I tried a few little experiments today because I'd read some-one else's views about their Vamo, and I wanted to test a few things out, including what the hits are like using different battery set ups. I have never used stacked 18350s before with the Vamo, but did try out a few things using one 18650, and two 18350s today. This post isn't overly technical but if ohms and volts, and a few numbers aren't your thing - you may want to skip on down to the previous post.
First I wanted to test if the Vamo gives a harsh and too hot vape using two 18350 batteries. I set the watts on the Vamo on the lowish side at 5 watts with a 2.5 ohm vivi nova.
With one 18650 battery this was ok. When I stacked two 18350s the first hit was hard, strong and a burnt taste. I have read that some-one experienced this before but I've never had it happen with an 18650 - so was surprised when it happened with two 18350s. After the first hit with stacked batteries it normalised. It did seem to be hitting a little harder - but below you'll see that with this particular vivi nova it was also reading the ohms as 2.7 and not 2.5 in the two battery configuration.
On the second vivi nova the Vamo read the ohms correctly in both modes - 2.9 ohms. I set the Vamo to 5 watts and tried with the two battery configurations again. I started with the two 18350s as they were already in the Vamo. No harsh first hit this time with the two 18350s. It did feel stronger in terms of the vapor production, but not burnt or anything. Tried with an 18650 - still good but slightly weaker than the two 18350s. I tried some different voltages as well and they were comparable in both configurations. It did seem slightly stronger with the two 18350s but there were no major differences that I could detect.
My conclusion - I don't usually stack batteries on my APVs anyway - there were some slight differences between the battery configurations, and there was definitely one harsh hit on the very first hit with one of the vivi novas and two 18350s. No major issue here that I could see.
I measured and compared the ohms on two vivi novas. These were the results:
Vivi nova no. 1
Multimeter - 2.9 ohms
Vamo 18650 - 2.9 ohms
Vamo 2x 18350 - 2.9 ohms
Vivi Nova 2
Mulitmeter - 2.5 ohms
Vamo 18650 - 2.5 ohms
Vamo 2x 18350 - 2.7 ohms
So a difference of 0.2 ohms with 2x 18350s on one of the vivi novas.
I've seen an hypothesis put forward that the 33.33hz PWM on these sort of devices causes burnt hits with clearomizers. It hasn't been my experience. Up until today when I stacked the 18350s for the first time I haven't had burnt hits at all, and I've used vivi novas a lot. I mean everyday. I had one bad hit with the stacked 18350s today - the first hit with one of the vivi novas - and then it normalised. This was straight after I put the 18350s into the Vamo, and changed from 18650 mode. It's been suggested elsewhere on the forums that this changeover to 18350 straight after an 18650 can result in a first hard hit if you don't pulse the Vamo fire button once to allow it to re-read the voltage.
I wouldn't say my simple tests today are comprehensive or completely conclusive. I used the same Vamo each time. I own two so I could test out both side by side at some point and see if the results are the same.
At this point my experience with the Vamo and Zmax doesn't match the hypothesis that there are 6 volt "spikes" causing bad tasting vapes. Some people have mentioned noticing a subtle difference between some mods - it may be there. But I'm not noticing anything significant. What I did notice is that when I took out an 18650 battery, put in two 18350 batteries and vaped straight away the first hit was harsh. I think this was because I didn't allow the Vamo time to "read" the new voltage from two batteries and reset itself.
If I get time I'll do something wider with both Vamos and a Zmax - all in RMS. For now that's where I'm up to with it.
First I wanted to test if the Vamo gives a harsh and too hot vape using two 18350 batteries. I set the watts on the Vamo on the lowish side at 5 watts with a 2.5 ohm vivi nova.
With one 18650 battery this was ok. When I stacked two 18350s the first hit was hard, strong and a burnt taste. I have read that some-one experienced this before but I've never had it happen with an 18650 - so was surprised when it happened with two 18350s. After the first hit with stacked batteries it normalised. It did seem to be hitting a little harder - but below you'll see that with this particular vivi nova it was also reading the ohms as 2.7 and not 2.5 in the two battery configuration.
On the second vivi nova the Vamo read the ohms correctly in both modes - 2.9 ohms. I set the Vamo to 5 watts and tried with the two battery configurations again. I started with the two 18350s as they were already in the Vamo. No harsh first hit this time with the two 18350s. It did feel stronger in terms of the vapor production, but not burnt or anything. Tried with an 18650 - still good but slightly weaker than the two 18350s. I tried some different voltages as well and they were comparable in both configurations. It did seem slightly stronger with the two 18350s but there were no major differences that I could detect.
My conclusion - I don't usually stack batteries on my APVs anyway - there were some slight differences between the battery configurations, and there was definitely one harsh hit on the very first hit with one of the vivi novas and two 18350s. No major issue here that I could see.
I measured and compared the ohms on two vivi novas. These were the results:
Vivi nova no. 1
Multimeter - 2.9 ohms
Vamo 18650 - 2.9 ohms
Vamo 2x 18350 - 2.9 ohms
Vivi Nova 2
Mulitmeter - 2.5 ohms
Vamo 18650 - 2.5 ohms
Vamo 2x 18350 - 2.7 ohms
So a difference of 0.2 ohms with 2x 18350s on one of the vivi novas.
I've seen an hypothesis put forward that the 33.33hz PWM on these sort of devices causes burnt hits with clearomizers. It hasn't been my experience. Up until today when I stacked the 18350s for the first time I haven't had burnt hits at all, and I've used vivi novas a lot. I mean everyday. I had one bad hit with the stacked 18350s today - the first hit with one of the vivi novas - and then it normalised. This was straight after I put the 18350s into the Vamo, and changed from 18650 mode. It's been suggested elsewhere on the forums that this changeover to 18350 straight after an 18650 can result in a first hard hit if you don't pulse the Vamo fire button once to allow it to re-read the voltage.
I wouldn't say my simple tests today are comprehensive or completely conclusive. I used the same Vamo each time. I own two so I could test out both side by side at some point and see if the results are the same.
At this point my experience with the Vamo and Zmax doesn't match the hypothesis that there are 6 volt "spikes" causing bad tasting vapes. Some people have mentioned noticing a subtle difference between some mods - it may be there. But I'm not noticing anything significant. What I did notice is that when I took out an 18650 battery, put in two 18350 batteries and vaped straight away the first hit was harsh. I think this was because I didn't allow the Vamo time to "read" the new voltage from two batteries and reset itself.
If I get time I'll do something wider with both Vamos and a Zmax - all in RMS. For now that's where I'm up to with it.
