Canon 80D Aftermarket Batteries Not Working

Good afternoon,

 

I recently picked up an 80D bundle and with it came a couple aftermarket batteries. For whatever reason the aftermarket batteries will not

power the camera. No lights, lcd, or anything. Pop in the OEM battery and the camera comes to life. The batteries were all charged with

the canon charger and reflect having a full charge.

 

These are the Green Extreme GX-LP-E6N batteries.

 

Has anyone else had trouble with aftermarket batteries in the 80D? I use a pair of aftermarket batteries in my 20D and they've been

working great, but they are a different brand.

 

Thanks.

<p>Probably the Green Extreme is lacking a chip or needs a chip update. Aftermarket battery makers need to reverse engineer the code on the battery chip and obviously Green Extreme is asleep at the wheel. With that said, I have a STK LP-E6 I bought for my 70D last year and it works fine in my 80D--even compatible with the battery menu.</p>

<p>That's kind of what I was thinking. Perhaps Adorama put together the package without having tested the batteries to see if they actually worked with the 80D yet. At least with the Canon battery I can keep shooting. :) Quite an upgrade from my 20D for sure.<br>

Anyway, I have a message into customer service regarding the batteries. They said they'll do some testing and let me know what they find in a couple days.</p>

<p>Given the risk of aftermarket lithium batteries burning you house down, I'd suggest recycling them and trying to get credit for them to apply toward a Canon batter. Even tested, I wouldn't use them.</p>

<p>I agree with you on the risks of lithium batteries, but the testing isn't with my batteries, they clearly do not work. Before I get rid of them though, I need to await Adorama's customer service before I recycle the batteries in case they want them back. Adorama is doing something on their side, testing that battery with the 80D I guess, then letting me know. I am hoping that they let me swap those two batteries for credit toward a genuine Canon battery as well.<br>

In the meantime, the batteries are stored inside lipo safe bags which should contain any fire that could result if the battery decides to spontaneously ignite.</p>

<p>The fact that a sample didn't work in you camera is all the more reason not to touch it with a ten-foot pole. The risk isn't worth the dollars saved. I'd try to get credit toward a safe battery, from Canon.</p>

<p>I couldn't agree with you more. I was just was wanting to ask if anyone else had trouble with 3rd party batteries. With my 20D, the STK batteries I have work quite well. </p>

<p>The 7D2 has a 7.2-VDC battery with 1865-mAh, while the 1D-X MkII has 11.1-VDC and 2750-mAh. That makes a difference in performance, according to Artie and Arash at BirdPhotographers.net who speak with Chuck Westfall, of Canon, regularly.</p>

<p>I once bought a 3rd party battery for my Nikon D300s. I charged it and put it in the camera and after a few frames every image was black. Sent it off to Nikon Repair and they replaced a damaged circuit board and shutter and a few other components. The camera had less than 12,000 actuations and worked perfectly with the original Nikon battery. Because of that experience and the cost of repair plus the cost of the 3rd party I swore I would only use original oem batteries! </p>

<p>I had a new STK go south in my Olympus Pen. I charged it and ran out the door. After a dozen shots or so I could feel the grip getting very warm. I shut it down and tried to pull the cell but it was stuck. I was able to pry it out later when it cooled down. The Pen was fine but sheesh. That was about 20 battery clones ago so I didn't learn my lesson! I still drive during rush hour, drink JD and refuse to wear a raincoat...</p>

<p>Given Canon's terrible pricing on OEM batteries, it's the case that a lot of 3rd party batteries are being used in Canons without burning houses down or frying cameras. My experience with 5D/2/3 has been that they don't give as many shots on a full charge, but otherwise they perform the same including the menu driven battery information. Of course they're made in China but then I have Canon batteries made there too.</p>

<p>Thing that strikes me though is it might be as well, with a new camera model, to give the above mentioned reverse engineering time to take place before getting batteries that may well work fine in an older model than yours. </p>

<p>Canon's batteries may be made in China, but QC is in Canon's hands. With off-brands, you have no idea about the QC. The Canon chargers have circuitry to prevent overcharging and overheating, where many of the fakes do not. You're playing roulette with your camera and your house when you try these no-name batteries to save a buck. Canon's "terrible pricing" might be what it takes to do it right. The stakes are so high, I'm willing to pay the extra.</p>

<p>BTW, my Canon OEM battery from 2008 still works.</p>

<p>If you MUST go off-brand, Duracell would be a much better brand to trust than "Happy Family Batteries."Of course, you need to make certain that you're not buying a knockoff, whatever the brand, including Canon. Every component has counterfeit pieces in the market.</p>

<p>The only battery I ever heard of failing catastrophically in-camera, and causing severe burns to a local pro photog's hand (as well as obviously destroying her camera and the CF card - with half a wedding) - a friend of mine - was a genuine OEM one. I wouldn't have trusted the 'report' had I not known and talked to the victim. </p>

<p>Frankly, in reality, the panic mongering about 3rd party batts is hyperbole. Canon, Nikon, and numerous others source the cells from the <em>SAME</em> factories, using the <em>SAME</em> standard LI-IOn cells. While of course you should only make a decision you feel comfortable with, I can tell you with utter confidence that I have used OEM and 3rd party cells interchangeably for the past decade. While, in fairness, the 3rd party batts have a<em> slightly</em> higher failure rate, they also typically cost 20% or less, so <em>even if 4 of 5 fail, I still break even w/ OEM batts</em>. That said, a 3rd party brand - sold by a reputable retailer - which is somewhat reputable is far more likely to support a failed batt than some random fleabay brand.</p>

<p>Frankly, I would suspect a faulty batch of 'Green Extreme' batteries. Every LP-E6 powered camera I've ever used did <em>just fine</em> with chipless el-cheapo 3rd party batts. Yes, they all complained annoyingly, but they all still actually <em>worked . </em>Because I don't like annoying things, I buy only chipped 3rd party batteries, which frankly is the majority of even the 3rd party market these days. In '09 though they were a bit harder to come by (I've still got an old Zeikos one from '09 that functions perfectly well), but now, not so much. Luckily, you bought them from Adorama, a retailer I expect will take care of you.</p>

<p>These came as part of a bundle with the body when I bought it, so I really didn't get a choice as to which 3rd party batteries they sent me. That being said, their customer service is trying to determine whether I just got 2 defective batteries or if the 80D has a check to prevent certain batteries from working.</p>

<p>While it is hypothetically possible that the 80D has some built in 'rejection-of-non-OEM-batts' FW, if that were the case, I'd expect to see some angry red LED, or an error message displayed. Since the internet is not abuzz with ticked off early adopters about it, I would further doubt that the failure is common (or built it). The product page for the GreenExtreme batteries describes them as being chipped, and fully compatible. Given the price, that is no surprise to me. It <em>would</em> be surprising (and remarkably stupid of Canon - something they aren't known for) to find that the 80D is not compatible with 3rd party batteries. </p>

<p>Do you have a DMM? can you check the battery voltage? I would do so if you can, as I suspect that despite the charger's assurances, the batteries are not taking a charge. Different chargers react differently when a battery's voltage is out of charging range (between ~ 3.5/6 and 4.2 V per LiIon cell), and I have seen numerous ones that will give you a 'fully charged' indicator - even when cell voltage is below 3v. Ironically, it takes a 'dumb' charger to attempt the recovery (sometimes, but not always, possible) of a LiIon battery system. If those batteries are several years old, it is certainly possible that they became depleted sitting on a stockroom shelf, and simply are too low for the 'smart' charger to<em> agree</em> to charge them. </p>

<p>On multiple occasions, when dealing with an extremely depleted Li-Ion, I had to hook up a second charged one in parallel to 'level up' the surface charge on the depleted one so the charger would begin charging. While you should be careful not to deplete the good battery to far (leave a DMM monitoring the system voltage), and it doesn't always work (sometimes cells are too far gone), it does work a good portion of the time - and I wouldn't worry to much about blowing up your house. Simply take simple precautions (like wearing safety glasses - and not working over an open vat of gasoline) and you'll probably be fine.</p>

 

<p>Forget about playing electrician and ditch the POS batteries. Buy an OEM and sleep well. </p>