I just bought two of these from Amazon!! So glad I found out, have been cursing Makita and browsing Dewalt tools! A big clue to me was that I contacted Amazon and they instantly refunded me and said don't bother returning them...that's $160 product they don't want back...but obviously they knew! I don't think a lot of people would realise this, and would blame the brand... thanks for video
Got 2 fake batteries today at a local shop in California, certified Makita store… returned them, they didn’t even fit my chargers, the yellow connector is 1mm off. Then went for another store few miles away, they had the real deal. Thanks for the video!
Both had the red sticker, the fake one had unmarked purple batteries and fading out battery level indicator, the fake one says makita USA, the real one makita Japan.
@@Tools-Testedthey might have been scammed by one of the distributors, the stuff doesn’t come straight from Makita. The owner said he was reporting it to his rep at Makita.
As a Makita owner, this is very good info to know. I didn't realize the fakes have gotten this "good". Your channel is great, I think sooner or later you'll get up there with TTC. Fake batteries for power tools to some extent scare me as well, I doubt all the cell protection systems that Makita has are actually there on the fake one. Not to mention the higher temps, non-name brand cells all red flags for batteries that can get very hard use.
Yeah it's scary how good the fakes are, most don't even know they have them. I agree probably fakes don't have cell balancing or protection like the OEMs. Scary to think right now one is probably on a charger in someones garage.... Hopefully at some point the channel will grow like TTC, I appreciate the support!
I got a set of 2 fakes and knew immediately after opening the packaging. The packaging was impossible to tell. The battery had a noticably lower quality plastic. The seller claimed they didn't know and refunded me half my money. One works now and one won't charge...
Hence why I always buy my 18V and 40V batteries and tools from official resellers. Not to mention only tools and batteries from my country distribution are valid for the 3 year warranty.
Thanks for this! I couldnt figure out why all my circular saws were failing, would all stop mid cut with fully charged batteries and new blades. i unknowingly bought a few of the fake ebay batteries and they worked great for a few months, i didnt realize the battery failure since the fakes still work ok in the impact drill, oscillating multi tool, etc. just tested this and tried to use one of my "broken" saws with the fake 6amp, and couldnt cut through a 2x4, battery fully charged. switched to authentic 3 amp, cut through like butter.
Keep up the good work, whenever I see someone on Facebook crowing about the awesome deal they got on batteries from ebay I share your videos of faked with them. They typically don't like that lol. These days I just stick to trusted sources on batteries
Will do! Lol a few people watched the Dewalt video and found out they had fakes. Yeah OEM from an authorized OEM retailer is the only way to buy batteries.
Some of the things you point out are not indicators of a fake by themselves. The stickers on the bottom are different in the rest of the world to the states. The warranty caps can be on either side. Types of screws are no indication as these change all the time. A better check would be to look at the manufacturing numbers and qr code printed on the top.
I never said that the battery wasn't fake, I'm merely pointing out that some of the indicators pointed out in this video are erroneous as they appear on OEM batteries also.
I don't think he always meant them as broad indicators of fake Makita batteries. It seemed like he was just pointing out the discrepancies he saw. It was the performance testing and looking underneath the hood that showed they were fake, as he indicated when he opened the housing.
It's been a year since this video was published and the fkes have gotten better, none of the printing mistakes are there and the new counterfeits are virtualy undistinguishable from the real one
Hey, thanks for making another one of these videos, it's crazy how much these things are flooding into peoples homes. We really need to get the public educated on this issue to have a chance at stopping it. Also, I want to share a word of caution, because I have seen many people on the internet debating on whether the price on these counterfeits is still justified. OEMs and Off-brands are always going to be better. Why ?... They have their name on the battery. If something happens like a fire, you can track the battery back to the maker, they have responsibility. They have a face to keep. On the other hand, If a counterfeit battery goes bad, explodes, whatever. Who are you going to blame? Who made the battery? No one knows, so what incentive do they have to make a good product? They are after all willingly deceiving you. Their goal is to have the battery last just long enough that you won't return it, and blame the name on the side of battery instead. If you're going to buy a cheap battery, at least the off-brands are honest about who they are, and what they're selling.
FYI, some of my real makita batteries have regular, non-security torx. might have to do with where they're assembled; i've got japan, singapore, korea, and malaysia batteries, but i've only seen non-security torx on the korea ones.
Problem is you never know what you're really getting with safety in the electronics. I think most of us would be okay if the cheaper battery had less run time but it wouldn't be acceptable if the battery caught fire recharging that lead to your home burning down.
@@oldtwinsna8347 Just asking an opinion ... have you examined the electronics as to what they do, and how they affect the functionality? I was an electronic electrician for 47 years (retired), and when Hoover was foolish enough (23 years),to send their CAD designs to China to have molds made, not expecting that they would make copies of everything, counterfeit the parts and put them out of business (or end up owning them), we began getting a lot of counterfeit sweeper that we did not make, to pay for. Among those were little hand vacs, with batteries. Since they couldn't be resold, we grabbed the batteries from those units, and used them in brand name drills like Dewalt as an example, and found Energizer, Duracell and other brand names inside. The company was happy that we could quickly repair these battery packs for Electricians, pipefitters, mechanics, etc. As I looked at the electronics, they did very little in the line of protecting the battery from fire, mostly charge indicators, and devices to shut the pack off if the charge got to low. That has been quite a few years ago though. NiCad days. Do they do more now?
I ran across a similar situation when I bought a “replacement” 12ah Milwaukee M18 battery. Right off the bat, the real Milwaukee M18 12ah battery was SIGNIFICANTLY heavier and it was larger in size. I did my own test and the real battery ran more than 2x longer than the fake “replacement” 12ah battery.
Some knock offs can perform quite well, some are bad. The one I own has excellent LG LiIon cells, but no proper BMS, so the cells are not balanced, which can lead to charging and performance issues. After about two years the delta-voltage was about 500mV! After balancing them on a lab bench supply manually it again performs excellent. The worst one I got so far was able to discharge the cells below the cut off voltage, which can be very dangerous if you force the battery to recharge afterwards. So be careful what you buy!
Yeah.....got a few 6 amp makitas on ebay for 58 dollars or so.....I was highly suspicious but bought them anyway 😕..... Amazon is selling them for 99.99 dollars Home D. for 199..... I wonder if the Amazon makitas are also fake?
Hey, thanks for this video. I just learned the hard way that my pair of Makita BL1860Bs are fake. I recently purchased a Makita BTC04 battery checker and it worked as expected for all of my Makita batteries except my two BL860Bs. The battery checker would refuse to start the tests; no printed warning, just no testing. With that clue, I went online and found your video here and sure enough, all the small physical clues that you mentioned checked out: The lack of the red sticker on top of button, etc., etc. On the plus side, my 9 other Makita batterie are genuine. So I guess I'm 2 or 11 (.182) in the 'getting ripped off' category. Reminds me of the batting averages of some of the worthless players on my favorite baseball team...but I digress. :-)
No problem! Yeah they made some small mistakes, honestly I almost thought it was real until I opened it up. I started to notice the small differences after that. Sounds like you made out ok seeing only 2 are fake.
@@Tools-Tested Yeah, well I've purchased mine gradually over the course of 3-5 years or so. I think my first ones came with my first 1 or 2 full kits. Since then I buy Makita stuff in the 'tool only' format (the 'Z' models) and the batteries separate as needed. I obviously got 'greedy' (by the low low price) for this last battery purchase (at the end of 2022), and it was my first BL1860b purchase; before that I was buying BL1850Bs and 40s before that. The funny thing is, I've had these fakes for 1 year with no suspicion at all until I got my Makita battery checker. The battery checker for me was sort of analogous to your surgical look inside the battery cases. Then as you've said, it gives you reason to look closely at the physical details of the unit itself and the packaging. Again, very appreciative of you walking through the differences!! Keep up your great work!! Cheers.
@@jonRboy I’m really surprised you didn’t notice any difference in performance, definitely after a year. Just goes to show how good they actually are. Will do thanks!
@@Tools-Tested Hah! Good observation. However, I left out an important detail: I really haven't used these two BL1860s much due to my procrastination over my 2 fairly large renovation projects for my house. I have two Makita 36v tools; circular saw and leaf blower. Due to my laziness this summer, the circular saw pretty much went unused and I basically only used my leaf blower a few times during the summer. So, I haven't given these batteries a workout yet. I would guess that they probably have the same run time as my GENUINE BL1850s. Does that sound like a reasonable guess? Btw, for these counterfeits, it would seem it's 'luck of the draw' with how good they are right? First off, I'm sure there's no quality control. And who knows how many different groups of people are making these? And on top of that even if there's only one shop making them, the quality is probably dependent on what cells they have available at the time to use when they go into production. So, it seems that there's multiple variables at play with regards to the quality of the end result.
I just watched this AFTER having purchased 2 of these from Ebay. They were priced at almost half of what Amazon was charging, which should have been an indication to me of the fakeness. I took a chance. Bad decision. Now I have to return them. Hopefully the seller will accept the return.
I can’t say this often enough. I’ve seen Makita rip-offs overheating smoking and burning. Every tradesman should know the dangers of the possibility of fires that could be caused by these counterfeit tools stored over night on sites and the legal responsibility on the user. Always go for Genuine Makita regardless of how cheap the knock offs are. Genuine Makita for sturdiness realisability and safety. There is no substitute.
02:05 Great vid, but one small thing you missed is the battery lights are different - solid bars and larger on Makita, and small round LEDs on the fake.
@@Tools-Tested Thanks again for taking the time to post this vid, it really helped us. I'm still shocked at how realistic the batteries were. And we bought them on Amazon prime!! My wife and I couldn't work out why the Makita charger would not charge them (we'd have to put them in the freezer for 10 mins first to really cool them off). We spent ages scratching our heads trying to figure out what we were doing wrong, and cursing Makita!
The only diff. I saw on my new amazon bought 6A. batteries is the L.E.D. charge display. Compared to my other 6A. batteries, it's different. The two new batteries I bought have small red points of light on the charge indicator that light up. But on my other older 6A. batteries the whole small rectangle lights up red. Did I buy fake Makita or did they change the L.E.D. lights in the charge indicator on the newer batteries? Also, the new batteries don't fit as snug as my older batteries into the tools and the yellow plastic on the new batteries hits when I try to slide it into a tool. Also the new amazon batteries won't even slide on to the Makita battery checker BTC 04. Unfortunately I threw away the packaging a while ago. What do you think, did I buy fake batteries?
Buy them and then report to eBay you get your money back a free battery and they have 1 less unit to defraud someone else who is unsuspecting. Win win win
Great vid! I just got duped on eBay for that 6.0ah battery They don’t want to charge properly on either of my chargers. They also get hot af. Will these damage my charger or tools?
Thanks, Sorry to hear they got you. I don't think they will damages the tools, I would be worried about charging though. Defiantly wouldn't want to leave them alone while charging. Big difference in the size of the circuitry which make me think the safety features are missing that the OEM packs have.
Good Work. But unless you have the gear to check? Side by side they're tricky, out on their own you wouldn't be sure. The only way to be ( slightly ) more certain is price. It won't be long before the scammers realise " The hell with it, why not ask the full price"! That...and the junk runtimes?...once it's too late. Maybe these companies should stop scamming us on aftersales. That would kill the banditry off, a little. Ain't gonna happen. So...onwards and downwards pilgrims. Thanks for the heads up though.
This ain't a problem if you buy directly from (in this case) makita. Bought new parts for my refrigerator directly from AEG, not cheapest but the right parts with perfect fit directly...
Sadly I sent the fake back after testing, its defiantly something to consider for the price but I would stay away. Manly because of the fire risk, the electronics for balancing and thermal cutoff are not the same. I wouldn't take the risk personally.
I just bought two of the counterfeit batteries on eBay. Oh well, I kinda had a feeling that $100 for two 6ah batteries was probably too good to be true.
They still work an r a lot cheaper. I don't tend to use well known brands just Ozito/Einhell. Works for me. Even their replacements are good. They are not complete copies, so I'm fine.
Go with the weight to really check. I had three batteries from separate purchases more than likely to be genuine and they were dead spot on within the margin of error of my scale which was +/- 2 grams. It's unlikely a fake would take so much attention to get the weight right.
Lesson learned. I bought a Makita flashlight which turned out to have a fake 6.0 (Chinese) battery. Makita sent me a new battery which I sure appreciated. I didn.t realize Makita wasn't even on the battery side. This battery will not charge either. Again, lesson learned.
A knock-off brand is always going to be better. Why ? They have their name on the battery. If something happens like a fire, you can track the battery back to the maker. They have a face to keep. On the other hand, If your counterfeit battery goes bad, who are you going to blame? Who made the battery? No one knows, so what incentive do they have to make a good product?
It all depends on price if the fake is half the price then you can buy two and have longer run time. Not saying that you should support clones but needs must not everyone can afford genuine. And it does raise the issue of how over priced some things are especially over the last two years when price hacking is at its worst.
i think they easily could make anything similar on the outside & cover if they wanted to thus its intentionally made as such for customer easily to differentiate on what they offered.
I just unknowingly bought some counterfeit “genuine Makita” batteries off of eBay. Thanks to this video, I was able to catch this and get my money back. I wanted to add a little bit as my experience was a little different. I ordered some 5ah “genuine Makita” batteries. The packaging has been improved since this video was posted. Nothing was different from the OEM packaging. This includes the clamshell welding curve and the lithium ion text. BUT, the counterfeit batteries I received looked identical to the counterfeit batteries in the video. No red stripe, no white plastic by the contacts, lighter by 26 grams. The bottom sticker is possibly the biggest giveaway and is what Makita North America used to confirm the illegitimacy of them when I called. eBay needs to do a lot better at getting this garbage off their site.
No problem! Im glad to hear this video helped! It's crazy these counterfeit scams are so common now. Yep the sticker on the bottom is the quickest way to tell. Happy to hear you got your money back!
those cells on the fake batter are cheep no no name brand 18650's that are most likely only 2.5ah or 2.0ah instead of the 3.0ah Sony vtc6 on the real 6.0ah battery making the fake battery really only 4.0ah or a 5.0ah battery. also if used with name brand 18650 2.5ah cells like the Samsung 25r/25s like the real makita 5.0ah battery uses the 5.0ah battery should have less voltage sag and less heat compared to a real 6.0ah since typically the less capacity the cell the more power and higher max amp draw they have and less voltage sag.
That's pretty crazy. An interesting thing about Chinese culture is that consider a clone that is as close to the original as possible to be a huge success, and not just for the financial gains. Most cultures get a thrill out of creating something, China gets a thrill out of copying something.
I try not to treat cultures as monoliths, but I do agree with you. There just seems to be some cultural thing in Chinese society where they just LOVE to blatantly copy things and try to make them cheaper.
Not only eBay but everywhere in the world! I wouldn't acuse them if they sell those fake batteries as fake as used to be, but they are now selling them as genuine Makita. This is nothing but a commited fraud.
Nah. Tested like a 5.0 would. I can find genuine 5.0s for basically that much, or less, almost every time of year on promotion. Those fakes have no cell balance improper thermal overload protection. I've rebuilt Makita packs in the past with PCBs like that and their thermocouples do not work. So high draw tools will do a great job of ruining these packs' cycle life. Not that that was ever going to be good in the first place. These are also more of a fire hazard, especially if they don't communicate properly with the chargers. Not at all worth taking that risk. no overdischarge protection (lights, radios and fans will kill these fake batteries as they rely on the battery to decouple themselves to prevent overdischarge) and made of much cheaper grades of plastic. Will not survive drops like a real Makita would. Makita batteries have stupid good impact resistance because they're made out of polycarbonate. (same type of plastic layered into bulletproof glass) The fakes always use some shitty imitation or ABS blend and it doesn't take much to make them crack open. $70/piece is not worth paying when Makita practically throws the 5.0s out like candy on promotions all the time. Right now you can get a 36V rear handle circular saw, 2x 5.0s, dual port charger + 2 extra 5.0s for $300 at Home Depot. If you don't want the 2 extra 5.0s then you return them and keep the saw kit w/ 2x 5.0 batteries and charger for $156. Around Christmas time it's easy to get 2x 5.0s with a single port charger for like $110. I've gotten chainsaw kits with 4x 5.0s for
I mean.. Differences aside, and the fact that the fake one is, well... Fake..... 5Amp load test... 12 mins longer run time on the genuine..... But for price of 1 genuine, You could buy 2 fakes.. Which far outweighs the 12 mins run time difference..... Not supporting the fake ones at all... But thinking about it subjectively...
So I can get 2x 5A 'genuine' Makita for £130 (which may be fakes) or I can get 2x 5A for £29 or 2x 6A for £32 which I KNOW are compatible batteries on eBay. May as well spend 25% of the cost if they're fakes anyways!
Why did you not show the fake versus the real sticker in more detail? I worked for a large Japanese car manufacturer. We had seven items on the label... Even though I work for the company. I only knew of three of them. They were mostly very small items. Hard to tell... For example, chopping the edge off an a that you can only see with the microscope. The label is better to find real fakes than most of the other things you show. I still appreciate the video though.
Wow, they're definitely stepping up their game with these fakes, you may not even notice it for a while if you've got a bunch of batteries. $70 almost seems like an ok deal, except it probably won't survive a drop or 2, probably doesn't have overtemp & overload protection and those no-name cells will probably last 1/5th as long as those Sony's.
I just bought two of these from Amazon!! So glad I found out, have been cursing Makita and browsing Dewalt tools! A big clue to me was that I contacted Amazon and they instantly refunded me and said don't bother returning them...that's $160 product they don't want back...but obviously they knew! I don't think a lot of people would realise this, and would blame the brand... thanks for video
Yeah it’s a major issue on Amazon and eBay, glad to hear u got your money back.
@@Tools-Tested But ~ $ 200 for a battery pack ... ?
Got 2 fake batteries today at a local shop in California, certified Makita store… returned them, they didn’t even fit my chargers, the yellow connector is 1mm off. Then went for another store few miles away, they had the real deal. Thanks for the video!
Both had the red sticker, the fake one had unmarked purple batteries and fading out battery level indicator, the fake one says makita USA, the real one makita Japan.
Wow that’s crazy, it really is hard to tell without opening them up.
Someone must have returned the fakes to the certified store?
@@Tools-Testedthey might have been scammed by one of the distributors, the stuff doesn’t come straight from Makita. The owner said he was reporting it to his rep at Makita.
@@VanillaIceCoffee interesting
As a Makita owner, this is very good info to know. I didn't realize the fakes have gotten this "good". Your channel is great, I think sooner or later you'll get up there with TTC. Fake batteries for power tools to some extent scare me as well, I doubt all the cell protection systems that Makita has are actually there on the fake one. Not to mention the higher temps, non-name brand cells all red flags for batteries that can get very hard use.
Yeah it's scary how good the fakes are, most don't even know they have them. I agree probably fakes don't have cell balancing or protection like the OEMs.
Scary to think right now one is probably on a charger in someones garage....
Hopefully at some point the channel will grow like TTC, I appreciate the support!
I got a set of 2 fakes and knew immediately after opening the packaging. The packaging was impossible to tell. The battery had a noticably lower quality plastic. The seller claimed they didn't know and refunded me half my money. One works now and one won't charge...
1000 thank you. Yesterday I bought Fake battery with red sticker and a little space between 8 and V letter!
No problem! Glad to hear it helped!
Thanks for this. Same here in Australia, so I just found out after a trip to the shed. Grrr!
No problem! yeah wish companies could do more to prevent counterfeits.
Hence why I always buy my 18V and 40V batteries and tools from official resellers. Not to mention only tools and batteries from my country distribution are valid for the 3 year warranty.
Thanks for this! I couldnt figure out why all my circular saws were failing, would all stop mid cut with fully charged batteries and new blades. i unknowingly bought a few of the fake ebay batteries and they worked great for a few months, i didnt realize the battery failure since the fakes still work ok in the impact drill, oscillating multi tool, etc. just tested this and tried to use one of my "broken" saws with the fake 6amp, and couldnt cut through a 2x4, battery fully charged. switched to authentic 3 amp, cut through like butter.
No problem! Yeah it’s crazy how real these fakes look. I found out the hard way as well.
Scary how good they look.
Yep really is.
You are spot on right. just checked mine because it craped out in 4 months.
Yeah its crazy
Another difference is the "55 minute charge time" clearly shows a clock set at 45 minutes LOL.
Good catch!
Lamo 😂👓🔍 damn nice catch
Keep up the good work, whenever I see someone on Facebook crowing about the awesome deal they got on batteries from ebay I share your videos of faked with them. They typically don't like that lol. These days I just stick to trusted sources on batteries
Will do! Lol a few people watched the Dewalt video and found out they had fakes.
Yeah OEM from an authorized OEM retailer is the only way to buy batteries.
Makita also released a warning for fake batteries and a table on how to spot the differences.
Some of the things you point out are not indicators of a fake by themselves. The stickers on the bottom are different in the rest of the world to the states. The warranty caps can be on either side. Types of screws are no indication as these change all the time. A better check would be to look at the manufacturing numbers and qr code printed on the top.
Would Makita use non-name brand cells though?
I never said that the battery wasn't fake, I'm merely pointing out that some of the indicators pointed out in this video are erroneous as they appear on OEM batteries also.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Oh gotcha my bad I slightly misread your comment.
I don't think he always meant them as broad indicators of fake Makita batteries. It seemed like he was just pointing out the discrepancies he saw. It was the performance testing and looking underneath the hood that showed they were fake, as he indicated when he opened the housing.
@@riga37 Real Makita batteries have running serial number on the case .
PDF file can be found , SERIAL NUMBER LOCATIONS - Makita .
It's been a year since this video was published and the fkes have gotten better, none of the printing mistakes are there and the new counterfeits are virtualy undistinguishable from the real one
Hey, thanks for making another one of these videos, it's crazy how much these things are flooding into peoples homes. We really need to get the public educated on this issue to have a chance at stopping it.
Also, I want to share a word of caution, because I have seen many people on the internet debating on whether the price on these counterfeits is still justified.
OEMs and Off-brands are always going to be better. Why ?... They have their name on the battery. If something happens like a fire, you can track the battery back to the maker, they have responsibility. They have a face to keep.
On the other hand, If a counterfeit battery goes bad, explodes, whatever. Who are you going to blame? Who made the battery? No one knows, so what incentive do they have to make a good product? They are after all willingly deceiving you. Their goal is to have the battery last just long enough that you won't return it, and blame the name on the side of battery instead.
If you're going to buy a cheap battery, at least the off-brands are honest about who they are, and what they're selling.
Yeah it really is crazy how many people probably have fakes. Really is scare, probably the cause of multiple house fires.
Thanks. very usefull post because a lot of fake batteries are sold on the Net... Another indication : Fake ones haven't nay serial number
No problem! Thanks for another indicator.
Спасибо Вам большое! Побольше бы таких людей
Без проблем! Рад, что это было полезно
FYI, some of my real makita batteries have regular, non-security torx. might have to do with where they're assembled; i've got japan, singapore, korea, and malaysia batteries, but i've only seen non-security torx on the korea ones.
From your graphs, it looks like the 'scam' battery is the better deal.
10% less for 1/3 the price is not a bad deal.
Problem is you never know what you're really getting with safety in the electronics. I think most of us would be okay if the cheaper battery had less run time but it wouldn't be acceptable if the battery caught fire recharging that lead to your home burning down.
@@oldtwinsna8347 Just asking an opinion ... have you examined the electronics as to what they do, and how they affect the functionality? I was an electronic electrician for 47 years (retired), and when Hoover was foolish enough (23 years),to send their CAD designs to China to have molds made, not expecting that they would make copies of everything, counterfeit the parts and put them out of business (or end up owning them), we began getting a lot of counterfeit sweeper that we did not make, to pay for. Among those were little hand vacs, with batteries. Since they couldn't be resold, we grabbed the batteries from those units, and used them in brand name drills like Dewalt as an example, and found Energizer, Duracell and other brand names inside. The company was happy that we could quickly repair these battery packs for Electricians, pipefitters, mechanics, etc. As I looked at the electronics, they did very little in the line of protecting the battery from fire, mostly charge indicators, and devices to shut the pack off if the charge got to low. That has been quite a few years ago though. NiCad days. Do they do more now?
I ran across a similar situation when I bought a “replacement” 12ah Milwaukee M18 battery. Right off the bat, the real Milwaukee M18 12ah battery was SIGNIFICANTLY heavier and it was larger in size. I did my own test and the real battery ran more than 2x longer than the fake “replacement” 12ah battery.
Interesting I haunt seen the fake M18 yet, I'm curious now. Thanks for the info!
Some knock offs can perform quite well, some are bad. The one I own has excellent LG LiIon cells, but no proper BMS, so the cells are not balanced, which can lead to charging and performance issues. After about two years the delta-voltage was about 500mV! After balancing them on a lab bench supply manually it again performs excellent. The worst one I got so far was able to discharge the cells below the cut off voltage, which can be very dangerous if you force the battery to recharge afterwards. So be careful what you buy!
Thanks! I suspected this because of the pricing of batteries from certain retailers . I'm gonna buy it all from a big and respected oem retailer.
No problem! Yeah definitely want to buy it from a oem retailer. Crazy how much it looks like oem.
Yeah.....got a few 6 amp makitas on ebay for 58 dollars or so.....I was highly suspicious but bought them anyway 😕..... Amazon is selling them for 99.99 dollars Home D. for 199..... I wonder if the Amazon makitas are also fake?
Hey, thanks for this video. I just learned the hard way that my pair of Makita BL1860Bs are fake. I recently purchased a Makita BTC04 battery checker and it worked as expected for all of my Makita batteries except my two BL860Bs. The battery checker would refuse to start the tests; no printed warning, just no testing. With that clue, I went online and found your video here and sure enough, all the small physical clues that you mentioned checked out: The lack of the red sticker on top of button, etc., etc. On the plus side, my 9 other Makita batterie are genuine. So I guess I'm 2 or 11 (.182) in the 'getting ripped off' category. Reminds me of the batting averages of some of the worthless players on my favorite baseball team...but I digress. :-)
No problem! Yeah they made some small mistakes, honestly I almost thought it was real until I opened it up. I started to notice the small differences after that. Sounds like you made out ok seeing only 2 are fake.
@@Tools-Tested Yeah, well I've purchased mine gradually over the course of 3-5 years or so. I think my first ones came with my first 1 or 2 full kits. Since then I buy Makita stuff in the 'tool only' format (the 'Z' models) and the batteries separate as needed. I obviously got 'greedy' (by the low low price) for this last battery purchase (at the end of 2022), and it was my first BL1860b purchase; before that I was buying BL1850Bs and 40s before that. The funny thing is, I've had these fakes for 1 year with no suspicion at all until I got my Makita battery checker. The battery checker for me was sort of analogous to your surgical look inside the battery cases. Then as you've said, it gives you reason to look closely at the physical details of the unit itself and the packaging. Again, very appreciative of you walking through the differences!! Keep up your great work!! Cheers.
@@jonRboy I’m really surprised you didn’t notice any difference in performance, definitely after a year. Just goes to show how good they actually are.
Will do thanks!
@@Tools-Tested Hah! Good observation. However, I left out an important detail: I really haven't used these two BL1860s much due to my procrastination over my 2 fairly large renovation projects for my house. I have two Makita 36v tools; circular saw and leaf blower. Due to my laziness this summer, the circular saw pretty much went unused and I basically only used my leaf blower a few times during the summer. So, I haven't given these batteries a workout yet. I would guess that they probably have the same run time as my GENUINE BL1850s. Does that sound like a reasonable guess? Btw, for these counterfeits, it would seem it's 'luck of the draw' with how good they are right? First off, I'm sure there's no quality control. And who knows how many different groups of people are making these? And on top of that even if there's only one shop making them, the quality is probably dependent on what cells they have available at the time to use when they go into production. So, it seems that there's multiple variables at play with regards to the quality of the end result.
I just watched this AFTER having purchased 2 of these from Ebay. They were priced at almost half of what Amazon was charging, which should have been an indication to me of the fakeness. I took a chance. Bad decision. Now I have to return them. Hopefully the seller will accept the return.
Yeah I know the feeling, hopefully you can return it. I would report it to eBay if you run into trouble.
I can’t say this often enough. I’ve seen Makita rip-offs overheating smoking and burning. Every tradesman should know the dangers of the possibility of fires that could be caused by these counterfeit tools stored over night on sites and the legal responsibility on the user. Always go for Genuine Makita regardless of how cheap the knock offs are. Genuine Makita for sturdiness realisability and safety. There is no substitute.
Yep its crazy how some people will save $50 and risk burning down $100,000 and up. Cheap insurance is buying OEM from a licensed retailer.
02:05 Great vid, but one small thing you missed is the battery lights are different - solid bars and larger on Makita, and small round LEDs on the fake.
Thanks! Good point on the leds.
@@Tools-Tested Thanks again for taking the time to post this vid, it really helped us. I'm still shocked at how realistic the batteries were. And we bought them on Amazon prime!! My wife and I couldn't work out why the Makita charger would not charge them (we'd have to put them in the freezer for 10 mins first to really cool them off). We spent ages scratching our heads trying to figure out what we were doing wrong, and cursing Makita!
@@aquacruisedb No problem! Yeah it’s really crazy.
The shape of the contacts on top is quite different as well. I bought a fake one. They suck broke after 3 months and far less powerful
Yep, definitely for high amp loads
The only diff. I saw on my new amazon bought 6A. batteries is the L.E.D. charge display. Compared to my other 6A. batteries, it's different. The two new batteries I bought have small red points of light on the charge indicator that light up. But on my other older 6A. batteries the whole small rectangle lights up red. Did I buy fake Makita or did they change the L.E.D. lights in the charge indicator on the newer batteries? Also, the new batteries don't fit as snug as my older batteries into the tools and the yellow plastic on the new batteries hits when I try to slide it into a tool. Also the new amazon batteries won't even slide on to the Makita battery checker BTC 04. Unfortunately I threw away the packaging a while ago. What do you think, did I buy fake batteries?
Hmm, if you push down the latch button does it have the red sticker? If it has the sticker they are probably real.
The sticker is now showing up on fake 6 Amp hour Makita batteries. It’s on mine.
They are going to keep producing them while people still buy them. Crazy price differential though, so you can see why the sell.
Yep and most will think its OEM by the packaging.
I should be a US customs agent lol.
Buy them and then report to eBay you get your money back a free battery and they have 1 less unit to defraud someone else who is unsuspecting. Win win win
Thank you for your video found it very lightning and get calls thank you I learned something today everyday is a school day❤
Glad it was helpful.
Great vid!
I just got duped on eBay for
that 6.0ah battery
They don’t want to charge properly on either of my chargers. They also get hot af.
Will these damage my charger or tools?
Thanks, Sorry to hear they got you.
I don't think they will damages the tools, I would be worried about charging though. Defiantly wouldn't want to leave them alone while charging.
Big difference in the size of the circuitry which make me think the safety features are missing that the OEM packs have.
@@Tools-Tested Awesome suggestion about monitoring the batteries while they’re charging
Good Work.
But unless you have the gear to check?
Side by side they're tricky, out on their own you wouldn't be sure.
The only way to be ( slightly ) more certain is price. It won't be long before the scammers realise " The hell with it, why not ask the full price"!
That...and the junk runtimes?...once it's too late.
Maybe these companies should stop scamming us on aftersales. That would kill the banditry off, a little.
Ain't gonna happen. So...onwards and downwards pilgrims.
Thanks for the heads up though.
Yep Its hard to tell, almost not worth it. No problem! glad you found it useful.
I got 2 of the fakes for $60. I’m ok with it, lol. If I can get 20 extra minutes of run time on my string trimmer.
How long do they last?
Hard to say bc the cells are unmarked, but I would assume the lifespan is probably about 1/2 of a OEM pack.
Thank You!
No Problem!
This ain't a problem if you buy directly from (in this case) makita. Bought new parts for my refrigerator directly from AEG, not cheapest but the right parts with perfect fit directly...
Is there a way you can test total capacity, and low voltage cutoff on both?
Sadly I sent the fake back after testing, its defiantly something to consider for the price but I would stay away.
Manly because of the fire risk, the electronics for balancing and thermal cutoff are not the same.
I wouldn't take the risk personally.
I just bought two of the counterfeit batteries on eBay. Oh well, I kinda had a feeling that $100 for two 6ah batteries was probably too good to be true.
They still work an r a lot cheaper.
I don't tend to use well known brands just Ozito/Einhell.
Works for me.
Even their replacements are good.
They are not complete copies, so I'm fine.
Go with the weight to really check. I had three batteries from separate purchases more than likely to be genuine and they were dead spot on within the margin of error of my scale which was +/- 2 grams. It's unlikely a fake would take so much attention to get the weight right.
Is the fake one's case straight up ABS plastic, or does it have some glass fibre content. Razor blade test will tell all
I want to say its ABS only, hard to say though because I ended up returning it.
That fake was 1 of the better ones. They are usually a lot lighter and crash harder and faster than a battery with name brand cells.
Yeah its a well done copy.
they basically sell them without stickers on amazon and you get fully with stickers
Did the fake have silver paint on the 18v “swoop”?
I believe it did, I ended up returning it so I cat say 100%
Camera close ups would have been nice.
I throw mine on the scales and only buy 5amps i know my first one was makita ik direct and they use samsung cells
Lesson learned. I bought a Makita flashlight which turned out to have a fake 6.0 (Chinese) battery. Makita sent me a new battery which I sure appreciated. I didn.t realize Makita wasn't even on the battery side. This battery will not charge either. Again, lesson learned.
Thanks!!!
No problem!
Which would be higher quality: a counterfeit battery pack or a knock-off that's compatible and doesn't try to act like it's genuine?
That’s hard to say without getting one. Probably similar performance more like a 5ah.
A knock-off brand is always going to be better. Why ? They have their name on the battery. If something happens like a fire, you can track the battery back to the maker. They have a face to keep.
On the other hand, If your counterfeit battery goes bad, who are you going to blame? Who made the battery? No one knows, so what incentive do they have to make a good product?
It all depends on price if the fake is half the price then you can buy two and have longer run time. Not saying that you should support clones but needs must not everyone can afford genuine. And it does raise the issue of how over priced some things are especially over the last two years when price hacking is at its worst.
i think they easily could make anything similar on the outside & cover if they wanted to thus its intentionally made as such for customer easily to differentiate on what they offered.
For the price I'd rather buy genuine Ryobi....
I just unknowingly bought some counterfeit “genuine Makita” batteries off of eBay. Thanks to this video, I was able to catch this and get my money back.
I wanted to add a little bit as my experience was a little different. I ordered some 5ah “genuine Makita” batteries. The packaging has been improved since this video was posted. Nothing was different from the OEM packaging. This includes the clamshell welding curve and the lithium ion text. BUT, the counterfeit batteries I received looked identical to the counterfeit batteries in the video. No red stripe, no white plastic by the contacts, lighter by 26 grams. The bottom sticker is possibly the biggest giveaway and is what Makita North America used to confirm the illegitimacy of them when I called. eBay needs to do a lot better at getting this garbage off their site.
No problem! Im glad to hear this video helped!
It's crazy these counterfeit scams are so common now.
Yep the sticker on the bottom is the quickest way to tell.
Happy to hear you got your money back!
The battery latch definitely feels fake all the way down to the LED indicator and flash when it turns off
With some of the prices the oems are are at, the fakes may prove to be better value.
those cells on the fake batter are cheep no no name brand 18650's that are most likely only 2.5ah or 2.0ah instead of the 3.0ah Sony vtc6 on the real 6.0ah battery making the fake battery really only 4.0ah or a 5.0ah battery. also if used with name brand 18650 2.5ah cells like the Samsung 25r/25s like the real makita 5.0ah battery uses the 5.0ah battery should have less voltage sag and less heat compared to a real 6.0ah since typically the less capacity the cell the more power and higher max amp draw they have and less voltage sag.
What are the real and fake prices?
$200 vs $75
That's pretty crazy. An interesting thing about Chinese culture is that consider a clone that is as close to the original as possible to be a huge success, and not just for the financial gains. Most cultures get a thrill out of creating something, China gets a thrill out of copying something.
I try not to treat cultures as monoliths, but I do agree with you. There just seems to be some cultural thing in Chinese society where they just LOVE to blatantly copy things and try to make them cheaper.
Yep they take the IP of someone or a company that invested the time and money.
Its crazy, but we support this with purchasing products like this...
That sounds like a cultural failure.
Not only eBay but everywhere in the world! I wouldn't acuse them if they sell those fake batteries as fake as used to be, but they are now selling them as genuine Makita. This is nothing but a commited fraud.
👍
For a seventy dollar battery it tested like a one hundred and seventy dollar battery....🤔
Yeah it's not a real Makita but for the price.... run it
Nah. Tested like a 5.0 would. I can find genuine 5.0s for basically that much, or less, almost every time of year on promotion.
Those fakes have no cell balance
improper thermal overload protection. I've rebuilt Makita packs in the past with PCBs like that and their thermocouples do not work. So high draw tools will do a great job of ruining these packs' cycle life. Not that that was ever going to be good in the first place. These are also more of a fire hazard, especially if they don't communicate properly with the chargers. Not at all worth taking that risk.
no overdischarge protection (lights, radios and fans will kill these fake batteries as they rely on the battery to decouple themselves to prevent overdischarge)
and made of much cheaper grades of plastic. Will not survive drops like a real Makita would. Makita batteries have stupid good impact resistance because they're made out of polycarbonate. (same type of plastic layered into bulletproof glass) The fakes always use some shitty imitation or ABS blend and it doesn't take much to make them crack open.
$70/piece is not worth paying when Makita practically throws the 5.0s out like candy on promotions all the time. Right now you can get a 36V rear handle circular saw, 2x 5.0s, dual port charger + 2 extra 5.0s for $300 at Home Depot. If you don't want the 2 extra 5.0s then you return them and keep the saw kit w/ 2x 5.0 batteries and charger for $156. Around Christmas time it's easy to get 2x 5.0s with a single port charger for like $110. I've gotten chainsaw kits with 4x 5.0s for
I mean.. Differences aside, and the fact that the fake one is, well... Fake.....
5Amp load test... 12 mins longer run time on the genuine.....
But for price of 1 genuine, You could buy 2 fakes.. Which far outweighs the 12 mins run time difference.....
Not supporting the fake ones at all... But thinking about it subjectively...
Its this simple..... If you are buying from ebay in the last 20 years this is what you can expect. Amazon has gone the same way in the last 5-10
eBay theft
Yep it’s crazy, but they are making money, so they don’t care.
So I can get 2x 5A 'genuine' Makita for £130 (which may be fakes) or I can get 2x 5A for £29 or 2x 6A for £32 which I KNOW are compatible batteries on eBay. May as well spend 25% of the cost if they're fakes anyways!
Why did you not show the fake versus the real sticker in more detail? I worked for a large Japanese car manufacturer. We had seven items on the label... Even though I work for the company. I only knew of three of them. They were mostly very small items. Hard to tell... For example, chopping the edge off an a that you can only see with the microscope. The label is better to find real fakes than most of the other things you show. I still appreciate the video though.
Wow, they're definitely stepping up their game with these fakes, you may not even notice it for a while if you've got a bunch of batteries.
$70 almost seems like an ok deal, except it probably won't survive a drop or 2, probably doesn't have overtemp & overload protection and those no-name cells will probably last 1/5th as long as those Sony's.
Yep its crazy how close it is. Yeah I would be worried about the safety protection.
Both are real brands , under the brand of makita's.asia's versions, USA version...( Everything 's are from china 's, nowadays ....USA ,too far away
Fakita.
I dont care. OEM Makita batteries aint better than no name products. The charger shut off chip inside is a rip off system.
I saw one same packaging and the battery said 5ah but the packaging said 6ah lmao
Lol