forum

The second character “0’ in the first line should be a dead giveaway that they are real. Granted I have 30Qs from Liion wholesale (which is a ”trusted” dealer) that DO NOT follow the Samsung datasheet and they swear up and down that they are real.

One thing that guy says is that every Q30 he’s seen uses 3 legs on the top contact. These appear to only have two legs, IE one on each side. Does that suggest anything?

Why? IMO that doesn’t prove anything because any forger could know what the datasheet says and thus make their imitations look real.

Yours are sounding like fakes to me — unless others who recently purchased these cells from known reputable dealers have also seen this new difference.

That is ALL you need to know. Mooch has a lot of experience and in my 9 years of buying 30Q I have Never seen one with Two Legs.

There are photos on this forum of Two legs but I could not find them.

Hold on. Are all yours BT? They do not look that great, but what Two leafs are you talking about? I thought you were referencing that to the FT batteries?

No OEM cell manufacturer makes button top cells, all button tops are modified by someone. You would need to take that top layer of shrink and the button top to see. Most trusted retailers like Liionwholesale, illumn, and 18650batterystore add the button top, insulator, and a top layer of clear shrink ontop of a legitimate cell.

True, but I trust Mooch’s experience and his recommended retailers substantially more than I do your opinion.

I’m referring to the ones I just bought, you can see the photos in post #13 above

Have any of you seen any fakes that try to replicate the markings on the cell wall under the wrapper for a 30Q? Seems like more hassle for the fakers to go through. Thoughts?

If they exist, they havent been identified. Usually the fake cells can barely get the font and printing correct on the wrapper, I doubt they could make a perfect counterfeit without throwing a bunch of resources at it.

Yes, I saw them. I am not sure you can base a real or fake battery on its BT. Other factors like performance, labeling and info. under the label.

I see that you live in Australia. I can not recommend any credible dealers down under. There are many Aussies on here that could help you with that.I would recommend NOT to buy off of Ebay again.

By the looks of them, my guess is that they are fakes.

The bottom line here is to remove the clear jacket/button top to check the legs on the top of the cell. 4 legs = fake. All the other markings look correct, the 141 is just a manufacturing batch number.