Christmas is next week, and it’s a good bet you’re buying something that needs batteries. Last year, the story on rechargeable batteries was accidental overheating, explosions and fires. This year, the narrative is a little different and, fortunately, more upbeat. A team of researchers from Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Honda have teamed up to develop a fluoride-based battery that could bring as much as ten times the energy capabilities of a lithium-ion battery—and, best of all—use more sustainable resources in the manufacturing process.
For now, we’re talking about just car battery applications and, to be fair, fluoride batteries have been around for a while. Previously, flouride batteries would only work if you were using them inside an oven—they needed temperatures of around 300 degrees Fahrenheit to function. The new battery, according to NASA and its partners, can produce lasting power even at room temperature.
“Fluoride-ion batteries offer a promising new battery chemistry with up to ten times more energy density than currently available Lithium batteries,” said Christopher Brooks, a Honda Institute researcher. “Unlike Li-ion batteries, FIBs do not pose a safety risk due to overheating, and obtaining the source materials for FIBs creates considerably less environmental impact than the extraction process for lithium and cobalt.”
It will admittedly take some time for this technology to trickle down to be used in your portable phones, computers, and hoverboards, but wouldn’t it be great to have the peace of mind from knowing they won’t catch fire?
With so much last-minute holiday shopping done online, this is a good time for another reminder about the risk of purchasing counterfeits. You may remember that we talked last year about a UL test of fake iPhone chargers that had a 99 percent failure rate. That meant they failed one of two tests—an electrical strength test, or a touch current test. A charger that fails either one of these tests could cause a fire or give its user a nasty electrical shock.
Many online retailers have stepped up their game to identify counterfeit goods, but the best line of defense is still YOU. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself:
1. Know Your Seller. The best thing to do is to buy direct from the manufacturer, period. The importance of knowing your seller applies year around for you, and your clients. If you must buy from a third party, there are ways to still identify your seller with a degree of certainty. For example, on Amazon, you can spot details on third-party vendors by looking at the box that has the “Add to Cart” message as well as the box "Other Sellers on Amazon." The seller’s name will be listed next to the words “Ships from and sold by." Another example is on Walmart, where you'll see "Sold and shipped by" under the "Add to Cart" button.
2. Consider Discounts With a Grain of Salt. Your mother told you about what happens when something seems too good to be true and that’s as true today as it was when she last said it. If a discount sounds too good to be true, you can be reasonably certain it is a loser. What can you do to figure it out? You can generally establish an item’s current retail price by checking authorized retailers or from the manufacturer’s website. While some sophisticated counterfeiters now don’t discount their fakes to trick those buying from a third-party seller, if you still find significantly larger discounts from the established price, it may be an indicator things aren’t on the up-and-up.
3. Read The Reviews. I can’t stress this one enough—reading the reviews is a critical part of doing your due diligence. Widely varied reviews can indicate supply chain and manufacturing quality problems better than just about anything. Each product from each seller has its own reviews, and that not only speaks to product quality but also shipping speed, customer service, etc. That said, fake reviews are growing almost as fast as fake products. You can check the validity of a review by using a site like Fakespot which provides a score regarding the likelihood of fake reviews for a product. Just because an item has five-star ratings doesn't mean it's authentic. On the contrary, a high number of positive reviews can be a red flag.
4. Check The Product Photos. It’s good practice to examine product photos for signs that an item is fake. Download one or more of the images for the product you’re unsure about, and then use Google’s reverse image search, which looks for instances of an image online and others that are visually similar. The results can reveal whether the photos were taken from another site which doesn’t absolutely mean the product is counterfeit because the seller may have used an image to list the product without having to take their own photos. It’s a shortcut that’s not a great idea, but it can happen.
5. Packaging, Packaging, Packaging. Pay attention to the packaging. The real McCoy doesn’t come in a plain brown wrapper with a logo that looks like it was printed on an Inkjet printer. That’s because, with a fake product, it probably was. Enough said.
If you use your best sleuthing skills and think you may still have purchased a fake, all is not lost. If the seller won’t give you a refund, you can still file a claim with most online sellers and they will investigate. Most will ban a seller once they’re identified as a counterfeiter—many retail sites are taking this matter very seriously. Of course, you also have recourse from the payment companies by disputing the charge through your credit card provider. Even better, if you used PayPal, you are covered through the PayPal Purchase Protection policy. Happy gift shopping, and good luck out there!
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Connect with Jeff on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.