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. 
~ 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.
We are still dealing with KeepPower and will continue to do so unless given a reason not to. If there's enough interest in a group buy I'd be perfectly willing to host one. We've hosted different kinds of group buys on other forums but haven't been approached to do one here.
I wrote a short paragraph email to another customer but here's the gist of it:
We verify the legitimacy of batteries with our own testing equipment and have found no signs of shady dealings or wrongly labeled batteries. Again I'll repeat myself, the vendors themselves know exactly what cells are in the 14500 and 18500 batteries they order since those vendors MUST specify DLG/Sanyo/etc to KeepPower. The fact that those particular vendors have left out information on the internal cell of those batteries either on purpose or on accident in their listings is of no ones fault but their own. While it may be true that KeepPower is at fault for mislabeling the "made in" portion sticker on the batteries, I believe it is the fault of either dishonest or ignorant vendors for not disclosing exactly what they are selling. They may not have done the research themselves or understand the product they are selling. Rest assured we will continue testing and verifying our batteries and bring you only products that have passed our set of requirements. While I understand why KP is under fire, I don't understand why the vendors with vague listings aren't at least partially in trouble or even more so.
We've been dealing with batteries for years before we even started selling them and have seen hundreds of unwrapped, recycled, re-wrapped batteries, refer to the following threads for our experience, the Battery Pack Disassembly Tutorial was written by Craig himself.
http://thebrightsideforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=327
For your particular question on the 2600 cells I photographed and took apart the KP Samsung 2600, and a bare Samsung 2600. You will not find another wrapper under the KP Samsung 2600 because we asked them to remove all wrappers to reduce fitment problems that people have reported. Labeling on the bare metal of the battery is consistent with Samsung's labeling method. If you have further questions feel free to PM me. The link to the album is here: http://imgur.com/a/1di0G or you can check below:
KP Samsung ICR18650-26F 2600mAh Protected Battery and Bare Samsung ICR18650-26F 2600mAh
Taking off the wrapper of the KP Samsung 26F, no wrapper underneath because we told them to not include it to reduce width of the cell and possible fitment problems.
Outer wrapping removed, welded button top and protection on bottom
Bare Samsung 26F cell
Peeling
Side by side Bare Samsung 26F on the left, KP Samsung 26F on the right
@zebrastripes: Which cells? Enerpower? Those are on ebay, amazon or directly from the manufacturer: http://store.enerdan.de/
@Calvin: Is the button top welded directly on those cells?
I totally understand that you try to defend Keeppower and I'm sure they appreciate your effort, but blaming the dealers only doesnt seem fair to me either. Maybe you were asked to specify which cells you want and got the correct ones, but how can you be sure they deal the same with other dealers? Keeppower has done wrong and they have to try to gain some trust again.
Spot welded on.
Has any dealer actually said that KeepPower lied to them? So far no seller or website has stepped forward saying KeepPower sold them cells that weren't what was promised. If anything I believe dealers ordered Chinese cells but received ones LABELED as Japanese. KeepPower has been in business for over 5 years and OEM for many reputable brands, no one has ever stepped forward saying they were sold anything but what they ordered. What advantage would KeepPower have in faking cells, especially in such a specialized market? Would they really think that the niche consumer would not be able to test and verify their own cells? I also never said KeepPower was free from blame. So far I see them as making a mistake applying a label, rather than faking the internals which is a much more serious accusation which people are throwing. The two issues sound very similar but the intent behind them is VERY different.