Questions Regarding CR2032 Lithium Batteries

[kilogulf59]

Seems there's a helluvalotta fake batteries out there....

 

[Gauss163]

^^ Unfortunately so. To understand how far they will go have a look at the Frankenbattery camera battery fakes, e.g. below is excerpted from a Youtube video teardown of a fake Sony NP-F970 videocam battery. What a piece of work, eh? Caveat emptor!

 

[hiuintahs]

I probably have fake coin cell batteries then....LOL. I've purchased several times off of Ebay. I've just bought the name brands and from someone that has a record of lots of sales over time. I figure if people were upset that the feedback would kill their reputation and lower their FB. I haven't had any problems with them.

I also place orders from Mouser and Digikey every couple of months so I might piggy back on one of those orders and stock up on various sizes. Looks like the batteries are reasonable if you don't have to pay for shipping. My problem is that I don't use coin cells up very often and when its time to need one, I don't want to wait a long time to order. I have a half dozen of a few sizes that I've needed in the past. I think I got them all off of Ebay.

 

[kilogulf59]

Gee whiz, I wonder where they're all coming from? <Sarcastic rhetorical question>

Seems to me one or more of our wonderful ABC agencies should be looking into this...

 

[Gauss163]

I've purchased several times off of Ebay. I've just bought the name brands and from someone that has a record of lots of sales over time. I figure if people were upset that the feedback would kill their reputation and lower their FB. I haven't had any problems with them

Alas, it doesn't work that way. Generally you cannot trust reviews from the general public on technical matters. For example, in the past I posted links showing that some eBay sellers have sold tens of thousands of "10000mAh" 18650 Li-ion cells with rave feedback. Only about 20 buyers noticed that they are lower capacity (usually 10x less capacity). That infinitesimal fraction of knowledeable critique is lost in the noise among tens of throusands of positive feedback from the masses. Probably the same holds true for coin cells too. The masses would never notice that they are much lower-capacity fakes.

 

[archimedes]

Also, although I have no way of knowing the true numbers of authentic versus inauthentic coin cells, but it would not surprise me much if the "fakes" straight up outnumber the real cells through commonly available retail channels.

In that case, general expectations and feedback (to the extent of the few percent of consumers who even likely pay much attention to the performance of a tiny coin cell costing only pennies) may be more likely a positive surprise to the upside for the occasional real battery than any disappointment with the usual .... :sigh:

 

[iamlucky13]

Ikea seems to have a very good price on them, if you have a store nearby:
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80291156/

I can't speak for quality. I'd hope a retailer as big as them is sourcing directly from a reputable manufacturer, but I do not know.

Also, I've heard from CPF user Zak that Arrow electronics is a good alternative to Mouser and Digikey with lower shipping costs for small orders.

 

[Gauss163]

Yes, Arrow is up their with Digikey and Mouser. Curiously they didn't show up as an authorized distributor when I did an ECIA search so I overlooked them. ECIA = Electronic Components Industry Association is a not-for-profit org representing electronics component manufacturers and their distribution partners. They have a web page which allows you to search for authorized components distributors, e.g. you'll see Digikey and Newark listed if you search for CR2032. It's a good place to start your search if you need to ensure that you obtain genuine electronics components (though a bit overkill for small quantities of cheap consumer batteries)

As for Ikea, I have no idea who their source is for coin cells. $0.375/cell for qty 8 is higher than the Digikey price $.026 for qty 10, but ends up better if you don't need to pay shipping. But it may be a bad deal if they are not good quality. For coin cells it's not only the nominal capacity that matters but also the quality, e.g. fake cells make have much higher IR, which means you'll get much lower real-word capacity in many cases, esp. for pulsed loads such as devices with radios (Bluetooth, etc). See the white paper links I gave above for much more on that. Also quality control is usually much worse for fakes (it's not unusual to see duds even for top-tier brands - you can't expect superb QC at this price point).

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I purchase my coin cells from a 3rd party seller on Amazon. Never had an issue. If they're fakes, they're good fakes. I can buy 5 cells from them (with free shipping), for less cost than 1 cell from a local retailer. There's no way I'm paying retail prices for coin cell batteries.

OTOH, I've also tried sellers on the popular Chinese sites. Awful! They come with full voltage, but immediately die when you use them. They must be powered by a static electric charge on them. :shakehead

 

[Gauss163]

^^^ Please give a link to the product you refer to. Any product fulfilled by Amazon will be luck-of-the-draw since they often mix stock from many sources (see the discussion above).

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

^^^ Please give a link to the product you refer to. Any product fulfilled by Amazon will be luck-of-the-draw since they often mix stock from many sources (see the discussion above).

I think the mods frown upon links, so I'll just tell you the name of the store is eCarmel. It's on amazon.ca, I'm not sure about amazon.com. 2032 Sony cells about $0.80 each Canadian dollars, which is about 3 cents US.

But since they are a 3rd party seller and aren't fulfilled by Amazon, I think they maintain their own stock.

Places like mouser.ca, even though they supposedly have a Canadian site, won't ship button cells to Canada. Far, far too dangerous, I suppose.

 

[tsask]

I buy my CR2032 from Battery Junction. They have some great bulk prices. /QUOTE]

AGREED 100%!!!