LiitoKala is a popular battery company that has sold several million batteries in the US alone. LiitoKala was established in 2007 with a manufacturing centre established in Shenzhen, China, where the Chinese low-cost brand manufactures power adapters for many different western companies.
LiitoKala in recent years has relied on Aliexpress to sell their cheap batteries using illegal and fake shops which have flooded the market with fakes and cheap batteries disguised as original Liitokala batteries.
Are LiitoKala batteries dangerous?
Lithium batteries are typically not dangerous if not mishandled. However, LiitoKala customers complain about the performance of the batteries: high internal resistance and lower-than-advertised capacity.
LiitoKala’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries usually do not meet or exceed all requirements.
According to this video on a 105Ah LiitoKala battery with suspicious labels, you will be lucky to get 80A.
There is also swelling and total battery failure on the first discharge.
Here is another video about stickers being used on top of the existing bar code. Where the customers didn’t get any refund for the shop or Aliexpress due to the expired “guarantee” period that is way too short due to long shipping times and the time required to properly test the cess. According to many reviews, Liitokala original 26650s have been found to be of mediocre performance, indicating that they might have switched suppliers.
There is another customer on the DIY Solar Forum complaining LiitoKala about 36 cells received where 8 cells were bad:
- 5 cells were either bad or marginal – with a voltage of 2.77 and 2.8V
- 3 were with 0.21V 1.8V
LiitoKala, a global supplier of quality batteries, is not immune to counterfeiting. 18650s and 26650s among others have been growing in popularity but many battery stores sell FAKES of LiitoKala cells.
These fake “LiitoKala” batteries are easy to miss unless you know the characteristics of the LiitoKala brand, so when buying a LiitoKala battery, make sure it comes from an authentic source!
