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

Best post I’ve seen in a while.

Thanks for the info, vēer !!!

I for one took the risk because there was very little money involved, I paid mostly in gift cards and out of 45$ spent only 11$ came immediatelly from my PayPal account, the rest were coupons and gift cards+I specifically asked their customer service whether these are UTG or UTGA generation batteries, to which they gave convincing answer that these are 2nd generation UTGA Eneloops.

I knew before even ordering my first item from them, by reading reviews here, that its going to be gambling with DinoDirect and if something is not top quality or as advertised, then there is possibility to deal with DinoDirect, albeit not without hassle, to fix it.

So yeah, you just have to play their game, buy something, always remember, that what you paid for is not always what you will receive, have patience and again play by their rules - they are trying to fool you, you should be trying to get all your money back in either PayPal refund or giftcards if there is something not satisfactory with your order.
Thats how you deal seller with dodgy sales practices and poor customer service.
Ill admit that when I ordered from them previous times, I really wanted to have a chance to deal with their customer service and play their item-not-as-described game, its fun lol :smiley:

BTW, I upated thread title and added Manafont there as well as link to FX-32’s post to let others know about Manafont fakes.

No DD for me. I’ve heard way to much negative stuff about them. Outfits like that are the ones that make me glad that the main focus of my light addiction is NOT on budget lights but on the most reputable manufacturers (custom included) and vendors out there. DD is NOT one of those reputable vendors. I get just as mad being ripped off for $.10 as I do $1000. I place a value on my time and refuse to do hours of research to try to save a buck on a $10 set of batteries only to find out that I should have paid attention to the warnings I read from others that have already been screwed. Ignore warnings at your own risk.

Does not seem a good post to me. The first thing to do would be to stop selling fakes.

We need answer from DD and the batteries removed from sale…

Done!
1971mAh@2A to 0.1V
Nice capacity but… with that voltage it’s pretty useless.

Hmm, have you tried measuring voltage with DMM, across the cell’s terminal, during 2A discharge? you might have some parasite resistance somewhere in discharging circuit.

I haven’t measure it… but parasite resistance will be always there maybe higher or lower but it can’t be eliminated; I used the thicker wires I could directly to the charger to discharge the cell.

Well, I’m just suspecting it might be a real eneloop with high resistance in your discharging circuit… Actual fake/crappy battery wouldn’t give out it’s full capacity with just voltage being lower than normal.

I think it’s a very good copy, I have tested Turnigy AA LSD with better results than this “eneloop”. Also, if these were real ones, they should have the date code on the side. The printing on also has different spacing than the real ones, but without orthographic errors.

Real ones would be around 1800-2100*mah maximum, whole batch would have identical capacity numbers after break in, fake ones are between 1800mah and 2500mah, I dont care even if these are genuine coming from old stock, they dont deliver, they dont perform, they suck, period :smiley:

*2100mah in regular Eneloops is what Ive seen kreisler here reporting, not what Sanyo says.

Funny, I already told Manafont in May 2011 that their Eneloops were fake…

I’m “talking” with their Customer Service via email… it sucks, they try to avoid and delay everything they can, it makes me think that they don’t even read what I write showing proves… Dealextreme was easier and better every time I used they CS.

Still for sale…

With Jim?

From what I remember, they will check with their supplier who will then tell them if the product is fake or not… (or mimic as they call it). So I guess the supplier of the fake Eneloops doesn’t tell them it’s fake…

With Audrey. Waiting for a response right now… I hate this (and everybody does!)

Jim listened when I complained and added “mimic” to all fake Solarforce items (but not to the fake Eneloop or the fake Maxell batteries I also complained about).

I guess those fake batteries sell quite well, hence why they dont remove them from their listing or dont add clarifications that these are not original products.

Maybe someone is reading this?

http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/sanyo-brand-mimic-eneloop-12v-2000mah-rechargeable-nimh-aa-battery-4pc-pack-p-5685

First post updated, thanks ;)!