Some eneloops fluorescing under UV?

[Closet_Flashaholic]

Pretty weird.

I was in Lowe's today and had an impulse buy for a 3XAAA UV light (14 LED). You know, unregulated, junk, blah, blah. But for $6, I was curious to test it on some currency. Anyways, Pointing the thing around the house and happened to point it at a rack of spare batteries and noticed, hmmm, the white ring around the top of a AA eneloop was fluorescing. Not all Eneloops AA's, curiously, only some of them.. I have some HR-3UTGs, but only one (out of 4) that has this oddity, so far. These aren't the colored ones, or anything special, just normal run-of-the-mill eneloops (all purchased long before the announcement of the sale to Panasonic, let alone moving manufacturing to China).

Counterfeit?? Which one(s)??

I have quite a few Eneloops, but they're not easily accessible right now, I will take a look and report back.

In the the meantime, anyone else seeing this?

 

[magellan]

Very interesting observation, thanks. But I don't have a clue either.

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

I just checked ~64 cells:

Exactly 8 cells fluoresce. This would make sense since I always buy packages of 4. Upon closer inspection of the 8 cells compared to one of the non-fluorescing cells:

All of the fluorescing cells:
- Have a shinier silver/white color (the other cells are more flat white) and slightly "sparkely" than the other cells. Would not even have noticed if I wasn't comparing directly (done under magnifying headset)
- The recyling emblem is noticably larger
- The bulleted text items are all on individual rows of text, whereas the other cells bulleted items don't always start on a new row of text
- The "SIZE AA HR6" is very large compared to the other cells and is centered on the battery, whereas on the other cell the lettering starts near the +ve end of the cell and is much smaller.

No mispellings anywhere between the different cells.

My conclusion is they're probably counterfeit, unless Sanyo decided to change their production line or had different lines running.

I guess I should be happy there's only 8, but at the same time I always bought from a reputable distributor (and the same one, I might add) and this wasn't via Amazon, either..

I am going to analyze these cells and see if there's any detectable difference from the other cells.

I am very disapointed in the distrubutor I purchased these from.

I don't have a pic service to use for posting pics. If there's enough interest, I supposed I could figure it out.

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

It's funny, I bought a UV light to check out currency and probably ended up using it to detect counterfiet batteries? How about that?

 

[thedoc007]

My conclusion is they're probably counterfeit, unless Sanyo decided to change their production line or had different lines running.

I am very disapointed in the distrubutor I purchased these from.

Why are you making that assumption? I'm glad you plan to test the for differences...you never know...but minor changes are made all the time. Until you discover they are inferior or counterfeit cells, I don't really understand why you are "very disappointed" in the distributor.

 

[mattheww50]

UV Flourescent dyes are very commonly used in the printing process to make colors brighter and whites, whiter in sunlight or under fluorescent lighting, so I would be relectant to read anything into either their presence or absence. I can't vouch for anyone else, but when I was building products, generally the labeling/packaging was almost an afterthought. Simply I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

Well, It's highly unlikely that a manufacturer would change something like this and the fact that it's only 8 out of 64 is another indicator. I think the differences other than the fluorescing is what is bothering me at this point.

The reason I am disappointed in the national distributor that I bought these from is that I paid pretty-much top-dollar for all of my eneloops so that I shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this. I might feel differently if I had bought bottom-dollar from a flee-bay dealer. But I believe in getting what you pay for and I am very unforgiving when things turn out not to be that way.

I am going to test and see how they compare.

I thought it would be nice to let the community know that there are additional differences for eneloops and let each individual decide if it's important or not, since many here have done the same for me.

 

[thedoc007]

Well, It's highly unlikely that a manufacturer would change something like this and the fact that it's only 8 out of 64 is another indicator. I think the differences other than the fluorescing is what is bothering me at this point.

The reason I am disappointed in the national distributor that I bought these from is that I paid pretty-much top-dollar for all of my eneloops so that I shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this. I might feel differently if I had bought bottom-dollar from a flee-bay dealer. But I believe in getting what you pay for and I am very unforgiving when things turn out not to be that way.

I am going to test and see how they compare.

I thought it would be nice to let the community know that there are additional differences for eneloops and let each individual decide if it's important or not, since many here have done the same for me.

I definitely appreciate that you are sharing your experience and knowledge with us. I just don't think a minor packaging/labeling change necessarily means that the fluorescing ones are counterfeits, or that your vendor did something wrong. I await your testing, though, that should give us a more definitive answer.

 

[RI Chevy]

Any photos of the batteries in question? I'd have to agree with thedoc007 here. No real proof or any real hard evidence that they are fake or counterfeit. They may very well be, but just not at this point.

 

[battery_bro]

Good news and bad news:

1. I have seen large Samsung plant wholesale order list include those positive terminal washers when I signed up to become a supplier, so it may have been purchased from outside their factory.

2. A x/fire brand trade office I know uses the positive terminal washer to determine between real and fake Sony batteries.

--

So really it could go either way. You'll have to test them against your other batteries... but even then you'll have to be relatively sure of their age.

I wouldn't point fingers yet, but from my personal experience they easily could be fake.

 

[mcnair55]

Why not send all your findings off to Eneloop together with pictures and let them decide.I am sure we are all waiting with excitement on the outcome of your amazing discovery.

 

[5S8Zh5]

Do you have a cat? ..

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

All of the fluorescing cells:
- Have a shinier silver/white color (the other cells are more flat white) and slightly "sparkely" than the other cells. Would not even have noticed if I wasn't comparing directly (done under magnifying headset)
- The recyling emblem is noticably larger
- The bulleted text items are all on individual rows of text, whereas the other cells bulleted items don't always start on a new row of text
- The "SIZE AA HR6" is very large compared to the other cells and is centered on the battery, whereas on the other cell the lettering starts near the +ve end of the cell and is much smaller.

That describes the wrappers on the original (oldest) AA Eneloops I have. They are generation 1, produced back in 2006. About a year or so later, they started producing generation 1 cells with different wrappers (smaller SIZE AA HR6 for example). Same model code, though, indicating gen 1.

I wouldn't assume these are fakes. I would assume that you purchased gen 1 Eneloops, and a few of them were from the early production line.

When were these purchased? Gen 1 Eneloops haven't been produced for a long time.

 

[Grijon]

This is interesting and I do thank you for sharing; I think it's clear that it's appreciated by others here, too - thank you, Closet Flashaholic! I really do think the folks saying you're blowing it out of proportion are simply trying to ease your mind.

I understand your stance on getting what you pay for (as I share it, ha ha!). I also understand your 'need to know' and the accompanying disappointment at finding things to appear to not be what you expected.

For what it's worth, I don't think that these are necessarily fakes. WalkIntoTheLight makes an excellent point in addition to the others' here. I would proceed with testing, and if the 8 oddballs test in line with the other 56 I would have full confidence that they are genuine. If, and only if, they test differently, then would I start getting upset.

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

Okay, Some test results are available for these 8 cells: Analyze/Refresh Maha9000 using my "standard" .8A/.5A (Charge/Discharge) cycle:

1888 maH
1956
1959
1882
1818
1735
1774
1822

The eneloops that I am used to testing are much more consistent in this test (usually within 25 maH) - especially within the same 4-pack. Since these batteries have been cycled maybe 10 times, I believe that these are not bonafide eneloops.

Sorry guys, I am not making a big deal out of this, just reporting in, in case someone else finds a similar circumstance. I will be testing newly purchased eneloops more closely (assuming that I can still find any that are made in Japan - and yes I PREFER made in Japan and I don't really care what some other members have to say on that topic).

I am going to relegate these 8 cells to be used in equipment that I don't depend on or care too much about (probably neices' toys).

I would think about notifying Panasonic, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I will look into seeing if I can get some pics that show them under UV, if I can I will post here.

 

[thedoc007]

Sorry guys, I am not making a big deal out of this, just reporting in, in case someone else finds a similar circumstance. I will be testing newly purchased eneloops more closely (assuming that I can still find any that are made in Japan - and yes I PREFER made in Japan and I don't really care what some other members have to say on that topic).

All I was saying was that you shouldn't jump to conclusions before testing. Just because something is slightly different, doesn't automatically mean it is counterfeit. As I said earlier, I appreciate that you are sharing your experience and testing with us.

Do you know how old the batteries are? Maybe new cells are consistent to within 25 mAh, but I wouldn't expect cells that are years old to be that consistent, even Eneloops. I am certainly no expert, though, I could be wrong.

Edit: re-reading, I see WalkIntoTheLight already covered this. Do your tests show unreasonably poor performance, given that they may be first generation and eight years old (or thereabouts)?

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

Here are the eneloops under UV. There are 8 that fluoresce (on the left) and 4 "typical" eneloops on the right:
(The UV light was centered on the middle ones, that's why the ones on the far left aren't quite as bright)

 

[mcnair55]

I am going out this afternoon to buy Eneloop,but first I need a UV light to put into my jacket pocket.:shakehead This hobby is becoming laughable.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

Okay, Some test results are available for these 8 cells: Analyze/Refresh Maha9000 using my "standard" .8A/.5A (Charge/Discharge) cycle:

1888 maH
1956
1959
1882
1818
1735
1774
1822

The eneloops that I am used to testing are much more consistent in this test (usually within 25 maH) - especially within the same 4-pack. Since these batteries have been cycled maybe 10 times, I believe that these are not bonafide eneloops.

You still haven't told us when you purchased these. The wrappers you describe indicate they are generation 1 Eneloops, which haven't been produced in years. If you bought these recently, you probably have a complaint that you're purchasing old stock, but I wouldn't assume these are fakes.

I don't think those capacity numbers are all that bad for 8 year old cells.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

On rare occasions manufacturers have had their distributors run out of their products and had to quickly procure supplies from another vendor so it is possible that at one time they made for awhile batteries with different top washers on them. I have some old duraloops and none of them fluoresce at all they are I'm guessing gen 1 eneloops I think I got them in 2008 or 2009 I don't really remember it could have been 2010 even.