BTECH, BaoFeng BL-5 Battery Eliminator for for BF-F8HP, UV-5X3, and UV-5R Radios

So far so good, charged this fully 8 days ago and it still has one battery bar left. It’s in use as a listening-only scanner most of the day (to my wife’s great dismay) only turned off consistently overnight. I also bought the little USB plug that charges this directly and it seems to work but I’ve only charged the battery once via dock as the beginning of the charge/discharge/repeat process. So far so good.

I purchased three of the BL-5L batteries for my UV-5R8W and stock UV-5R. All three I have stopped using within two months: - Battery #1. Failed to charge on the CH-5 stock charger. Returned and exchanged for a new one. That one stopped charging after two months entirely and I stopped using it when smelling smoke when the battery was in the charging cradle. - Battery #2. Stopped charging to full capacity and the charge cradle stuck on red/green alternating LED. Immediately stopped using it when smelling a burn odor from the battery and feeling heat from the enclosure. - Battery #3. Stopped charging to full capacity also, radio reads 2 of 3 bars charge max, and below the 7.4V nominal printed on the battery. If youre looking for a battery and kit for amateur radio, spend the extra to get a higher quality radio from any number of other manufacturers. All-in, the cost of replacing faulty Baofeng parts and ongoing maintenance to keep your UV-5R in working order is higher than getting a better quality radio with a safe battery.

Not much to say, it powered my radio just fine off the 12V socket and I was able to save my battery for when I arrived at my destination

Bought this to upgrade my radio works amazing holds a charge greatly and doesn’t deplete very fast have left it on for over a week and still on 2 bars of battery left

Great product, I like that they came with a dummy as unlike other ones. I ordered two of them, and they both could be pulled apart at the bottom were the press tab wasnt engaging correctly. A little sanding and the latches work nicely now. Update: Fire danger unless modified. The metal contact that runs in the center battery channel can loosen up on its own and touch one of the contacts that sends power to the radio, when this happens the metal gets red hot, the plastic starts melting, then Im sure a fire follows but I had the case open when this happened and I just shook the batteries out very quickly to avoid further damage. I am still keeping this product at 4 stars since there are very few options to use AA batteries with a baofeng, it just needs a little modification. I used some high temperature RTV silicone sealant to keep the metal tab from coming out and contacting the metal above it. Its not perfect but it can no longer catch fire. You can see in the photo where the metal heated up where it is discolored on the right radio contact, and the silicone seal i used to keep the piece from touching it again.

After reading a lot of reviews we decided to go with this one it seems this one doesnt get quite as hot as a lot of the other ones on the market but we dont know yet so hopefully this will work for us We did buy an adapter on Amazon that would plug into the wall which had a problem causing us to mistakenly not know if the battery illuminators were working correctly , We solved that were buying another adapter Works with baofeng 2015 model radio sold here on Amazon 1. Weve used it for several hours on standby and so far it has no heat whatsoever is cold to the touch We will try listening to a weather station and update you later ? 2. We have transmitted with it very little so far doesnt get hot at all Cold to the touch . If anything changes will update

Meets my expectations, Im pleased with it.

Works well, you need to pre-bend the contacts down slightly to keep from crushing them when inserting the batteries. Otherwise it works well.

This extended battery has worked great and the length is more ergonomic than the standard battery. Ive notice the battery stands more fily when setting it down and still fits all Bofeng holders Ive purchased

BTech/Baofeng are one of the few Chinese manufacturers that I can trust, and that’s saying a lot. This product is great. LiPo battery exactly as described, with 0 cycles. Everything matching 1:1 with product specs, no bait and switch which can be common with custom battery adapters. Crazy how long this battery lasts compared to the stock Baofeng 7.4V 1800mAh. I’ve had it idling for three days now and I still have 3/3 battery bars. Low SWR + this battery = will it ever run out??? Quality is excellent, I abuse the bajeezus out of my radio kit so if anyone can break it, it’ll be me, and if I do – I’ll update this review with. So far, it feels extremely sturdy. Another user mentioned that it’s easy for the battery pins to short out. I also noticed that but realized it’s the same on Baofeng’s stock batteries too, so would be unfair to critique this product in particular over Baofeng’s entire design ideology.