Why I NEVER buy cheap Chinese batteries...

In light of the Boeing 787's (beautiful Bird) battery problems this whole BBC piece about the dangers of lithium batteries in passengers personal electronics is a bit overblown. Batteries as fire sources has been known for quite some time and the FAA as well EASA have strict rules regarding the use and transport of lithium batteries aboard of planes.

Also it's a well known fact that all bad things come from the east, even in eastern countries they blame the east. Since earth is round and everybody is blaming the east everybody is to blame 🙂

Historically the barbarian invasions/migrations are to blame for this prejudice.
 
I did purchase a third party battery for my Panasonic TZ-3 quite a while back, but only because I saw it in the store, and figured I could save on time and shipping costs. It got much warmer in the charger than the one that came with the camera. Then it swelled up in the camera, and I had a heck of a time getting it out. It also didn't last as long as the original. I used it only once, and chucked it into the recycling.

One also has to look out for counterfeit batteries. Too good a price for a Nikon or Canon battery is most likely a fake.

PF
 
sevo said:
Nope, they want the after-market spares business by themselves. No safety concerns there - every cheap and potentially dangerous battery will identify itself as a original, what they lock out are perfectly identical (and safe) batteries from the same production line sold by other brands or for other purposes.
Click to expand...

Why would a battery maker want to buy a counterfeit battery maker?? Or did you simply not understand my response??

There are aftermarket battery makers such as Duracell that makes batteries to the original makers specs.

sevo said:
Lithium batteries do not have thermal switches. They have charge management chips embedded - and as far as known these never have been counterfeited, and they cannot simply be left out.
Click to expand...

It does the same thing.. Counterfeiters make cheap versions which can be dangerous causing the battery to explode. You obviously have not opened a cheap battery..

sevo said:
The issue with counterfeit batteries exploding is that the makers of extra cheap ones use a smaller cell (sometimes a very much smaller cell), as that is the component on which they can save most, but let the chip identify the battery as having full capacity (or the camera or charger could identify the fake), so that it will be overcharged (which Li cells will not tolerate).
Click to expand...

Same size cells and same rating..
 
colyn said:
Why would a battery maker want to buy a counterfeit battery maker??
Click to expand...

They don't. But what they do to prevent competition will only prevent legitimate businesses from marketing their batteries in 1st world countries.

colyn said:
Same size cells and same rating..
Click to expand...

Wrong. Frequently lower ratings (older generation or lower spec cells), sometimes smaller cells, or a lower number of cells.

As I said, there are no fake battery management chips, and neither are there fake cells. Both chips and cells are industrial products that cannot be counterfeited at a profit - if you set up a chip foundry or cell factory, you are part of a tool and materials chain that forces you into a legitimate position. Counterfeiting is done at the level where cells get assembled into user-swappable batteries, and the only two instances where the counterfeiters can make a profit off that are avoiding patent and trade mark license fees, and cutting corners on the dimension or type of the cells used. If you are lucky, it is a battery for a camera whose original parts are so massively overpriced that the counterfeiters merely cash in on the former. More often they'll also downgrade the cells...

Some time ago, someone posted a picture of a disassembled counterfeit camera battery which was essentially a empty shell, except for the charge controller chip and a tiny cell, maybe 1/4 of the size and capacity of the original. The issue with that is that they must lie over the capacity stated (usually via a I2C interface) to the camera, or the battery would be detected as being non-original - and Li cells will get destroyed and may even explode if charged to four times their capacity.
 
Of course its racism but there is a historic reason for it.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you there. I see racism as a mental illness, like any other. It would be good if we could find an effective cure for it.

Wrong. Frequently lower ratings (older generation or lower spec cells), sometimes smaller cells, or a lower number of cells.
Click to expand...

In my experience, such certainty is seldom an indication of accuracy. 🙄

All I know is that I've bought more than fifty third party batteries over the years and they all worked exactly as expected.
 
Sejanus it's not hard to get rid if the illness called racism simply get rid of politician and you've got the cure. The fearmongering "danger from the east" has been in use since the barbarian invasions and the roman empire and has always been used by politicians to create fear and strenghten their power trough that fearmongering. We're talking brainwashing by politicians since the 4th century and before so this goes deeper than simple racism it has become part of the western culture.

This fearmongering is still ongoing Russia is not a democracy, China is evil well in reality they are no less a democracy than any western country except for Switzerland and Iceland all others are not true democracies.
 
Some western companies use "cheap" labor wherever they can find, citing that they are doing the populations of developing economies a service by providing them with wages, under conditions that are not fit for human consumption.
 
kbg32 said:
Some western companies use "cheap" labor wherever they can find, citing that they are doing the populations of developing economies a service by providing them with wages, under conditions that are not fit for human consumption.
Click to expand...

Trickle down economics happens everywhere. It's a basic tenet of capitalism.
 
Sejanus.Aelianus said:
All I know is that I've bought more than fifty third party batteries over the years and they all worked exactly as expected.
Click to expand...

That will depend on what you buy. I usually buy mid-priced batteries with standard capacity from both national and Chinese sellers with a good reputation that have been around for some time. Never had issues with these - indeed, the Nex replacement batteries turned out to have better long term reliability than the Sony originals.

But the instances where I bought ultra-cheap ones or where I was forced to buy from even cheaper HK ebay sellers (there are old cameras and laptops where all good sources are gone) did not turn out that well. None were anywhere near decent, best perhaps were the replacement batteries for my Dell which never even held half a regular charge but at least still continue to work at about 40%, on the worse side there were those for the Canon S40, whose initially normal capacity vanished within a few charge cycles. I personally never had any of the really fraudulent ones with visibly smaller cells, but I've seen one at work, and images of many more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
35mm Still-Picture Photography: It began with scale focusing cameras! Back To Basics. Part 1, From the first to half-frame 35s of then and now.
Replies
10
Views
1K
Jason Schneider
J
J
  • Article Article
The Incomparable Tom Abrahamsson: A warmhearted genius who loved people
Replies
12
Views
4K
raydm6
raydm6
Back
Top Bottom