How much of it is cultural and how much because people can get away with it there whereas in your country they can’t.
To be sure, there are charlatans in the US that get away with selling crap cells. I’m sure there are many vape shops that don’t know anything about li-ion batteries and recommended cheap crap. Or maybe they know it’s crap and sell it anyway because it has such good profit margins. So I don’t think it’s a cultural thing.
What I was saying before is that there are certain companies, in this case in the US, that are known to only sell genuine cells. There are reputable sellers all over the world, you just have to know who they are. If your new to batteries you probably dont know which stores are reputable and which aren’t. Luckily we have forums like BLF that can tell us such things. 
Been using cylindrical Li-ion cells as well as multi cell LiPo packs for a long time. Always welcome to new insight though. 
I’m a little more careful when buying things online be it whatever category or brands. Especially in this case of batteries and chargers
For Liitokala, I have bought only 3 items from them.
1. Yellow Lii-40A 21700
2. Cyan Lii-50A 26650
3. Lii-500
And all above were tested by HKJ.
Probably the rules of thumb, know what and where to buy.
I would like to give my own observations on Liitokala chargers that I have personally checked, specifically end charging voltage.
In most cases, I “test” the Liitokala charger’s end-charge voltage by charging a fairly low resistance 18650 - usually a Sony VTC5/VTC6.
My observations:
(I measure the battery voltage with a relatively accurate DMM (Fluke 117), almost right after the charging indicator turns “green” or indicates “full”)
- Lii-100 = tends to overcharge slightly, end voltage ~4.23-4.25v
- Lii-202 = the left slot always charges to a lower voltage than the right slot ;
left slot ~ 4.17v ; right slot ~ 4.21-4.22v
- Lii-402 = fairly consistent end charge voltage across all 4 slots ~ 4.21-4.22v
- Lii-500 Engr = fairly consistent end charge voltage across all 4 slots ~ 4.20-4.22v
- Lii-500S = charges to around 4.23-4.24v
- Lii-S1 = charges to around 4.23-4.25v
- Lii-S6 = charges to around 4.21-4.23v
summary:
Lii-100 will overcharge somewhat higher (4.25v is just within the +/- 0.05v tolerance)
Lii-S1 also seems to slightly overcharge similarly to the Lii-100.
Lii-500S charges a bit high too (4.24v)
Lii-500 Engr & Lii-402 seems to give a good end-charge voltage (just +/- 0.02v)
Lii-202 left slot and right slot has a difference of about 0.05v (left slot charges lower than the right slot)
I don’t have enough samples so one unit may vary from another (I notice Liitokala has not that high consistency with regards to end-charge voltage, compared to for instance Miboxer)
For comparison, I’ve checked Miboxer C4-12, Miboxer C4-12v2, Miboxer C8 = and doing the same “end-charge” voltage testing.
I find that these Miboxer tends to have a much more consistent end-charge voltage (always 4.19-4.21v for all the slots).
It’s a fair question and I suspect that it’s impossible to tell the difference 
.
If humans see the world as a zero-sum game, then it is 
. They, themselves, make it so, but don’t realize their role. Culture is evolutionary and cannot easily be distinguished from prevailing economic beliefs.
500S Review
https://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20LiitoKala%20Lii-500S%20UK.html
I think I stay with my XTAR X4…
After the well made and succesful Lii-500 Engineer this Lii-500S is, in my honest opinion, sort of a letdown. The Lii-500 is way more accurate at measuring capacity and as far as we know power supply safe (and in my experience, I am happy with the way it terminates Ni-MH). Maybe the reason for the Lii-500S to overestimate capacity is the complainer crowd in AliExpress, now that LiitoKala itself is selling chinese OEM cells rewrapped with falsehood. Can't condone with that, not while using wraps and model markings which spuriously look like what they're not. 
But well, you can charge at 2 amps in the outer slots with the Lii-500S. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
what about these measurements with 500s?
sony vtc6
It’s not in Test mode so it’s not a measurement.
Looks like you just dropped in 2 cells of which we don’t know how much they were discharged and this is what it says when charging has finished (for channel 4).
If you want to measure capacity you’ll have to use Test mode. This discharges and charges it for a couple of cycles and gives you the capacity of the cell.
Takes a loooong time though.
The thing is, you CAN’T tell if these cells get overcharged or not because your meter simply isn’t accurate enough.
The specs for the Fluke 117 are:
DC volts Range/resolution
6.000 V / 0.001 V
60.00 V / 0.01 V
600.00 V / 0.1 V
Accuracy: ±([% of reading] + [counts]): 0.5% + 2
Let’s say your meter measures 4.200V
This means it may also be:
4.200 + 0.5% = 4.221 + 2 counts = 4.223V
or
4.200 - 0.5% = 4.179 - 2 counts = 4.177V
Now look at the highest tolerance you mention, 4.250V
When your meter measures 4.250V, it may as well be
(4.250 + 0.5% = 4.271 + 2 counts =) 4.273V
or
(4.250 - 0.5% = 4.229 - 2 counts =) 4.227V
So you see, when working with critical tolerances like this it makes no sense to use such a meter. When considering 4.25V as the absolute maximum voltage for a LiIon battery you really need the equipment to accurately measure it. It’s no good when a meter measures 4.25V when in reality it means it can be anything between 4.23V and 4.27V
At least you still have a decent meter, but I see people using cheap meters with unknown accuracy measuring their cells to check how their chargers are performing.
It totally makes no sense!
Quote: I see people using cheap meters with unknown accuracy measuring their cells to check how their chargers are performing.
It totally makes no sense!
Guilty as charged! But my batteries are removed from the charger between 3.9 and 4.0v, so there is no overcharge damage. And the cheap DMM is mainly used to see changes in voltage and seems to do that well. But a better meter will be a future purchase that I am looking forward to.
China is following the same slow development of copyright/counterfeiting protection that took the US a century or more.
You put an opportunity to cheat in front of a group of people, and some of them will go for it.
Plus the Internet ….
You are right sir, just bought it and drop the batteries. I will test them. thanks
I want to see if this charger works well and complete the charging cycle in order to keep or sell it 
First, the Lii-500S seems to top off to 4.25V, that’s still within tolerance.
Second, what meter were you using?
The charger stops displaying any voltage raise above 4.20V (that’s a shame) and continues to charge up to 4.25V. Hence it can still take quite some time to reach that (especially with high capacity cells). The user may think the charger doesn’t terminate but let it continue for a while longer and you’ll see it terminates.
Shame indeed. I hate looking at dummy gauges.
The original Lii-500 does show voltage above 4.20. Not sure how accurate it is.
I use a Fluke 77IV. My cells measured above 4.25V after using this charger and never reached termination. I like to keep my cells under 4.20V.
My other chargers measure ~4.17 - 4.2V immediately after charging and using the same meter.
Hm then it sounds like you got a faulty unit indeed
I will check the voltage of my cells as well immediately after the charging terminates.
Something that I rarely see discussing about chargers is how well they charge the batteries!
What really causes the most damage to a cell? The charging process or the termination?