Aliexpress/Banggood Batteries. Worth the Risk?

You can ask sellers to sell a flashlight with the battery inside, its cheaper and more secure. I agree, the Shockli store is great.

Hmm I didn’t know you could do that. Good to know!

Well, it’s a crap shoot. You could buy those and save $2 per cell for unknown quality/origin, or buy the real thing for a little extra (I’m thinking of shipping cost as well). 30Q
It’s up to you, bit if you want to risk it and test them I’d like to see how they do.

Unno, but all my 30Qs were almost exactly 3000mAH, not as “generous” with their initial capacity.

WTF GTF was known for selling truly $#|+ cells before, so dunno if I’d trust ’em.

Emphasis on “crap”.

Yep, If it sounds to good to be true it usually is. I trust 18650 battery store and Liion Wholesale.

Well, also on my Opus (not on “optimistic” chargers like my Zanflare, etc.), they all clocked in at 3048, 3009, 2989, 3017, etc. Ie, almost precisely within a % or two. Nothing like 3548 or 3392 or anything like that. Those might be “3000mAH” commodity cells, but not 30Qs.

Interesting it got the 3-tab cap on it, though.

I got a bunch of cheap 2000mAH “genuine LK” cells for like 2fitty each. I knew what I was getting into, and these were going into low-stress lights anyway, so they certainly looked nicer than laptop-pulls.

They all clocked in about the exact same, 2000ish, so at least the batch was consistent.

If I were buying batteries on Aliexpress, I trust Shockli for good cells. My experience had been good. Cells as advertised. They have good customer service too. Litokala too much risk.

Me too. Banggood batteries don’t always get here. Banggood refunds the order but it can take time.

AliExpress is hit or miss. I learned the hard way and have several fakes.

Which offical store? There are at least 3. I got fakes from one of them.

The smell of fakeship ludicrously strong is on these…

I like to take detailed pictures of the cells (anode, cathode, etc.). Unfortunately not many people care, but this time thanks to a Portuguese fellow at least we can clearly see those wrinkled wraps here. Bad stuff (rewrapped cheaper energy cells).

I also find buying batteries quite hard. Up until now i have been pulling 18650 batteries from old laptops so at least i know the cells from a original Dell battery is genuine.

Living in a country outside the EU/US i am left to Banggood - Aliexpress.

I recently found Fasttech and they have a lot of batteries. I am currently looking for 21700 battery so i found Samsung this on Fasttech - but the description does not say Genuine og Original like some other batteries and the wrapping is White. So what do you guys think about this item?

https://www.fasttech.com/products/9673935

Any other good trusted Aliexpress shops besides other posted in this thread are very welcome !

The description does not say genuine, what gives? Do you automatically trust everything you are told? Better if you don't… :facepalm:

FastTech takes his battery selling business very seriously, they have a lot of vapers as customers. And while I am not their accountant, as the vice vaping is I am nearly sure most of their business income comes from vaping stuff sales: vaping liquids, vaping mods and accessories, and batteries.

The small amount of cells I've bought from them were undoubtedly genuine in every case. Their battery prices are far from being considered gifts or deals, which makes sense.

Look like fakes to me. < shrug >

Has anyone here checked batteries from Simon at Convoy?

Safe:

Others say ok - I haven’t tried:
https://vapcell.aliexpress.com/store/1084158

Maybe:
https://convoy.aliexpress.com/

I’ve had A+ service from Simon at Convoy but have never bought batteries from.

Shockli batteries are good cells from a good manufacturer. Vapcell are very good rewraps of genuine cells (mostly) or made by OEMs in China like Shockli and (real) Litokala. Summons batteries are crazy expensive with shipping but I’m sure genuine.

Correction: Shockli is not a battery OEM, just a rewrapper like Vapcell. As I see them Shockli is of a lesser grade than Vapcell, their rewraps often bear bigger figures which actually are bigger lies; you can check related reviews in our favorite reviewer's site, but bear in mind the review or cell dates (check the following example). Vapcell is more honest and known to actively promote cell development (to OEMs).

Yes, it is the same cell. Made by Heter.

LiitoKala is also not an OEM and, they are a battery rewrapper and, besides the amount of opportunist AliExpress sellers who are selling their cells, they blatantly rewrap energy cells from chinese OEMs as power cells from the big manufacturers.

All of this stuff is just the consequence of China being one of the countries with a lesser conscience or awareness of good and evil (North Korea is even worse).

Maybe I should reword it. I am aware they are rewrappers not manufacturers. I agree Vapcells rewraps are quality. Mooch suspects that their 3000mah 20A (purple) 18650 are Sony vtc6 rewraps and I own some vtc6 and the purple ones and they perform similarly.