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

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

Last updated 04.09.2013, see at the end of this post!

As some of you might have noticed I was crazy enough to order batteries from DinoDirect, their CS assured me that they have geniune 2nd generation UTGA AA Eneloops.

LINK TO FAULTY ITEM

Since I had gift card or two I bought 3 packs with 4 batteries in each pack Ill just quote myself from original Eneloops thread where I shared my observations here: (quotes slightly modified to suit this thread) -it says GEN1, and not GEN2 on package contrary to what DinoDirect CS told me -wrapping is poor, see pictures below -definitely fake, avoid!

After initial discharge all batteries here are the results:

As some of you might have noticed I was crazy enough to order batteries from DinoDirect, their CS assured me that they have geniune 2nd generation UTGA AA Eneloops.
LINK TO FAULTY ITEM

Since I had gift card or two I bought 3 packs with 4 batteries in each pack Ill just quote myself from original Eneloops thread where I shared my observations here: (quotes slightly modified to suit this thread) -it says GEN1(UTG), and not GEN2(UTGA) on package contrary to what DinoDirect CS told me -wrapping is poor, see pictures below -definitely fake, avoid!

After initial discharge all batteries here are the results: 1587mAh 656mAh 190mAh 393mAh 1664mAh 1616mAh 1606mAh 703mAh 731mAh 719mAh 714mAh 1587mAh

Heres the packaging: Wrappers are of poor quality: Theres plenty of empty space between top of the battery and wrapping material: Heres the bottom of batteries after removing them from charger once/twice: I took the wrapper off one of the batteries:
Theres print on battery: HFR NI-MH 120417 Regarding their weight - they weigh as much as Turnigy AA LSD’s and gram or two more than my older 2nd generation UTGA AA Eneloops. When I discharged them at 1A they became rather warm, when I charged them at 2A they became really HOT to the touch, so I wouldnt say these are going to be reliable batteries :wink: I wont trust them and wont charge higher than @1A charge rate. Here are my numbers after charge-discharge cycle of my fake Eneloop’s from DinoDirect:
1-1823mAh 2-2183mAh 3-2313mAh 4-2015mAh
5-2409mAh 6-2278mAh 7-1966mAh 8-2109mAh
9-2530mAh 10-2420mAh 11-2468mAh 12-2370mAh

Initial discharge tests of 4 batteries after 2 days/~2weeks:
1-1895/1771mAh(1823mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 2-2237/2064mAh(2183mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 3-2356/2197mAh(2313mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 4-2015/1790mAh(2015mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 5-2409/1780mAh(2409mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 6-2331/2143mAh(2278mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 7-1966/1889mAh(1966mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 8-2109/1909mAh(2109mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 9-2416/2272mAh(2530mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 10-2420/2094mAh(2420mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 11-2388/2218mAh(2468mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle) 12-2370/2162mAh(2370mAh initial capacity when fully charged after 1 charge/discharge cycle)

AVOID! DinoDirect was reluctant to give me full refund in form of gift cards, eventually they did give me 45$ gift card which is right about what I “spent” in their shop, actual amount was 11$ only, the rest were coupons and two gift cards. I used my newly issued 45$ gift card to buy 2xSysmax chargers :smiley:

Updated@04.07.12 See post #26 regarding fake Eneloops received from Manafont as well! UPDATE - Manafont admits they are selling fake ones:
Sanyo Eneloop Mimic

UPDATED@ 04.09.2013:
I figured I should do discharge test on one of my Fakepoops after I tested it with battery voltage tester and noticed that its slightly below 1.30v, that got me curious since it was in the drawer for few months.

The battery was discharged at 300mA with MAHA C9000, discharge stopped at around 1.09v, I accidentally unplugged charger when it had almost 1700mAh discharged from it, after second discharge it showed 425mAh sucked out of it, so in total that makes around 2100mAh, last time I charged these batteries was probably somewhere around spring, thats the minimum period of time these batteries might have been in storage.

Battery number is IX=9, which was around 2530mAh fully charged when I reviewed them last year, back then it showed 2416/2272mAh capacity after 2 days of storage and ~2 weeks of storage.

So, losing ~400mAh after around 3 to 5 months of storage aint that bad.

Where these batteries suck big time is high load - they cant provide voltage neccessary, tried in my digital camera and even without flash it takes less than 20 shots for them to sag so badly that camera shuts down, the same happened with cheapo BTY rechargeables when tested.
Obviously, never so with original Eneloops!

So judging by one battery out of many my verdict is - good for low drain devices and not that bad in remaining capacity after some storage time.

Recommended? No, they suck for the money and are incosistent as phuck!

Thanks for reading!

2

Well done with the refund (45$ giftcard, sweet!). You can still make good use of these fake cells.

I measured the exact weight of Eneloop AA Glitter in ChibiM's thread, feel free to compare if you have an accurate scale.

3

Is there a manufacture date/code on the wrappers? Just above the join in the wrapper.

So did DD CS admit they are selling fake eneloops. The gift card suggests to me that they did.

4

I also have these fakeloops.

No datecode.

They admit they are selling fake eneloops but they continue selling. AVOID!

5

thanks for the information. very careful not to fall into this trap.

6

Since my only AA light is a Mini-Mag this isn’t much of a problem for me as I only got it to fill the gap of lights with different “standard” (alkaline - AAA, AA, C, D, 9v) battery types. I’ve given some thought to getting a few rechargable batteries for it but don’t want to get stuck with fakes. Anybody know for sure where to get “REALloops”? Is there a Sanyo part number I should look for?

7

Costco, or Amazon

8

Oh no!!! Too late for me!

I ordered them last wednesday. At least I used a 6$ giftcard, but still… is money.

hmmm…. let´s see what I can I do with paypal buyers protection

Thanks for the info!!!

9

I don't get it. Why are these considered fake?

The capacity matched the claimed minimum 1900mAh, some even exceeded that quite a lot. 2weeks charge retain was quite good too. What actually gave it up as fake?

10

The shitty wrapping is a dead giveaway, and the HFR NI-MH printed on the shell probably means that they are really, well, HFR brand batteries (which do exist, and can be purchased by the thousands on places like Alibaba).

11

The plastic on the packaging appears to be glossy, real eneloops are matte. Another giveaway is eneloops have extremely strict quality control: There is almost no variation in appearance and voltage & capacities are usually pretty consistent from cell to cell. Finally, every single one of my eneloops is a perfect cylinder, no evidence of the bulges at the end that look like a protection circuit is placed under the skin.

12

Good eyes for fake guys! I would have been taken in by the numbers alone.

After some calculations, yes, definitely consistency and the discharge rates were not Eneloop level:-

Charge After 2hr Discharge% After 2wks Discharge%
1823 1895 103.95 1771 97.15
1966 1966 100 1889 96.08
2015 2015 100 1790 88.83
2109 2109 100 1909 90.52
2183 2237 102.47 2064 94.55
2278 2331 102.33 2143 94.07
2313 2356 101.86 2197 94.98
2370 2370 100 2162 91.22
2468 2388 96.76 2218 89.87
2409 2409 100 1780 73.89
2530 2416 95.49 2272 89.8
2420 2420 100 2094 86.53

Still, if this was indeed HFR cheap cells, I can't help but be amazed at the achievement of the "cheapies".

13

As Troop said, Costco - I just purchased a set there today. The deal isn’t as good as it was last spring, but still not bad…10 AA or AAA’s for $20. I’ve found Duraloops at Walmart, but you have to look closely…they are Duracell rechargeables…you have to look for samples that say ‘made in Japan’ and have a white top. The others are gray top and made in China…but as I understand, these are the real deal. Wally World gets just under $12 for 4.

14

Little update:
I threw cells #10 and #11 into digital camera today, it showed low battery alarm instantly.
Another proof these are not true LSD.

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The problem, vëer, is that apart from they are not LSD, they dont perform well under high loads.

Another problem. Multicell arrangements:

All the cells have different capacity, and the difference is appreciable.

Today I installed 2 in a mobile phone emergency charger. The emergency charger stopped working and I didn´t wondered why.

I took the cells, measured the voltage: one was 0,9v the other was 1.2v. And both were charged in the same charger in the same moment…

I will abuse them, and after a few cycles I will recycle them

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Thanks for let us know…

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Very useful post! Thanks for the heads up. This will be a good reference if we suspect having received fakes in the future. Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

18

I guess they are just decent NiMH with no LSD properties…… not too bad if it’s a low enough price.

I need 8 NiMH AAs for my 2 camera flashes. As cheap as possible, as long as they can charge up my Nikon SB-900 within 5 seconds. :smiley:

19

I doubt these will handle such task - read above, me and Fran are having hard time getting them to work with higher loads.

20

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And I will treat every people as my dear friend,so please let me know your order problem,and then will help you solve .
have a great day
summer