Canon t6: Third Party Source Battery Will Not Charge

[tebrashear]

This is a "heads up":  For those who are not already familiar with this probelm, some 3rd party source LP-E17 batteries will not charge on the OEM battery charger (model LC-E17).  When charging is attempted, the charging LED indicator on the LC-E17 charger wil blink YELLOW at a 1 seccond rate (typ). The blink rate will not speed up and turn orange after 1 hour of (attempted) charging, as it should.  Also, the Basic Instruction Manual does not mention anything about getting a "yellow" charging indication on the LC-E17 - blinking or otherwise.  Some narrative regarding the yellow LED indication, should probably be added to the "Getting Started - Charging The Battery" portion of the manual.

Special thanks to Canon Customer Support (800 number) for their help on this matter.

-Tom B.

[kvbarkley]

" I purchased a basic t6s bundle off of ebay"

[johnnyspoke]

Ah, missed that, paid too much attention to the thread title.

[tebrashear]

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@johnnyspoke wrote:

Maybe there is a typo somewhere here, but the T6 uses the LC-E10 charger and LP-E10 battery.  If you're trying to use a different battery/charger combo, it's probably not going to work right. 

Did you mean the T6i/s, which does use the E17 battery/charger series?

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My bad. I was abbreviating "t6s" to "t6" in the thread title and top comment, assuming that all t6 series cameras used the same battery/charger. Thanx for correcting.. -Tom B.

[tebrashear · Accepted solution]

After going over reviews of various 3rd party LC-E17 battery packs I decided it would be better to get a spare OEM (Canon) battery pack despite the cost. Here is what I found.

There are quite a few 3rd party battery packs available (BM, Wasabi, Floureon, OAproda, to name a few) which appear to be popular due to their low cost. Here's the catch. The Canon LC-E17 battery charger will not recognize most, if not all, of these 3rd party battery packs without the OEM chip which, I am guessing, is proprietary. Consequently if you want to use a 3rd party battery, you have to purchase the 3rd party charger that goes with it. This why the 3rd party batteries are typically sold in pairs, bundled with their corresponding charger. The average retail price of these bundles (2 bateries + charger) is still significantly less than the single OEM battery - roughly half the cost - which, again, is why they are so popular. Another catch is that there are no guarantees that the 3rd party battery will be completely compatible with the Canon EOS camera. Problems often reported are that the EOS camera will not indicate charge level when using 3rd party batteries, QA issues with a few of the 3rd party battery chargers, and the 3rd party batteries themselves do not last as long. Listings of 3rd party batteries often contain disclaimers to this effect.

So, basically, the decision whether to buy 3rd party vs OEM will depend on how important reliability/aggravation factors are to the photographer. I chose the later - OEM.

[RobertTheFat]

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@tebrashear wrote:

After going over reviews of various 3rd party LC-E17 battery packs I decided it would be better to get a spare OEM (Canon) battery pack despite the cost. Here is what I found.

There are quite a few 3rd party battery packs available (BM, Wasabi, Floureon, OAproda, to name a few) which appear to be popular due to their low cost. Here's the catch. The Canon LC-E17 battery charger will not recognize most, if not all, of these 3rd party battery packs without the OEM chip which, I am guessing, is proprietary. Consequently if you want to use a 3rd party battery, you have to purchase the 3rd party charger that goes with it. This why the 3rd party batteries are typically sold in pairs, bundled with their corresponding charger. The average retail price of these bundles (2 bateries + charger) is still significantly less than the single OEM battery - roughly half the cost - which, again, is why they are so popular. Another catch is that there are no guarantees that the 3rd party battery will be completely compatible with the Canon EOS camera. Problems often reported are that the EOS camera will not indicate charge level when using 3rd party batteries, QA issues with a few of the 3rd party battery chargers, and the 3rd party batteries themselves do not last as long. Listings of 3rd party batteries often contain disclaimers to this effect.

So, basically, the decision whether to buy 3rd party vs OEM will depend on how important reliability/aggravation factors are to the photographer. I chose the later - OEM.

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And I think you made the correct choice. To me, the decision criterion is pretty simple: If the photography you do is such that you will be acutely embarrassed or suffer financial loss if you don't get the results you need, then you should not use a 3rd-party battery unless you have carefully tested it beforehand and are certain that it can do the job for you. And if, as in your case, the aggravation of having to use non-standard chargers impedes your effectiveness, than don't put yourself through it.

[kearndog]

From my experience using just the Canon batteries and the Canon charger, I am running into the same issues of the products not performing. I get the yellow blinking light that is not described in the manual when trying to recharge a Canon battery, and Canon batteries do not last long ... no way of telling if it is the Canon battery or the Canon recharger.

Dave

[shadowsports]

I use Canon and Watson (3rd party).  Both work great with my Canon chargers and body's.  No charging, power, or detection issues.  The Watson's last just as long as the Canon's in general.  Doesn't hurt to buy Canon, but I have a few of each and have zero issues.  How did I get introduced to Watson?...  I can thank B&H.  Everyone has their own story, beliefs and experience.  Mine have been positive.