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

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.

Cant complain about the price, i will see how it works, i will say its a bad fit in the required charger, the battery is about 1/4 inch too thin to make good contact with the charger terminals, i had to fold up cardboard and put in front of the battery to make contact with the charging terminals. It would be a good idea to make the battery thicker so it can be charged in the required charger or provide a shim to place in the charger to make positive contact with charging terminals.

Fast charging and longer lifespan than original batteries.

The battery fit my BaoFeng GMRS radio as expected.

This exactly what I wanted works so very well

First, it works as expected in that it replaces your battery (it is a battery eliminator not a charger) and powers your radio from a 12 volt accessory socket. A couple poor design features to be aware of though: The cord is a coiled cord, but the coils are very stiff. At rest it is about 2 feet long, but if you try to stretch it out, by the time you get to three feet it is pulling out of the car socket. I would say that for most people, they would have a lot of trouble talking on the radio with that limitation combined with the fact that at that length you are playing tug of war if it stays plugged in. Also the cord comes out of the bottom of the battery adapter, which means you cannot stand your radio up. Not a concern for car use but in emergency use where you might have to be on 12 volt power indoors, you cannot stand up your radio. This means your antenna is operating at well below maximum efficiency. It seems that just a little forethought and beta testing of this product would have made it a MUCH better product with little or no change to cost.

If you are going to buy a BaoFeng radio do yourself a favor and get it from BTECH. It is the USA version and well worth the extra money it may cost. I have two of them but did try the Chinese version and it is not the same so it was returned. This is an awesome radio and I highly recommend it. I am a HAM and GMRS licensed operator.

This did not work initially. There is not info on which position should contain the dummy battery. I guessed it did not matter and that was true. One of the contact points for the battery was bent out of position, so the unit did not work. When I figured it out and bent it back, everything worked. It appears to be made of cheap plastic. Not sure how long it will hold up.

These worked perfectly in my radio.

Long battery life. The built-in charging port is a great feature, since I dont have to bring the whole charging cradle along.