Buying replacement batteries and avoiding fakes

[cigmas]

Are there suggestions for where to buy replacement batteries (for cellphones, UPS, etc), and how to check against fakes or shoddy products?

The most common place is ebay/amazon, but of course there are lots of fakes and reports of batteries performing poorly. On the other hand other (big box) stores are much more expensive and often don't perform any better.

I know this is a really broad question, but it is also a really common need.

Currently the question is motivated by searching for a cellphone battery replacement. Luckily it's for an LG G4 which has an easily accessed removable battery. No point in scrapping something that works just because the battery is dead, as expected, after several years of heavy use.

[Raj]

For 18650, I'd buy a power bank with those in it and break open the housing. This method might cost you 3$ per cell

Got vehicle,ups and other lead acid, I'd check up authorised dealership locations on energiser or luminous website

For cell phone, is go to ifixit.com, or again, the authorised repair center of said company. Do know that, authorised repair center charge you double the amount for everything. I had to get a Motorola OLED replaced, China sells it for 30$, they were asking for 60$.

Note:I'm not skilled with acquiring lg parts.

[Raj]

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Android/LG-G4-Replacement-Battery/IF303-031?o=1

Is this what you've been looking for?

[cigmas]

Thanks @Raj it might sound silly but I hadn't thought of actually contacting LG or authorised repair centers! haha Well, LG support suggests contacting "Reliable Parts" https://www.reliableparts.com/ The local branch quoted over $100 for a guaranteed genuine replacement part... so I think I'll pass on that. They also mentioned I could chance it on something from ebay/amazon although then there's no guarantee of the source but it would be ~10% of the cost. The ifixit item looks right, but it ships only in USA.

The phone's model is LG H812, battery says BL-51Y5, the original part number is EAC62818401, Reliable Parts said that is now discontinued and that they would order part number EAC62858501.

Back to the original question, I guess short of trusting the reputation of the seller/store, there isn't really a way to check against fakes or bad products. Reviews of course can be fakes and usually there is a bimodal distribution of them with some 5/5s and some 1/5s... Not confidence inspiring. Short of advanced checking I guess there's after-purchase verification of the battery, but I'm not sure I have the means to do that systematically.

Aside, for 18650, I have the 4 cell battery pack from a dead laptop. I've kept it to salvage the cells though I don't know how much life they have left. Probably for flashlight use. I'd also need to get a charger though.

[thm_w]

You are in canada or where?

Just buy a reasonably reviewed one from amazon if you need it urgently. Run a capacity test on it and return it if its significantly under capacity. You can use fakespot/reviewmeta to look for suspicious reviews: https://reviewmeta.com/amazon-ca/B07DW5Q3YQ but IMO with li-ion some variation is to be expected with the cheapies. If you have a lot of time and less budget, get one from aliexpress.

For the 18650's you can either manually measure capacity or get a nice charger/analyzer with the function built in, I am using this: https://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20LiitoKala%20Lii-500%20UK.html

[cigmas]

You are in canada

Yes.

Run a capacity test on it 

How?

Also, the aliexpress listings aren't any cheaper than ebay/amazon but will take longer in shipping. I'm guessing the more "local" ebay sellers bought a bunch in bulk and are reselling them.

For the 18650's you can either manually measure capacity or get a nice charger/analyzer with the function built in, I am using this: https://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20LiitoKala%20Lii-500%20UK.html

Interesting. I've wanted a nice multi-battery charger for a while. My Panasonic BQ-CC17 simple smart charger has been fine for me so far, except it doesn't take 18650 and it also won't charge my pile of perhaps dead Sanyo HR-3U 2500mAh NiMH AA batteries anymore. There are so many sales listings for the LiitoKala Lii-500 at varying prices. Where did you get yours?

[thm_w]

How?

Also, the aliexpress listings aren't any cheaper than ebay/amazon but will take longer in shipping. I'm guessing the more "local" ebay sellers bought a bunch in bulk and are reselling them.

A simple test: use the phone as you normally do, see if the % capacity drop is what you expect.
A decent test: install battery monitoring app, run the phone from 100% down to 0% and check the results in the app for calculated mAh.

They are slightly cheaper, but yes unlikely to be worth it based on shipping time. For the ebay canada sellers, they resell at a markup same as amazon yeah.

Interesting. I've wanted a nice multi-battery charger for a while. My Panasonic BQ-CC17 simple smart charger has been fine for me so far, except it doesn't take 18650 and it also won't charge my pile of perhaps dead Sanyo HR-3U 2500mAh NiMH AA batteries anymore. There are so many sales listings for the LiitoKala Lii-500 at varying prices. Where did you get yours?

Aliexpress ~$17, its branded as Varicore V40 as well. Use your own 12V plug-pack, don't get the included ones.

[cigmas]

Any recommended battery testing apps?

Regardless of the overall rating, the problem is virtually all the battery listings have reviews saying it didn't hold a charge long or died after a few months. There are several on ebay around 10 CAD. Some say 1-2 year warranty. Some even say OEM but with a pic showing a manufacture date years ago. Questionable. Better quality fakes or old expired/discontinued stock?

Nice, I'll look into the LiitoKala Lii-500 / Varicore V40. I notice one feature they don't have is "reconditioning." Is that marketing for discharging and recharging a few times? And while we're off topic, any recommendations on 18650 compact flashlights? I hope the laptop battery pack I have has a decent amount of life left for that use. Problem is I'm having such a hard time opening it up.

[thm_w]

No apps recommended, depends on the phone model for compatibility sometimes.
Paypal offers 180 days of protection, which is usually enough time to tell if something is working or not, ebay would probably be the route to go if you want that amount of time.

Reconditioning is not needed on nimh or li-ion cells, but yes its referring to charging/discharging in this case.

I don't know what the good flashlights are these days, but for $5 you can get something quite bright with integrated USB charging.

[cigmas]

Thanks. Went with this: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-LG-G4-Replacement-Battery-BL-51YF-3000mAh-H812-H818/172093364815

We'll see what happens.

[fzabkar]

My concern is not so much in regards to fakes, but there seems to be no way to determine how long the battery has been sitting on the shelf.

[cigmas]

My concern is not so much in regards to fakes, but there seems to be no way to determine how long the battery has been sitting on the shelf.

Since 2016 in my case according to the timestamp on it. The phone's original LG battery is timestamped 2017.

It "works" in that the phone turned on and indicated 70% charge but I haven't really charged or tested it since the phone is not mine.

[jerryk]

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Android/LG-G4-Replacement-Battery/IF303-031?o=1

Is this what you've been looking for?

Be careful of iFixit products.  I just purchased a replacement battery pack for my Bose Mini SoundLink speaker.  It came in a nicely packaged box.  When I opened the bag it was in I was surprised to see this very scratched up used lithium ion pack.  A voltage test on all terminals showed 0V.  I did make an attempt to see if it would take any sort of charge and it would not.

I contacted iFixit and they maintain that this used battery in not technically a faulty battery.  It's just low on charge.  I'm not sure why they would bother to send a used untested lithium ion battery out but apparently this once good company has had a policy change.

Jerry

[Raj]

I guess, things are so bad, you're better off going to the factory to get it.