Originally Posted by
Zeeb
.....These guys test all their cells.....
I picked up my iPhone (made in China) and attempted to contact both "suppliers/assembling plants" and only Batteries America answered their phone and seems to be the only one of the two links that is legit. Batteries America said your statement is not found anywhere on the website and not their practice. 800-308-4805. "
We only use a voltmeter to confirm the cells are connected when making battery packs, no cycling test is performed. More returns are the result of customers treating a nimh 2000mah battery as a nicad, using a nicad charger that is 100mah for example. nimh batteries fail because the user isn't charging it at 200mah, which is 10% of capacity to properly charge a 2000mah battery. We get more returns discovering this is the problem. Improper charging is NOT covered under the SIX month warranty." They only test the assembled pack with a voltmeter. How does that justify $38.95 for a battery if you can buy one for 1/2 the price and it can perform better? Everyone knows to test their battery themselves on the bench, cycle it a few times, even nimh, that's what the instructions tell you to do. How many fail? Well, that's been tested below.
Inexpensive batteries
that are manufactured in China are cheaper compared to similar products in the US because the cost of production is cheaper in China. Most everyone buys the lower priced items in everything, including batteries. I've personally never found a defect yet and only buy cheap batteries.
The so called FL battery manufacturer is a bogus website. Local battery suppliers in that area, never heard of them. A google voice phone # 352-340-3999. Other links online leads to no address at all. A 12 year old could make a better website. Sounds like NOBS is all BS?
Originally Posted by
Zeeb
So here's the question; the tx battery is probably the most critical component of the RC setup followed by the rx battery, who are you going to trust??????
Chinese products, of course. They make batteries the meet or exceed expectations. No bias. No prejudice. Where is the post on any forum that was titled "My Chinese transmitter battery crashed my airplane?" There are lots of threads about brown outs and crashes that result from using Spektrum radios though. Why do hobbyists continue to trust that? I sure don't.
A "voltmeter test" isn't sufficient testing that merits a $38.95 price tag. Cycling with a 10% charge of the rated capacity (200mah for a 2000mah rated pack) and you can trust yourself. The nimh battery charge rate is the key from what I was told and what I already understood. If spending $40 gives you peace of mind, it's your money, but the notion Chinese products are unreliable
today would be speculation and prejudice thinking at best. Batteries America said "We don't test Chinese batteries, we don't document how they perform." Click here to see how
the New York Times shared an
independent batteries test of
the top tested batteries ranked from several manufacturers, domestic and from China. No prejudice statements in
that article to be found. Five out of seven are made in China.
Batteries America only has a six month warranty? Why not a year? Seems odd they'd break traditional warranty periods from a year to a fraction of it like a refurbished item might receive? Not enough faith in their product to go the distance of 365 days? They know what defect return rate they experience and had to cut it short, that is my guess. If it's so great, I'd expect to see a better warranty when in practice most keep batteries in use for many years, depending on personal preference, and how much abuse/neglect they put the battery pack through. That is the weak link, the practices of the user.
The real benefit on your personal $40 choice? I can call a USA phone number and talk to a rep in english. I'm sure I don't need to learn Mandarin to buy from China, just toss it, and I can afford to buy another one and still save money. Chinese product distribution is what made the RC hobby easily affordable and killed off our local hobby shops who couldn't compete, seems LHS advice is overrated and replaced by forums? If it was all bad coming from China, this trend would have never happened. Most modelers are buying Chinese radios, batteries, motors, servos, receivers, etc. and no one is complaining about those choices anymore. It's late to "save your LHS by supporting them" now. The biggest fear we face is losing the supply of things that we depend on that is made in China. Everyone knows this, you got to spend twice as much for a US made battery pack just like everything else. That's what destroyed most domestic manufacturers, unable to compete with the Chinese price. The fairytale to say it's better, is a statement made out of desperation without facts available to back it up.
No production environment other than military grade gets individually tested. The term "Mil Spec" comes from = military specifications,
ANSI standard. The price tag for that kind of US labor is only affordable by a government that taxes everything we do. The military doesn't call an AA battery an AA, but it's called a
HR6 or
R6. ANSI calls it 15.
For the hobby, some Chinese batteries have higher rated capacities, for less money. Deleepow is one to avoid though, as I said, actual real life capacities are not what they stick on the label. The best tested was the HiQuick. I can order 16 AA batteries and make two packs for roughly $30 shipped through Ebay or
