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My thanks to ECR’s /u/icanshitposttoo for getting a pair of these batteries to me for examination and testing. These were bought from a smoke shop in Oregon, USA and are definitely fakes.
Here’s why:
– Genuine VTC4’s have three “legs” coming down from the top contact. These fakes have four.
– These fakes have the printing on the outside of an opaque wrap. Genuine VTC4’s use a translucent wrap and the text is printed on the metal can. The code square is printed on the wrap though.
– The printing on the fakes isn’t even close in appearance to the printing used on genuine VTC4’s.
– Discharging these fakes at 10A causes their voltage to drop to a useless level almost instantly. Genuine VTC4’s can be run for quite a while at 10A.
These fakes don’t match any Samsung, Sony, LG, or Panasonic/Sanyo battery I have. While I don’t have a sample of every battery made by those companies I think these fakes are of Chinese manufacture. They are either only rated a couple of amps or they are very low grade higher amp-rated batteries.
A troubling feature of these fake batteries is the use of a free-floating top insulating ring. Up until now every rewrapped and fake battery I have seen has used a self-adhesive ring. The counterfeiters are learning and we need to keep ahead of them. We can no longer assume that a battery with a free-floating ring is genuine.
One of the two fake VTC4’s I received seems to have either leaked from the top seal or vented before I received it. There is debris around and under the top contact. The 10A discharge test was done using the other fake.
If you have bought any of these fakes do not use them. Contact the vendor you purchased them from to arrange for a refund or exchange.
Please do not send me photos of your batteries asking me to authenticate them! Use the information here and, if needed, the photos in my test report for the VTC4:
https://imgur.com/a/qSshA
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