There seems to be a large number of counterfeit LG HG2 cells flowing through the general market right now.
There has been many reported in the e-cig industry from many vendors who don’t realize it. The fakes are so good visually, it’s extremely difficult to tell. Although the performance of fakes are what makes it obvious. Even running a few amps, the voltage drop is huge.
Read this…
Glad I bought mine from Illumination Supply this time around. Mine check out so far.
I know Jon at Liionwholesale does random tests on every case of batteries he gets too. He had a few cases of fake Sony VTC-5’s come in once, a bunch of Efest’s that were supposed to be 20amp cells that tested at 10amp.
That is great information…
It seems we’ll have to stick to 30Q’s
Apparently fake one has 2800 mah at 0,5A discharge, performs like a bad 10A cell.
Sorry to hear about it. These are the next cells I wanted to get. Thanks for posting.
I would add this from mentioned thread:
“The internal resistance of the good batteries ranged from 22mOhm-24mOhm (0.022-0.024 ohms). The bad batteries had internal resistances of 39mOhm-41mOhm, a significant increase. This high internal resistance causes huge voltage sag which leads to very early weak/low battery messages from the mod. This is one of the best ways to determine if you have one of these bad batteries.”
Thanks for the heads-up warning!
+1
Thank you very much for this precious info!
Xtar has them on bogo as well as with a charger in a separate deal. I bought a few two months ago that seem ok but has anyone tried the new batch.
I’m getting my LG cells from nkon lately.
I trust they’ll be ok!.
Apparently these HG2 have gotten extremely popular in the e-cig industry. I have 6 of them I bought last year and they perform flawlessly. I pound on these HG2’s, rotating through all 6 daily over the last 6 months in a dna-200 e-cig mod. They are authentic and excellent cells. Too bad LG’s reputation is being ruined by the chinese greed monster. I hope it doesn’t happen to 30Q, as it is getting more and more popular as well.
I don’t think LG’s rep is being ruined. I hope not anyway.
Damn! They where next in one of my wish lists!
Thanks for pointing it out.
Yeah, there are a LOT of counterfeit HG2s out there. The “bad” fakes are pretty easy to spot, as the positive-terminal cut-outs are off (semi-circular as opposed to more rectangular), and the weight is usually way off. However, the “good” fakes are much harder to spot, mainly because they are actually LG cells, just not HG2s. The most common cells that are re-wrapped as HG2s seem to be the HE2 and MG1. Another “tell” is if the insulating ring is shiny/glossy (genuine HG2 insulating rings are matte/rough finish). But, I am sure the counterfeiters are already working on that as well. Sigh…
I hope not either. But people are shying away from buying them in fear of getting counterfeits, thus damaging LG’s business. How much it’s damaging it? who knows. I know Samsung went after ebay sellers selling counterfeits with a vengeance last year getting the Feds involved. They must have thought it damaged their business or reputation enough to do something about it.
Fwiw, mine came with a silver oval “verified by Xtar” hologram sticker and have the matte white insulator.
It is all about source.
imrbatteries.com and others should publicly post who sold them fake lg hg2.
Other sellers should learn from it, and avoid bad sourcing agents.
Never gonna happen. They know what they did, they know how much they paid and they thought they are going to get away with it. The alternative is they are incompetent. What company will acknowledge one or the other? They will spin standard PR bull$#*t and hope it will die up with time… Most customers will not even know.
You are right about that.
Mine 16 HG2's function well and have matte white rings. That was actually the first battery that impressed the hell out of me when I put it in a triple and the amps went from 4 to 8, 10. I would have known right away if something was wrong though. I feel bad for those who were scammed, this counterfeiting crap is horrible for the regular unknowing consumer.