3. Vendor Consultation

Naturally, we confronted the vendor with the results of our first series of tests. They responded to us by telephone on February 22, 2005, saying that (a) the product is still in development and (b) that they believed that the cladding around the outside of the Toshiba battery was too thick to let the foil do its job properly. As further proof, they cited results from tests conducted by the Product Safety division at the TÜV Rheinland Group at the behest of Batterylife AG. Those tests show the efficacy of Batterylife Activator, and indicate that it works as claimed. In addition, the product was granted a certification by TÜV, as indicated on the Batterylife AG Web site.

Note: TÜV Rheinland Group describes itself as follows: "TÜV Rheinland Group is an international service company, that documents the safety and quality of new and existing products, systems and services".

TÜV Certification From Only A Single Measurement?

In reading through the test report from the Product Safety division at the TÜV Rheinland Group we couldn't help but notice that neither exact numbers for the charge and discharge cycles were disclosed, nor was the age of the battery tested mentioned. In addition, the report clearly states that only two rechargeable batteries were tested. According to information on the TÜV website (www.tuvdotcom.com) this does not meet the organization's own criteria for certification : "A certified product is one that has passed certain tests carried out by TÜV Rheinland Group for, say, safety and quality. TÜV issues a certificate of the test finding. It certifies the product properties tested and specifies the norms to which they were tested." This is quoted directly from English text on the Web site.

All this was reported in conjunction with tests against a foil named Mobile Activator, which is intended for use only with PDA and mobile telephone batteries according to the vendor. The product named Notebook Activator was subjected to no such tests, and was thus itself never certified.

TÜV certification: yes or no?

We also tried to confirm the vendor's claims directly with the Product Safety division at the TÜV Rheinland Group, to ascertain the validity of the product certification attributed to Batterylife Activator. In addition, we requested that they share the kinds of measurements they took on the rechargeable batteries they tested, and how they interpreted the results they obtained.

In every respect, the engineers involved proved to be less than thrilled to provide assistance. They informed us that they couldn't disclose detailed results, nor information about how tests were conducted, because of confidentiality restrictions. The only additional information that TÜV provided, through a spokesperson, was as follows: "It is now the case that the activation foil from Batterylife AG is not certified. That certification was based on a one-time study of a specific rechargeable battery, with and without activator foil installed. This provided the source of the discharge measurements and analysis. You can check the results in our report for yourself."

It was miraculous to observe just how quickly after our inquiry about certification that the claim of certification from an independent testing concern disappeared from the vendor's Website. Even more interestingly, Batterylife AG now claims that a testing concern named the Technical Inspection Agency (TIA) Rhineland Group now warrants the same results.

The Webmaster makes it happen: TÜV's Product Safety Division is quickly transformed into the Technical Inspection Agency (TIA) Rhineland Group

In the meantime, someone at Batterylife AG also decided to name an independent testing concern, and once again to apply a certificate that was never granted to its activator foil product.

At Batterylife AG, the Webmaster is obviously the one who decides to grant TÜV certificates!