check your old KEEPPOWER batteries for false labeling

Anyone seen 18650s with fake cells inside ?

Should I open the wrapper on all my cells to check ?

I have perhaps 20-25 Keeppower 3400mah 18650 cells. While I don’t know for certain every cell is legit and not rebranded, I do know they are all good cells. All have been tested in lights countless times. If it was a rebranded ultrafire or such, I would have found out by now. Most of my high power lights need quality cells to operate properly, and all of my Keeppower 18650’s deliver the power needed.
I can’t say much about their other battery sizes since I little experience with them.

Personally I would check. I would want to be sure of what I really had. Even with 25 batteries I would check them.

Shrinkwrap from FT is cheap. You could the reaply the keeppower label under clear shrinkwrap. If needed, heating the label with a hair dryer should soften the glue to help peel it off the original wrap.

If I take of the wrappers to check on mine, would the protection circuit also come off ?

I mean is the wrapper holding the circuit in place ?

Nope. The circuit is soldered to the battery. I just rewrapped a protected cell yesterday.

The wrapper does help hold the protection. The wires are soldered on but it still needs a wrapper or tape to use the battery in flashlights.

How can I check what’s inside without taking of the whole wrapper or damaging the cell ? I don’t have the wrapper or a heat gun to re-wrap them.

You cant. But I've shrink wrapped cells with a hair blower, worked fine.

I bet you could even shrink it over a toaster. :smiley:
~ edit ~
Yep! Works well. Unfortunately it does not retain aroma of toast. :_(
Shrinkwrap

I think it is hard to trust any of them. I only say this due to the fact that labels for various manufacturers are available to re wrap a cell. Are the metal barrels of the cells from Panny or Sanyo marked under the main wrapper? if not how do you really know who’s battery it is?

Peel part of the label back, cut a hole or flap and press the label back down after you check. From my own limited knowledge, green is Panasonic, red is Sanyo and blue is unknown. No guarantee green or red aren’t fake but probably not.

I just ordered the clear shrink from FastTech so I should have it by March.

Here’s the label back on. It would look better if I cut a flap and was more careful.

With 18650s keeppower makes batteries using a few different cells. Cut a hole, see light green & it could still be mislabeled.
With 14500s labeled as sanyo it seems to be either red (correct) or blue.

Just remembered RMM carries clear shrinkwrap, more arriving within a week. He ships fast.

I posted the below in reply to a PM from an aggrieved member here and feel that it is worth sharing here, both for other members perspective, for those affected such as unfair associations IS have experienced and for Keeppower to aid in understanding how damaged their “baby” as they put it, currently is.
Keeppower, it’s time for public, sincere and remorseful actions.
If you fail to demonstrate atonement in your actions, people simply will not forgive the prior actions that resulted in this mess, be they nefarious or devious.
Enough with the hollow words, back it up with actions that show your intent and that enable the rebuilding of your “baby”.
IS, it is unfair that you have been associated with the actions of Keeppower, which is why I suggest Keeppower conduct a group buy/introductory deal for us end users through you and to reward your upstanding name in this and no doubt other communities, naturally of course, only if you’re interested in still dealing with Keeppower.

Aren’t they green wrapped by Panasonic before KeepPower gets them?

I don’t know about blue Sanyos. Blue is a common color for crappy generic batteries. Do they have the same raised lettering as the red Sanyos? That’s not easy to duplicate.

I meant panasonic 3400 isn’t the only light green cell that keeppower uses in their 18650s. It could also be a 3100 or 2900 cell. Perhaps other cells. With 18650s you really need to see the name on the cell not just its color.

With 14500 the color is enough to check it. If you cut a hole you will either see red (correct color for sanyo) or blue (not sanyo).

Sorry I wasn’t so clear.

I bought mine from Illumination Supply In California.
my 2600mAh says CELL MADE IN KOREA
ASSEMBLED IN CHINA.

it’s a samsung cell as far as their site states…http://illuminationsupply.com/batteries-c-48_50/18650-keeppower-2600mah-samsung-icr1865026f-protected-button-top-p-833.html#.UsKWXvRdW8A

should I be concerned?.

i trust Illumination Supply.

I dont think Keeppower will sell you a 3100mAh battery as 3400mAh or such. Dont be too paranoid, they lied about 14500 and 18500 but lying about 18650 would be fatal for them as thats what most people buy.

Samsung, Panasonic and Sanyo label their cells directly, under the shrink wrap. Not with their company name, but some letters and stuff.

As far as I remember Keeppower sent HKJ a sample of 2 of their 14500s way way before any became available to purchase in small quanitities, I think over a year before we started seeing them at different vendors. Also, did HKJ unwrap his cells from that review, or are you just assuming that those were also mislabelled? I can’t see a good reason to make that jump, and certainly not to then extrapolate that as evidence that they had been mislabelled for that long.

I do, that is what got me involved in these threads, finding that I had mislabelled cells. I had always suspected non-Sanyo inside due to the cheap price ($4.5 shipped from CNQG/FF). But as far as I’m aware the mislabelling has only been found in cells from CNQG/FF and possibly Wallbuys/Banggood, not across the board, so I don’t think it’s as widespread an issue as some here are assuming.

His cells say "IC made in Japan" but those are supposed to be Sanyo cells. Oh wait, thats fine, you pay for chinese and get japanese, no problem there. Its only a problem the other way round, right?

I'm quite sure that Keeppower 18500 cells have been around more than a year (review also posted in April 2012). Dont know about the 14500 but if you want to believe its a totally different story with them than with the 18500s, fine, do so. Maybe its not EXACTLY 2 years (I said "about", remember?) but only 1 1/2, that totally makes it better. It has been going on AT LEAST a year, counted back from today, so what the hell are you arguing about?

lol, mislabeled cells were found coming only from 3 vendors - thats not much - but wait, until a few weeks ago, there were only 4 that actually sold Keeppower cells to US customers. 75%, not too bad, right?

You do realise that 14500/18500 are a rather rare format and not many dealers stock them? Again, until not too long ago, there was one in Germany (msitc) and one in Finland (akkula).. but that was it for Europe. (Yes, the continent called "Europe". I know that you british folks dont quite like being in the EU but you cant change being in Europe.) Now there are a few more, but still less than a handful.

You dont want to see it? Fine. Then dont, I couldnt care less. I wont buy Keeppower cells again and I wont advise anyone else to do so. Enerpower for me, made in Germany, the CEO (rutzki) is active and talkative,

if there was a problem,

yo he'll solve it

Ice ice baby.

thanks. im in London , where can I get them if im here?.
got a dealer?.

thanks.