2024 test6 productsPower Tool Batteries
Which Tool Battery (counterfeit Vs Genuine) Brand Wins?
A head-to-head test of 6 tool battery (counterfeit vs genuine) options with the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Ranked first
DeWalt DCB205 (genuine)
Price shown in test: $130 for a pair (about $65 each)
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Weight | Drill torque (2nd gear, fully charged) | Impact driver, best of 3 lag bolt attempts | Leaf blower runtime (air speed test) | Angle grinder runtime (2.5 lb load) | 7 amp constant drain runtime | External short circuit test | Internal cell short circuit test | Disassembly | Drill torque (2nd gear) | Power inverter/fan runtime (approximately 150 W load) | Angle grinder runtime (5 lb load) | External short circuit test, sample 1 | External short circuit test, sample 2 | Leaf blower/dual air blower runtime (air speed test) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1DeWalt DCB205 (genuine)$130 for a pair (about $65 each) | 647 g | 152 in lb, 24 in lb more than the counterfeit per the narrator, though the literal difference between the two stated figures (152 minus 115) computes to 37, not 24; flagged as an internal inconsistency rather than corrected | 8.3 seconds (attempts were 11.51, 9.55, 8.3), almost 2 seconds faster than the counterfeit's fastest attempt | held a higher air speed throughout and lasted until 12 minutes 10 seconds, about 2 minutes longer than the counterfeit | just over 4 minutes before powering down, maintained noticeably higher RPM than the counterfeit, battery life indicator still showed 2 bars afterward | started at 20.6 V, ended at a 13.8 V safety cutoff at 41 minutes, delivering a figure the transcript renders as "84.78%7" Wh (almost certainly 84.7 Wh with a stray caption artifact, kept as literal with a flag) | voltage spiked to 290 amps for less than a second, then powered down safely with no signs of life afterward | individually protected cells handled the internal short safely, part of a 3 brand statement covering all genuine batteries | has a circuit board/interconnect that acted as a fuse during the short circuit test, confirmed genuine Samsung 25R cells | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 2DeWalt DCB205 (counterfeit)$82 for a pair (about $41 each, narrator separately rounds this to $42) | transcript reads "64 G," almost certainly a dropped digit for 604 g, since the narrator separately states the counterfeit is "43 g less" than the genuine 647 g battery (647 minus 43 equals 604); kept flagged rather than silently corrected | 115 in lb, ran out of steam first | 10.01 seconds (attempts were 10.01, 11.3, 11.41), progressively slower with each attempt | lower air speed throughout, drained completely at 10 minutes 10 seconds, battery hot to the touch | lasted close to 3 minutes before powering down, battery very hot, battery life indicator down to 1 bar | started at 20.5 V, ended at just over 31.5 minutes, delivering 65.3 Wh against an advertised 100 Wh | voltage spiked to 248 amps and let out a puff of smoke, no signs of life afterward | the counterfeit 18650 cells are explicitly stated as not designed to safely discharge like the genuine Samsung cells | battery case appeared melted and was difficult to open; had an interconnect that acted as a fuse during the short circuit test; cells confirmed not to be genuine Samsung 25R cells; an earlier visual inspection separately noted "no circuit board," which is not fully reconciled with the interconnect/fuse found during disassembly, kept as reported | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 3Milwaukee$79 (genuine) | 722 g | not tested | 5.36 seconds (attempts were 6.49, 5.36, 5.72) | not tested | not tested | held around 19.8 V early and 18.3 V at 15 minutes, lasted about 42 minutes, delivering 86.63 Wh, about 30 Wh more than the counterfeit | not tested | not tested | has a visible control board with green-colored cells (versus blue on the counterfeit), fully encapsulated in plastic molding; one disassembled sample, described in the transcript as "the genuine Milwaukee," is stated to definitely not contain genuine Samsung cells and would not charge afterward, attributed to a failed control board; this is a surprising and internally inconsistent finding for a battery labeled genuine, and is flagged rather than resolved | 154 in lb, better than the counterfeit's 128 in lb | lasted about 31.5 minutes, roughly 8.5 minutes longer than the counterfeit, voltage climbed initially before eventually dropping | lasted 2.5 minutes before the grinder powered itself down to protect the battery; battery was not fully drained | voltage spiked to 277 amps but the battery did not power down, continuing to push current through the dead short for almost 14 seconds; the narrator explicitly calls this "not... good overload protection," though the battery did not catch fire | voltage spiked to 287 amps and pushed through the dead short for over 17 seconds, similar behavior to sample 1, described as surprising that it did not power down sooner | not tested |
| 4Milwaukee$44.50 (counterfeit, advertised with free shipping as a genuine Milwaukee battery) | 649 g | not tested | 6.65 seconds (attempts were 6.65, 7.27, 6.96), did not speed up with warmup like the genuine battery did | not tested | not tested | dropped to 18.6 V within 2 minutes, 17.5 V at 15 minutes, test over at about 29 minutes, delivering only 56.5 Wh | not tested | not tested | has a control board and an interconnect that acted as a fuse during the short circuit test, but no visible spec information printed on it; instructions included in the box were for a 4 volt and 12 volt Milwaukee battery rather than the correct 18 volt instructions; serial number printing was noticeably harder to read than the genuine battery's silver lettering | 128 in lb | lasted just under 23 minutes, voltage dropped quickly after about 15 to 20 minutes | powered down after only 8 seconds, then repeatedly shut down and restarted, a total of 11 shutdowns within 1 minute 15 seconds before it would no longer power back up | voltage spiked to a figure the transcript renders as "2117 amps," implausibly high next to every other brand's 190 to 290 amp range on this same test; flagged as a likely garbled/misplaced-digit figure rather than corrected; let out a puff of smoke with no signs of life afterward | voltage spiked to 193 amps, powered down, and blew a visible spark out of the bottom of the battery case | not tested |
| 5Makita$90 (genuine) | the transcript gives two different figures for this battery: 724 g while still weighed inside its retail packaging, and 670 g in a later, separate weighing; both are kept as reported rather than reconciled, since the transcript does not explain the discrepancy | not tested | 8.57 seconds (attempts were 11.87, 9.81, 8.57), almost 1.5 seconds faster than the counterfeit's fastest attempt | not tested | just over 6 minutes before shutting down, maintained higher RPM than the counterfeit throughout; battery very hot afterward with a flashing low-battery indicator, not fully dead | held around 19.4 V at 1 minute and 18.9 V at 5 minutes, lasted about 44 minutes, delivering 88.5 Wh | not tested | individually protected cells handled the internal short safely, part of a 3 brand statement covering all genuine batteries | control board present, cells encased in plastic, country/spec information not detailed in the transcript for this specific unit | 144 in lb, 21 in lb better than the counterfeit's 123 in lb, matching the stated difference exactly | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | held a consistently faster air speed throughout (about 300 to 650 ft per minute faster than the counterfeit at various points) and lasted until almost 14 minutes, only modestly longer than the counterfeit's 13 minutes 10 seconds |
| 6Makita$45 (counterfeit) | the transcript gives two different figures: 646 g while still weighed inside its retail packaging, and 600 g in a later, separate weighing; both kept as reported | not tested | 10.42 seconds (attempts were 10.42, 10.79, 11.05), progressively slower with each attempt | not tested | 3 minutes 49 seconds before shutting down, unable to maintain RPM throughout the run; battery very hot afterward with no signs of life | dropped to 16.7 V within 1 minute and 16.1 V by 5 minutes, test over at only 7.5 minutes, by far the shortest runtime of any of the 6 batteries in this video | not tested | not tested | no obvious external signs of failure were found when the units were opened; none of the narrator's several Makita chargers would charge these batteries; cells confirmed not to be genuine Samsung cells | 123 in lb | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | one of the two counterfeit units had already failed to survive a prior test, leaving only one counterfeit unit for this test; that unit was consistently slower than the genuine unit and ended at 13 minutes 10 seconds when air speed dropped to a 6,000 ft per minute cutoff, battery very hot |
How it was tested
- physical/packaging inspection (weight, QR code, serial number, date of manufacture, case design)
- internal disassembly and cell/control-board authentication (Samsung 25R cell check, control board or interconnect/fuse inspection)
- drill torque delivered in second gear until the battery runs out of steam (in lb)
- impact driver speed driving a lag bolt, best of 3 attempts (seconds)
- sustained heavy-load runtime: power inverter/fan for Milwaukee, leaf/air blower for DeWalt and Makita (minutes and air speed in ft per minute)
- angle grinder runtime under a fixed weighted load until the tool powers down (minutes)
- constant 7 amp drain runtime and total watt hours delivered versus advertised capacity
- external short circuit test using a current meter (peak amps and whether the battery smokes, sparks, or shuts down safely)
- internal cell-level short circuit protection test
Data notes and caveats
This video is not a cross-brand ranking; it is 3 independent genuine-vs-counterfeit comparison pairs (DeWalt, Milwaukee, Makita), so winner/runnerUp/budgetPick are left null rather than forced across brands that were never measured against each other. Within every single pair, the genuine battery outperformed its counterfeit counterpart on every timed or capacity test (torque, impact driver speed, sustained runtime, and total watt hours delivered), consistent with the narrator's closing message that counterfeit tool batteries are unsafe and should be avoided. The one notable exception to the clean genuine-wins-every-test pattern is Milwaukee's external short circuit test, where both genuine samples continued pushing current through a dead short for 14 to 17 seconds instead of shutting down quickly (unlike the genuine DeWalt, which powered down in under a second), which the narrator explicitly calls out as "not... good overload protection," though neither genuine Milwaukee caught fire. Several numeric inconsistencies are flagged rather than resolved: the DeWalt torque test's stated 24 in lb difference does not match the literal 152 minus 115 figures (37 in lb); the counterfeit DeWalt's weight reads as an implausible "64 g" against an expected 604 g; the counterfeit Milwaukee's short circuit spike reads as an implausible "2117 amps"; both Makita batteries have two different, unreconciled weight readings recorded at different points in the video; and one genuine Milwaukee disassembly section describes cells that are "definitely not Samsung," an internally surprising claim for a battery labeled genuine that is preserved as stated rather than corrected. No meta chapters exist for this video.