Inside Cheap ebay PP3 Batteries

Well I think this should serve as a warning to anyone looking to obtain bargain rechargeable PP3s!

I took a punt on a pair of these on ebay from a Honk Kong seller. Now, I buy a lot of stuff that way from the far east, and on the whole its good kit, but there are rogues out there and conterfeit stuff does turn up. These batteries are in that league!

Marked as 'BTY' 300mAh 9v Ni-MH batteries, when these arrived I thought they were amazingly light. Suspiciously light in fact! They weigh in at just 25g, whereas an alkaline PP3 weighs 35g!

So I decided to open one up and see what was in it.

At first glance it looks quite good, but the giveaway is in the spec of the cells!

The are NiCd's! So, these so called 300mAh NiMH batteries are not even the right chemistry!

Also, they are '60K' series cells - rated 18mAh!

So, quite clearly fraudulent on many levels! I dont know yet whether I will raise a case with ebay over these, but maybe think twice if your considering buying these.