eBay Genuine Milwaukee Batteries REAL or FAKE?

I bought a Milwaukee M18 battery from Home Depot, Amazon, and eBay. Let's see if they are all the same?

Thanks so much for watching!

[calebcannon]

Also, I bought a DeWalt 5.0 AH battery off Amazon a year and a half ago, from a "authorized retailer." It held charge ok, but after 20 or so cycles, quickly fell on its face. Then I got an email from Amazon a few months later telling me they were aware it was a counterfit item, to destroy/dispose of it, and issued me a refund.

[sccarguy]

Project farm did a review on batteries, and it seems like the knock offs don’t have the same overload protection as the OG’s. Many of these garage fires you hear about are caused by these cheap batteries over heating and catching fire.

[rolandm]

These particular fakes actually did pretty darn well. But who knows how many cycles you will get and how they will perform over the longer term. Often times they'll start to error out on the charger and not charge, for no apparent reason. Another thing you can try BTW is to shine a black light on the side and front labels of the battery. The genuine Milwaukee ones glow in a very particular manner, counterfeits do not look the same under black light.

[winnerscreed]

If you look at the bottom of the batteries, all of them are made in different places, one was professionally made in China for Milwaukee, one made in Korea then finished in China, one made in Mexico.

[joecaraco]

That little black piece is a thermistor that keeps the battery from charging when overheated.
Let eBay and PayPal know of your problem. One or the other should go to bat for you forcing the vendor to give you a proper shipping label (prepaid). I have had eBay issue me a refund and go after the vendor and PayPal do the same when eBay wouldn't due to their limited complaint period.

[tortuga]

Im glad I ran into this video. Thanks for sharing! I wondered why some batteries were so cheap on ebay and looked legit.

[sixtyfiveford]

I've gone through a ton of these fake ones for people. Easiest way to tell fake on the 18v: power indicator lights have to be viewed directly above. Unlike the real ones you can view at nearly 90°.

That 6hr pack will only have about 3 to 4 amp hour capacity.

Most of the fake ones people have sent me came from Amazon.

[gdlg]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. It will save a lot of people some headaches because knockoff batteries are just not worth the money.

Honestly you have made the best video on youtube showing this issue. 🏆

[imleetsometimes]

I just dropped some pretty serious coin on a drill and impact combo kit that came with an extra free battery which was the one you tested. I also picked up the M18 Sawzall, spent just under $700 after taxes. That high output battery was listed at $199.99 in the store. I know I could have got everything cheaper online but I wanted to support my local Ace Hardware.

[calebcannon]

Bruh, anything sold as OEM with a too-good-to-be-true price on eBay is a Chinese fraud. I got some "OEM" Motorcraft plugs and coils awhile back and something about them didn't seem right...after some research, WOW. Eye opening. So much is counterfit these days...

[darrenairey]

That's really good info to know! Thanks for sharing that, because I am currently shopping around for the same Milwaukee batteries. Looking at that listing on eBay, pretty much everyone would expect them to be legitimate Milwaukee 6.0 HO batts. Usually when purchasing from eBay I try to keep it local or within US/Canada. You did say it was listed as a Los Angeles seller so they did a damn good job of tricking the smart people like us that check these things! Anyways hope you can get it returned or heavily discounted! Thanks again for the insight!

[soothemerelaxation]

It also happened to me, I bought a pair of Milwaukee 5.0 mAh batteries on eBay for $80 and after 2 to 4 weeks of use they broke easily without hitting them and then they both burned out, I also reported it to eBay 3 months ago and they don't do anything, they continue selling the same fake Milwaukee batteries.

[MrQ]

I imagine that one of the biggest differences in the real vs fake, the fake won't have over charge protection. Or any short circuit protect like the real one.

[G_Machine_Joe]

And... Milwaukee will not warranty any of their products purchased from the jungle store or FleeBay. That's why I spent extra to get their tools from Home Depot.

[theroving]

The circuit board was the real give away, but how many people will check inside? Seems like an incident waiting to happen!

[Rwalt]

I've heard sometimes these counterfeit batteries use used or junk cells in the battery pack. Also not having that thermistor almost makes the batteries dangerous because if you charge the battery while it's hot, it could potentially catch fire. Lithium batteries are some of the most advanced batteries but also can be the most dangerous batteries if you don't use care.

[jongreen]

Home Depot probably had the same packaging as the ebay one because someone bought the more expensive one from Home Depot and returned the eBay version.

[jasong]

the red writing most likely is from the reconditioning center the Amazon batteries, where, from in my experience, most discounted items on Amazon are reconditioned items from returns take a closer look at fine print in listing it may say somewhere if they are

[snufl]

Coming from a classic gaming repair background, counterfeiters always have trouble getting labels perfect, printing will be different, blurrier, or the wrong color, and likely not aligned properly. The insides are always the giveaway, though, most people won't take it apart so they only put effort in on the outside.

[dangates]

i know you saw project farm he does all kinds of testing on products maybe mention your video to him he may do an extensive video of not just those three but many more. he drills in would with auger bits and see's how many they can d n a row. etc