Scammed on Ebay! DeWalt Counterfeit Batteries..Real vs. Fakes

[rob]

Bought a 5ah Dewalt battery from Amazon for a great price. When using that battery to cut up a hot tub it went dead after 5 minutes. Looked up your video and guess what???? My Dewalt 5ah battery is FAKE. Thanks for the video helping me spot the fake.

[austindowney]

Did the fake have normal torx screws while the real had security torx screws? That is a good way to tell without taking it apart. Also, the copper contracts are a great way to tell without opening the battery.

[asdfdsf-su]

I love how every single frame with text on the red cells is blurred

[peterpete]

The fakes have the middle power level LED smaller, then there is black plastic spot on each side of the battery slide rails.

[OttoLP]

The good thing about this is that you always get your money back on ebay if it is a counterfeit with the logo on it. And you won't have to send the batteries back.

[SilvrDragon]

I just bought a couple on amazon and at a heavy discount they were $65 each (said normal price was $179 so thought genuine) they showed up in heavy plastic packaging like they were real but i noticed a hair in one (they were very well sealed plastic packages that you needed a chain saw to get into). I was a bit skeptical at that point so i took the other out and opened it up and it looked just like your fake one but my battery cells didnt even have any printing or numbers of any kind on them.

[krapeevids]

People could also be taking out the good batteries and replacing them with cheap ones. Maybe.

[pikachuthegayatheist]

This is why I double check I take pictures of the original packaging, and I make sure I have the actual model number. You have to have pictures because you need to make sure that the spelling is correct, and you need the model number because if you just type in DeWalt battery it can let you do anything. to get them. You need as many methods of authentication and verification as you can get before you buy.

[pikachuthegayatheist]

Actually I bought fake batteries that were in the original package. Best tell tale then you'll spot on the fake DeWalt batteries is the charge indicator lights, on the fake battery the second indicator light is smaller than both the first and third.

[ModernGentleman]

Easieat way to tell is the real ones have a circuit board amd the fake ones dont. Thats why the fake ones catch on fire.

[zqpjjoj]

I got the same one's. The Fake dont have the QR code on top like the real ones do.

[ktolon]

the package doesn't matter either, i bought a 5ah xr in the package and it looks like the real dewalt package but the battery was a counterfeit just like yours but with varying shades of light blue unmarked cells. same thing charged a few times and then solid light on the charger, no charge.

[JacobDubs]

So I actually just received batteries and experienced the same exact thing you did. Luckily I bought ones that have a return policy, so I'll be sending them back. These clones are so close on the outside that it's hard to tell. Here are some other differences I noticed on the casing:

1) The amp hour "AH" text on the side isn't centered on the 5.
2) The center battery indicator in the middle isn't as big as the others.
3) The laser etching isn't the same and isn't as nice.
4) The serial date code doesn't actually match up as the letter "A" is supposed to be two letters/numbers. My date code also matches exactly to yours, although the serial is different.
5) They definitely do not fit into my tool as nice.

I'll be returning these and going to Home Depot.

[FredOlv]

Ebay is literally the worst place to buy anything tools related. I got scammed too.

[wvadam]

They are actually faking the "original packaging" now pretty well too.

[jacobclark]

Thanks for the info . I dont think a real dewalt battery would be missing the bms circuit board .

[jaydenedu.lizarraga]

I bought two double packs and all four 5ah batteries wouldn’t take a charge anymore, what I’m doing to make it work is put 20volts directly to the batteries and works …. But won’t charge on dewalt charger .

[manuelmtz]

It is very easy to know if seller is selling fake batteries.
If you can't see feedback on that specific battery and is set up as private to protect buyer it is probably fake and seller doesn't want you to know bad feedbacks.

[emmettturner]

Last week I bought two DeWALT DCB205 20V Max XR 5Ah batteries on clearance from Tractor Supply Company, which is an official DeWALT dealer. Both were made in 2022 but one looked a little suspect. Though both were inside a locked security case, it’s possible they sold a fake due to someone previously committing returns fraud (buying original and returning a fake)… but I highly doubt it.

The first thing I noticed was the different seal on the clamshell packages. The heat seal on one looked like an on/off tread pattern that only went about half-way down the sides while the seal was continuous on the other package and went almost all the way down both sides. I might not have noticed except I sliced across the bottom where the clamshell was folded before being heat sealed which gave me enough room to remove the battery only on one.

I looked a bit closer when I realized one battery was still captive after making the same cut that freed the other. This revealed that the print quality on the first package was inferior with a little black bleeding into yellow/white anywhere there was contrast from the left. The blur looked almost like a subtle drop shadow to add a 3D look.

On the back of the package the unique barcode sticker with a date code was a different font and both were very close to what was marked on their respective batteries.

Both packages said to see the product labeling for their respective country of origin statements and, sure enough, they were different. The suspect battery said it was assembled in USA with cells from Malaysia. The other said it was assembled in Mexico with cells from Korea. It’s well-known that DeWALT sources a variety of cells in order to have the right specs (namely, high discharge rates for each target capacity), so this doesn’t really mean much.

As I removed the housing to look inside the USA pack I noticed that the DeWALT logo molded in the top was done with a mold insert while it appeared to be part of the mold on the Mexico pack. Inside was a proper battery controller board, which satisfies my curiosity. It even had the mica isolator over the negative rail with heat tape on the top housing above it. Both had dielectric grease coating the contacts. I don’t think those are touches a counterfeit would bother with since they just want to make more money.

So, yeah, I’m pretty sure both are real.

[treviorgilliard]

The AH under the 5 is offset, also.
I'm sorry that you got caught up in all this madness, man.