http://www.illumn.com
Hey guys,
I am sad to announce that we have recently been a victim of counterfeit batteries. Fortunately we caught the problem very early and released a total of ~130 cells. We have isolated the exact customers that the batteries have been sent to and if you did not receive an email you do not have to worry. The counterfeit batteries are limited to orders shipped on 8/1-8/4. This PSA is to inform members of the vape community of a new kind of counterfeit battery that actually performs similarly to VTC5s during initial testing. This is dangerous because it's hard to determine their authenticity without testing equipment and existing data on authentic cells. As far as fakes come these have been the most realistic with a rewrap of what we highly suspect to be Samsung 25R cells which are supposed to be 20A continuous capable cells. While the Samsung 25R is definitely a capable cell we are unsure of it's longterm performance and battery longevity if discharged at 30A instead of 20A. I have enclosed the exact email I have sent to our customers who received the fake batteries below. I apologize again to all our customers for the error and hope to inform the community about these new fakes. This problem is not limited to a single supplier since we have two shipments of the same kind of fake VTC5s from two completely different suppliers. This indicates that the problem is higher up the supply chain most likely at a larger distributor. I would like to reiterate again that if you did NOT receive an email and have purchased from us previously that you have authentic cells. Detailed graphs with high resolution images have been attached in an imgur album.
Again on behalf of Illumn/Illumination Supply I deeply apologize for the mistake and inconvenience and we will do everything to make this right.
.
.
.
.
To Whom it May Concern:
You are receiving this email because a recent batch of Sony VTC5s we received passed our initial test inspection systems but were ultimately found to be counterfeit. Our first priority is to ensure the safety of our end users and advise to pull the VTC5s from retail if you are a wholesale customer. You have the option of a complete refund no questions asked from this batch of VTC5s or you can opt to wait for a confirmed authentic restock (no ETA at this time) with no need to return the counterfeit cells. We have determined that the counterfeit VTC5s are actually re-wrapped Samsung 25Rs which are rated for 20A discharge and 2500mAh capacity. We have received a total of 2 separate shipments from different suppliers of this new kind of counterfeit cell, please be warned that their performance is very similar to VTC5s and would not be that noticeable without testing equipment, if you do choose to purchase VTC5s from a different supplier than Illumn/Illumination Supply be aware of this unique counterfeit that is on the market now as it has fooled several different suppliers as well. We apologize deeply for the mistake and will continue improve our testing process to ensure it never happens again.
If you are curious about the results of our battery test they can be seen below. The best fit line for the counterfeit VTC5s match closely with Samsung 25Rs and are extremely likely to be 25Rs. Our original 35A continuous test showed the counterfeits outperforming the authentic VTC5s for the first portion of the continuous test and passed our original assessment. Further investigation pointed towards the Samsung 25R as the actual internal cell which are only rated for 20A due to heat production at higher amp ratings. Consulting the datasheet for the Samsung 25R and our test data, we conclude that it is not suitable for a 30A continuous discharge due to heat generated and possible cell longevity issues. In terms of pulse use (which is what the majority of vaping would be considered), the Samsung 25Rs are capable of 30A pulses for durations of 6 seconds.
By matching the counterfeit cells with known test data of other batteries in our inventory, we highly suspect the cell is a re-wrapped Samsung 25R by the overlapping brown and black lines in this graph.
Initially the fake VTC5s outperform the VTC5s in voltage drop during the first part of the test but drop off later. Again the fake VTC5 matches very closely to the Samsung 25R
Battery negatives are identical
Hey guys,
I am sad to announce that we have recently been a victim of counterfeit batteries. Fortunately we caught the problem very early and released a total of ~130 cells. We have isolated the exact customers that the batteries have been sent to and if you did not receive an email you do not have to worry. The counterfeit batteries are limited to orders shipped on 8/1-8/4. This PSA is to inform members of the vape community of a new kind of counterfeit battery that actually performs similarly to VTC5s during initial testing. This is dangerous because it's hard to determine their authenticity without testing equipment and existing data on authentic cells. As far as fakes come these have been the most realistic with a rewrap of what we highly suspect to be Samsung 25R cells which are supposed to be 20A continuous capable cells. While the Samsung 25R is definitely a capable cell we are unsure of it's longterm performance and battery longevity if discharged at 30A instead of 20A. I have enclosed the exact email I have sent to our customers who received the fake batteries below. I apologize again to all our customers for the error and hope to inform the community about these new fakes. This problem is not limited to a single supplier since we have two shipments of the same kind of fake VTC5s from two completely different suppliers. This indicates that the problem is higher up the supply chain most likely at a larger distributor. I would like to reiterate again that if you did NOT receive an email and have purchased from us previously that you have authentic cells. Detailed graphs with high resolution images have been attached in an imgur album.
Again on behalf of Illumn/Illumination Supply I deeply apologize for the mistake and inconvenience and we will do everything to make this right.
.
.
.
.
To Whom it May Concern:
You are receiving this email because a recent batch of Sony VTC5s we received passed our initial test inspection systems but were ultimately found to be counterfeit. Our first priority is to ensure the safety of our end users and advise to pull the VTC5s from retail if you are a wholesale customer. You have the option of a complete refund no questions asked from this batch of VTC5s or you can opt to wait for a confirmed authentic restock (no ETA at this time) with no need to return the counterfeit cells. We have determined that the counterfeit VTC5s are actually re-wrapped Samsung 25Rs which are rated for 20A discharge and 2500mAh capacity. We have received a total of 2 separate shipments from different suppliers of this new kind of counterfeit cell, please be warned that their performance is very similar to VTC5s and would not be that noticeable without testing equipment, if you do choose to purchase VTC5s from a different supplier than Illumn/Illumination Supply be aware of this unique counterfeit that is on the market now as it has fooled several different suppliers as well. We apologize deeply for the mistake and will continue improve our testing process to ensure it never happens again.
If you are curious about the results of our battery test they can be seen below. The best fit line for the counterfeit VTC5s match closely with Samsung 25Rs and are extremely likely to be 25Rs. Our original 35A continuous test showed the counterfeits outperforming the authentic VTC5s for the first portion of the continuous test and passed our original assessment. Further investigation pointed towards the Samsung 25R as the actual internal cell which are only rated for 20A due to heat production at higher amp ratings. Consulting the datasheet for the Samsung 25R and our test data, we conclude that it is not suitable for a 30A continuous discharge due to heat generated and possible cell longevity issues. In terms of pulse use (which is what the majority of vaping would be considered), the Samsung 25Rs are capable of 30A pulses for durations of 6 seconds.
By matching the counterfeit cells with known test data of other batteries in our inventory, we highly suspect the cell is a re-wrapped Samsung 25R by the overlapping brown and black lines in this graph.
Initially the fake VTC5s outperform the VTC5s in voltage drop during the first part of the test but drop off later. Again the fake VTC5 matches very closely to the Samsung 25R
Battery negatives are identical
hats off to them
woah
didn't doubt just nice to see its the same as the pics so other people can't argue with me when I tell them its real.
no, i'd end up with the same post problem. ...
