Test / Review: Fake Eneloop batteries from DinoDirect and Manafont, buyers BEWARE!

The plastic on the packaging appears to be glossy, real eneloops are matte. Another giveaway is eneloops have extremely strict quality control: There is almost no variation in appearance and voltage & capacities are usually pretty consistent from cell to cell. Finally, every single one of my eneloops is a perfect cylinder, no evidence of the bulges at the end that look like a protection circuit is placed under the skin.

Good eyes for fake guys! I would have been taken in by the numbers alone.

After some calculations, yes, definitely consistency and the discharge rates were not Eneloop level:-

Charge After 2hr Discharge% After 2wks Discharge%
1823 1895 103.95 1771 97.15
1966 1966 100 1889 96.08
2015 2015 100 1790 88.83
2109 2109 100 1909 90.52
2183 2237 102.47 2064 94.55
2278 2331 102.33 2143 94.07
2313 2356 101.86 2197 94.98
2370 2370 100 2162 91.22
2468 2388 96.76 2218 89.87
2409 2409 100 1780 73.89
2530 2416 95.49 2272 89.8
2420 2420 100 2094 86.53

Still, if this was indeed HFR cheap cells, I can't help but be amazed at the achievement of the "cheapies".

As Troop said, Costco - I just purchased a set there today. The deal isn’t as good as it was last spring, but still not bad…10 AA or AAA’s for $20. I’ve found Duraloops at Walmart, but you have to look closely…they are Duracell rechargeables…you have to look for samples that say ‘made in Japan’ and have a white top. The others are gray top and made in China…but as I understand, these are the real deal. Wally World gets just under $12 for 4.

Little update:
I threw cells #10 and #11 into digital camera today, it showed low battery alarm instantly.
Another proof these are not true LSD.

The problem, vëer, is that apart from they are not LSD, they dont perform well under high loads.

Another problem. Multicell arrangements:

All the cells have different capacity, and the difference is appreciable.

Today I installed 2 in a mobile phone emergency charger. The emergency charger stopped working and I didn´t wondered why.

I took the cells, measured the voltage: one was 0,9v the other was 1.2v. And both were charged in the same charger in the same moment…

I will abuse them, and after a few cycles I will recycle them

Thanks for let us know…

Very useful post! Thanks for the heads up. This will be a good reference if we suspect having received fakes in the future. Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

I guess they are just decent NiMH with no LSD properties…… not too bad if it’s a low enough price.

I need 8 NiMH AAs for my 2 camera flashes. As cheap as possible, as long as they can charge up my Nikon SB-900 within 5 seconds. :smiley:

I doubt these will handle such task - read above, me and Fran are having hard time getting them to work with higher loads.

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summer

Avoid buying from DD. I have given up already!

Again, guys, these batteries are normal (crappy) chinese Ni-Mh cells with NO low self discharge technology, with a capacity around 2200mAh and they are not good under high loads (more than 1 Amp)

Please, avoid them.

These are actually pretty good by cheapies standard. The crappy NiMH around were ~500-600mAh and discharge ~1C only. Of course LSD not included. By comparison, this fake is improved by leaps and bounds.

If they're priced at $5-$6 as they should be, and carry own brand, I don't think they'd have problem selling it. Hot cakes. Even I would jump on some for my kids battery packs and such.

The problem is they ride on Eneloops name and ruin it all.

Yes, but remember that as soon as you use them under high loads, they will not cope with the demand and will fail.

summer, please remove pictures when quoting a post. It’s very annoying to scroll through so much quoted pics.

How many people are being scammed by these fakes. DD should change the description immediately to FAKE-nloops to restore some credibility. A very low act imo. Bring back the Avoid label.

I have received "Eneloops" from Manafont,they are sightly different than Dinodirect's, they weight 27 grams each (heavier than DD's), they don't have the words WAHS and WATHER, but they are not genuine.

They don't have the Date Code on the side, and capacity isn't like an original one.



My Results:

Discharge to 0.8V @ 2Amps: 177mAh

Discharge to 0.8V @ 1Amp: 1703mAh

So… FAKE cells, but could be worse. MF Manafont doesn’t sell genuine Sanyo Eneloops!!!!

+1 I am really getting sick of DD and am not ordering from them anymore.

No please guys!!

i think im gonna have to call back dinoboy then!

:sick:

FX-32, mind doing one more test - discharging at 2A down to 0.1V? I’m wondering if this low capacity result is caused by their internal resistance or just crappy chemistry…