From a fake? In this article, a comparison will be made with the most common type of counterfeit. Comparison is carried out primarily based on external features. But you should remember that there are other types of non-original Samsung INR18650-25R batteries.
Marking on heat shrink
The general appearance of the markings for both batteries is similar. But if you look closely, you can find many differences. First of all, the font of the inscriptions is different; many letters and numbers are different. The location and number of dots in many symbols is different. In addition, marking points original Samsung The INR18650-25R are much neater and clearer. The photographs show the main differences that you can use to guide you.
The heat shrink of a non-original battery has numerous swellings and irregularities. The heat shrink of the original Samsung INR18650-25R fits very neatly without any defects.
Positive and negative contacts
The contact shape of both batteries is similar - both contacts are “three-lobed”. But there is still a difference - the original Samsung has narrower contact “lobes” than the fake. The metal surface of the batteries is very similar, no differences were noticed.
Under the positive contact There is an inscription “C2” with letters about 1 mm high, the inscription is stamped. This inscription can only be seen by removing the heat shrink and the insulating white ring. It is not always possible to see this stamping without removing the heat shrink. Also under the positive contact at Samsung INR18650-25R you can see the protective membrane. It was not possible to see it on the fake battery (perhaps it is there, but it is not visible).
At the bottom of the metal case there is the inscription “H17”, the height of the letters is also about 1 mm, made by stamping. We don’t yet know what these inscriptions mean and whether they are always the same. As expected, these inscriptions are absent on a fake battery.
The white insulating ring on the fake turned out to be glued to the metal body. With the original battery, the ring is not glued and is held in place only by heat shrink.
Markings on the metal body of the battery
On the metal body of a real battery Samsung INR18650-25R has several markings on it. These inscriptions shine through quite well through the heat shrink. There are no inscriptions on the metal case of our fake.
But with markings on a metal case, not everything is as simple as it seems. Quite often under heat shrink with the inscriptionSamsung INR18650-25R is indeed a Samsung, but not a modelINR18650-25R, and another cheaper model with more modest characteristics. In this case, inscriptions on the metal case will be present. The originalINR18650-25R The second character in the first line of markings on the case will always be “5” - this is the model code 25R on the conveyor. If the second character is something different, then most likely you have a Samsung in your hands, but not the modelINR18650-25R. For example, a battery whose second character in the first line is “2” is most likely actually Samsung ICR18650-22P (capacity 2200mAh and maximum current only 10 Amperes).
The second and third characters of the third line of marking on the heat shrink should be the same as the third and fourth characters of the first line of marking on the metal case - this is the year and month of production of the battery. If these parts of the marking do not match, there may be a very old battery under the heat shrink or not even one at all. Samsung.
Battery internal resistance
The internal resistance of the original Samsung INR18650-25R was 12.9 mOhm, for a fake battery - 70.5 mOhm. Such a big value internal resistance a non-original battery indicates that it is not high-current and is not capable of operating at high currents, and also that the voltage drop will be significantly greater compared to the original Samsung battery. In fact, further tests confirm this.
Testing the original Samsung INR18650-25R and fakes
Battery testing was carried out in the mode direct current(CC mode) at currents of 5, 10, 15 and 20 A. Let me remind you that the maximum long-term current for this battery is 20 Amperes. The fake battery left the race already at a current of 15 Amps, but more on that below.
Original Samsung battery INR18650-25R
As can be seen from the graphs, the parameters of the capacitance values at different currents correspond to those declared by the manufacturer. The shape of the discharge curves is also typical for all Samsung batteries - quite flat over a large area with a sharp decrease at the end. The heating temperature of the batteries at the end of the test is low. Only at a current of 20 Amps the battery warmed up to 83 degrees, but this is the maximum current for this battery.
Fake Samsung INR18650-25R battery
The first thing that catches your eye is that the battery capacity is higher than stated by the manufacturer, more than 2600 mAh! The voltage drop is much greater than that of the original battery. If this battery can still withstand 5 and 10 Amps, albeit with very large voltage drops, then already at a current of 15 Amps the battery clearly feels bad. At the beginning of the discharge, when the battery has not yet warmed up, the discharge curve “jumps”, which should not happen. Then the battery starts to get very hot. With a capacity of approximately 2300 mAh, testing had to be stopped because... The battery warmed up to 94 degrees. It was simply dangerous to continue testing further. Of course, such a battery simply cannot withstand a current of 20 Amps.
For comparison, the graphs below show the discharge curves of the original battery and the fake one at currents of 5, 10 and 15 Amps, so that the difference in voltage drop can be seen. Green color- original, red - fake.
The red curve ends for the following reason - the fake battery, as a result of being discharged with a current of 15 Amps, heated up to a temperature of 94 degrees. Testing had to be stopped.
Also note that the fake battery, despite the seemingly large capacity in mAh, delivers less energy in all modes compared to the original Samsung INR18650-25R battery in Wh (Wh). This is a consequence of a strong voltage drop in the fake battery.
conclusions
The characteristics of the fake Samsung INR18650-25R battery are very different from the original battery. The battery is not high-current and can be used at load currents of no more than 5-7 Amperes. At high currents, the counterfeit battery's voltage drops greatly. And its use at currents above 10 Amps poses a danger due to the very strong heating of the battery.
Some more large photos of batteries
Hello. In today's mini review we will check protected lithium battery s Samsung 2600 mah size 18650. For those interested, welcome under cat.
The price on the website is for one battery. I ordered 2. And, accordingly, they cost me $10.70:
Oddly enough, the store provided a tracking number, although I did not pay for it and sent it by China Post. The package reached me within a month:
Inside, wrapped in polyethylene foam, there were two batteries, each in a separate bag:
To begin with, we assign them serial numbers 1 and 2 and charge them in a regular i4 charger. I took the photo after all the measurements, so you can see the measured capacity on one of the batteries:
After charging is complete, measure the voltage on the batteries.
Then we insert them one by one into the imax B6 mini and measure the internal resistance.
We set the discharge current to 2 amperes and measure the capacity.
The capacity corresponds to the declared one.
Let's look at the battery markings:
As you can see, since they are sold individually, I received batteries from different batches.
Let's try to decipher what this means.
ICR18650: The first letter indicates the basic chemical composition of the battery. The second and most important letter indicates the material. "I" means the battery class is lithium-ion. "C" indicates the material is cobalt. "R" indicates that it is rechargeable. 18650 is the battery size.
Next, important information for us: SDIEM. This means that this battery was produced at the Samsung plant in Malaysia. (In the photo in the store we see the SDI designation, indicating that the battery was produced at the Samsung plant in Korea). Of course, there is no big difference in this, since it is still Samsung. But this has to do with the marking of the release date, since factories in Malaysia and Korea have different coding for the release date. That's what we'll move on to now.
So, battery number 1: TFU2. T is the version, F is the year, in in this case 2015, U – month, July. It turns out that the battery was released in the second decade of July 2015.
Battery No. 2: TFS1. T is the version, F is the year, in this case 2015, U is the month, May. It turns out that the battery was released in the first ten days of May 2015. That is, a little older.
As a result, we have that the batteries correspond to the declared capacity, are not old and are fully recommended for purchase if you need protected batteries of honest capacity.
A little about security. Large manufacturers of Li-Ion batteries DO NOT PRODUCE PROTECTED BATTERIES. They only make UNPROOFED batteries. Protected Li-Ion does not exist in nature Panasonic batteries or Samsung, which would have been released directly by “Panasonic directly in Japan” or “Samsung” and anyone who claims otherwise is for some reason trying to mislead you.
Protected batteries are ASSEMBLED from an unprotected Li-Ion battery (cell) and a protection board.
And they are also assembled in different ways: the assembly of protected batteries mainly takes place in factories in China. But China - China is different. There are both outright junk (with capacities of 3800mAh and higher) and very high-quality products, like these Samsung batteries.
Oh yes, I completely forgot. Typically, all battery reviews include their weight. Well, let's weigh it.
That's all. Energy and vitality to everyone!
Product description
4,4
Size: 18650
And in many other areas.
special protection boards (PCM)
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| 2200 | 3,7 |
4,4 |
Original industrial (unprotected) cylindrical Li-Ion battery.
Size: 18650
Manufacturer: SAMSUNG (Korea).
Unprotected Li-Ion batteries are used in various electrical equipment where a compact and powerful power source is required, with production of Li-Ion batteries (Battery Pack) and in many other areas.
The unprotected lithium battery SAMSUNG ICR18650-22FM provides high discharge currents with small dimensions. The lifespan of the Li-ion battery SAMSUNG ICR18650-22FM is 500 charge/discharge cycles (until the capacity drops to 80% of the nominal)
Li-Ion batteries cannot be soldered with a soldering iron - they are sensitive to overheating. For mounting on Li-ion batteries contact pads are welded.
Unprotected Li-Ion batteries cannot be used without special protection boards (PCM), which protect them from overcharging and overdischarging. At a voltage below 2.5V, an unprotected Li-Ion battery fails.
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This Li-Ion battery is not suitable for use in high power devices such as electronic cigarettes. If you need a high-quality battery for electronic cigarettes, pay attention to Li-Ion high power batteries, which can provide a discharge current from 10 to 30A (35 - 100W) |
| Unprotected Li-Ion batteries cannot be charged above 4.2-4.35V (depending on the model) and discharged below 2.5-2.7V (depending on the model). Violation of these conditions will damage the unprotected Li-ion battery. Please take these restrictions into account when operating. Warranty conditions and exchange/return conditions do not apply to unprotected Li-ion batteries! |
The batteries are quite good, the repeatability of the parameters is good, the details are below the cut.
The batteries were purchased to upgrade the batteries of a DeWalt screwdriver. Initially, the battery was 12V 1.2Ah, after the modification it will be 11.1V 6Ah (3S2P) - the energy intensity will increase by 4 and a half times! I have already done this process once, but then I used LG HE2 batteries. A friend liked the converted battery so much that he had to give it as a gift, and he decided to assemble a new one. Since I had never dealt with high-current Samsung devices before, I decided to take them and at the same time find out what kind of beast it is.
We arrived in a regular Epacket, track type RLxxxxCN: 
Inside were two plastic blisters with batteries: 
The batteries are all like twin brothers, all the inscriptions are the same, and what’s interesting is that the photographs on the Internet are also the same - the date marking system does not match the old one, nor the new system labeling of Samsung batteries, so one can only make assumptions about the date of manufacture. 
Unlike the NCR18650BE, with the characteristic shape of the electrodes, everything is as usual here: 
Specifications: 
Of the interesting things, we can note the possibility of fast charging in 68 minutes, with a current of 4A, and we should also note the need to discharge to 2.5 volts - this is not suitable for everyone, for example, power banks usually turn off when the input voltage is less than 3 volts, therefore, for a power bank you need to take what something else.
Weight was 46 grams: 
I measured the voltage using a UNI-T UT804 desktop multimeter. The voltage on all banks was about 3.66+-0.005 volts, which indicates their relatively recent production date. Although, I have factory Sanyo UR18650, manufactured in 2004, so the voltage on them is 3.73 volts!
I put two randomly selected copies on charge, set the current as in the datasheet - 1.5A, voltage - 4.2 volts, 1814 mAh was filled: 
At the same time, I measured the internal resistance: 
5 milliohms? does this even happen? This charge measures this parameter for other batteries quite correctly, I see no reason not to trust it. Just in case, I called on Cthulhu LiitoKala Lii-260 for help: 
Here the result is more adequate and fits both the measurement error and the data declared by the manufacturer.
When discharging with a current of 10A, to a voltage of 2.5V, the delivered capacity for the first battery was 2917mAh. 
Delivered power, Wh: 
The maximum temperature was 69.5C: 
The second battery gave 2957mAh: 
And accordingly - power, Wh: 
As you can see, the difference is small, in terms of capacity - less than 1%, which can be attributed to measurement errors. I would also like to note a less flat discharge curve than that of the same Panasonic NCR18650BE - on Panasonics, when the voltage drops to 3 volts, about 1/3 of the power still remains unused, almost 1000 mAh, but here at 3 volts about 2500 mAh is already given.
Total: If you need high-quality batteries with good current output, then these batteries can be purchased without hesitation - the price is this moment the most pleasant, the characteristics are good, even with a discharge of up to 3 volts, we only lose 1/6 of the power.
P.S. I foresee the question - how will the screwdriver battery be redesigned, what kind of protection board, what kind of charging system? I will answer in order:
1. I will not install a protection board - my screwdriver, with a wedge shaft, can consume up to 100A, such boards are more expensive than a new screwdriver. But I will install a standard indicator beep with a voltmeter to control lipo, like this one: 
2. For charging I will use the above-mentioned Accucell 6-80. For this purpose, an 8-pin connector like this will be installed on the battery: 
Through which both charging and balancing of the batteries will be carried out.
Thank you for your attention!