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Fake Makita batteries

6

63spyder

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Joined
May 7, 2013
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259
Location
Glide Oregon
I bought a couple of the 5.0 Makita batteries on Amazon this last week that were on sale. I got them and put them on the charger,and they both registered as broken or bad. With a little research I determined they were copy’s. But really good copy’s. So good you would think with a little more effort they would have worked and I would have never known . Amazon returned my money and did not want to have the batteries returned. I’ve ordered a security torque bit driver so I can take them apart. Just to see how bad they are inside. Only problem ,is I see a lot of these batteries on sale. I guess you could go to Makita directly to order batteries. Home Depot is selling a set of batteries this size for 279, the ones on Amazon were 129.
 
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Steve_P

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Sep 15, 2010
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5,185
You need to buy stuff like this from an authorized seller. Check on Makita's website for a list.

The same is true for things like ball bearings; if you buy an SKF bearing on Ebay, there's a good chance it's counterfeit; if you buy one at your local industrial supply store, like Motion Industries, it's going to be real. SKF has an entire division that does nothing but identify counterfeits.
 
W

Wamsutta

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Jan 8, 2014
Messages
10,887
Location
Amarillo, Texas
BrandonV said:
That's an aftermarket battery. Makita isn't probably making any NiCad battery packs anymore.

I'd feel more comfortable with someone selling a known aftermarket pack than counterfeiting a real one.
Click to expand...
Ask guess what I'm getting at is do I stand a better chance of getting good batteries outside of Amazon?
 
R

rust in the eye

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Joined
Oct 2, 2017
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2,812
Location
Chicagoland
63spyder said:
I bought a couple of the 5.0 Makita batteries on Amazon this last week that were on sale. I got them and put them on the charger,and they both registered as broken or bad. With a little research I determined they were copy’s. But really good copy’s. So good you would think with a little more effort they would have worked and I would have never known . Amazon returned my money and did not want to have the batteries returned. I’ve ordered a security torque bit driver so I can take them apart. Just to see how bad they are inside. Only problem ,is I see a lot of these batteries on sale. I guess you could go to Makita directly to order batteries. Home Depot is selling a set of batteries this size for 279, the ones on Amazon were 129.
Click to expand...
And you were surprised?
 
M

mike93lx

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Dec 9, 2013
Messages
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Richmond, VA
Wamsutta said:
Ask guess what I'm getting at is do I stand a better chance of getting good batteries outside of Amazon?
Click to expand...
Did you buy as sold by Amazon or a third party? Need to remember that Amazon is a marketplace, so there are third party sellers all over the place
 
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tak1313

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Feb 4, 2018
Messages
658
I have purchased Milwaukee COMPATIBLE batteries off Amazon that have performed OK for my purposes, except the M12 clones act weird on my inflator (gives an occasional error code), but they are CLONES, and marketed as COMPATIBLE (ie. not genuine Milwaukee), so I was aware of what I was purchasing.

If I need it, I never buy supposed "genuine" batteries off Amazon/Ebay because it is well known that a large portion of them are faked - and some of them look REALLY good, though I have noticed a small difference in the plastic packaging between the real/fakes.
 
B

BrandonV

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Jun 9, 2023
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Arizona
tak1313 said:
I have purchased Milwaukee COMPATIBLE batteries off Amazon that have performed OK for my purposes, except the M12 clones act weird on my inflator (gives an occasional error code), but they are CLONES, and marketed as COMPATIBLE (ie. not genuine Milwaukee), so I was aware of what I was purchasing.

If I need it, I never buy supposed "genuine" batteries off Amazon/Ebay because it is well known that a large portion of them are faked - and some of them look REALLY good, though I have noticed a small difference in the plastic packaging between the real/fakes.
Click to expand...

The only thing worse than fakes are people who repackage old batteries with new labels. They're real... they're just dead.
 
M

mreisner

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Jun 25, 2019
Messages
913
Location
North of Detroit
Steve_P said:
You need to buy stuff like this from an authorized seller. Check on Makita's website for a list.

The same is true for things like ball bearings; if you buy an SKF bearing on Ebay, there's a good chance it's counterfeit; if you buy one at your local industrial supply store, like Motion Industries, it's going to be real. SKF has an entire division that does nothing but identify counterfeits.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately sometimes even counterfeits come out of legitimate sellers. I got a counterfeit SKF bearing at motion about 5 years ago. They took a close look at it and found several others in their inventory that were counterfeit also.
 
M

MarkH

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Dec 19, 2005
Messages
1,353
Location
Kansas
mreisner said:
Unfortunately sometimes even counterfeits come out of legitimate sellers. I got a counterfeit SKF bearing at motion about 5 years ago. They took a close look at it and found several others in their inventory that were counterfeit also.
Click to expand...
It would be interesting to know if they had sold them and had them returned. I have gotten a couple counterfeits at parts and industrial supply stores. The box was correct the item inside not. None of the normal stampings and numbers. They opened the box and it looked like what I wanted and then I got it home. They went through the inventory and found in both cases it was a returned item. So time to look closer when picking them up too. They got another one and it looked like it should.
 
S

Steve_P

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Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
5,185
mreisner said:
Unfortunately sometimes even counterfeits come out of legitimate sellers. I got a counterfeit SKF bearing at motion about 5 years ago. They took a close look at it and found several others in their inventory that were counterfeit also.
Click to expand...

Ouch. Hate to hear that they're still sneaking thru at authorized distributors.

Still, I'm sure you have a 1000X better chance getting the real deal from an authorized distributor.

Years ago, I read a long article about counterfeit bearings, and the SKF team even goes to small hardware stores in Africa and China buying bearings to verify. Needless to say, I don't buy any bearings on Ebay.
 
Y

ybnormal

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Jan 3, 2016
Messages
5,002
MarkH said:
It would be interesting to know if they had sold them and had them returned. I have gotten a couple counterfeits at parts and industrial supply stores. The box was correct the item inside not. None of the normal stampings and numbers. They opened the box and it looked like what I wanted and then I got it home. They went through the inventory and found in both cases it was a returned item. So time to look closer when picking them up too. They got another one and it looked like it should.
Click to expand...
not surprised. I work part-time at auto parts store as shift mgr. just last week had someone try to get a warranty replacement on a cheap u-joint because it was "broken". the new employee told me this in the back of the store where I was working. I said "broken? how do you break a u-joint?", new employee "well, he brought the box, he just wants a replacement", me "but did he bring the 'broken' u-joint?", new employee "no", me "no he didn't, he wants another u-joint to replace at the OTHER end of the driveshaft" , new employee "...:unsure:....🤔...."
 
C

californiamilleghia

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Apr 11, 2020
Messages
537
Location
SoCal
I wish there was a good reliable source of aftermarket "fake" batteries ,

There are some many good battery tools out there that the maker does not support them with batteries ,

I often see sets of Craftsman 18v tools for sale with dead batteries , Same with the older Dewalt and Makita.

I need to find a good battery "rebuilder" in SoCal and take over a pile of original dead batteries to rebuild .
 
M

mike93lx

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Dec 9, 2013
Messages
37,860
Location
Richmond, VA
californiamilleghia said:
I wish there was a good reliable source of aftermarket "fake" batteries ,

There are some many good battery tools out there that the maker does not support them with batteries ,

I often see sets of Craftsman 18v tools for sale with dead batteries , Same with the older Dewalt and Makita.

I need to find a good battery "rebuilder" in SoCal and take over a pile of original dead batteries to rebuild .
Click to expand...
You can often get adapters to use newer batteries. DeWalt for sure, don't know about craftsman. I doubt you could find someone to rebuild packs cheaper than you can buy new ones on sale
 
M

MarkH

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Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
1,353
Location
Kansas
Not the cheapest but we Batteries Plus is on our list of vendors we keep going back to. They do all of our NiCad rebuilds. We just had a number of Snap on 14.4V ones there. Expect about 80% minimum of the original life out them from past experiences.

For the Makita NiH ones we have a couple ebay sellers who seem to be better than the others even though I expect they all come from one or two suppliers.
 
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