batteries are to be very respected, if the wrap or the top insulating ring are damaged, stop using the battery and fix it.
The "standard" 18650 are a bit of odd man out, as you need to know that there's so many variants.
First: never buy the crappy re-wrapped third party brands, only go with the manufacturers, such as LG, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic/Sanyo.
ALL other brands are getting the rejected but still useable batteries that they re-brand under their name and then make insane claims about the capacity.
Added note: Aspire now have a battery plant, so that does make them a bit better, at least it's an actual brand, but their quality is still debatable. They appear to be acceptable but I'll see Mooch's confirmation about them before I'd give them my approval... I know that I did get some a while back and my observation was that none of the Aspire batteries were reliable, some lasted much longer than others, so a married set would be out of the question if their quality is random.
Second: be aware that the 18650 are not all made the same. There is low drain and high drain types. For mods, we HAVE to use HIGH drain (high A power, limited life). The low drain ones are for low power devices (low A power, long life) such as flashlights.
There is no high drain 18650 that is over 25-30A capable, nor has over 3,000mAh of capacity.
Some low drain have a safety cap that would make them a bit longer.
Edit: I have to re-emphasize that low drain batteries are meant for low power units such as flashlights or to be in parallel packs (such as computers, power tools), as some of the stubborn members have been stating that they support using such batteries for lower wattage mods, and cannot understand that the chemistry inside these batteries are not made to withstand the repeated high hits in wattage that vaping requires.
Third: the way these (and just about all cylinder batteries) are built is that they are a closed cylinder that's filled from the top, and sealed by a very thin insulator.
This means that the whole of the battery's walls is all negative until you get to the top where the positive pin is. The positive/negative is separated by this very thin insulator, which should you cause a contact between them, you would short out the battery.
So for safety, this area where this insulator/separation is, is covered by a insulation ring, either thick paper or plastic. The wrap is what holds it in place and protects the battery.
Should the wrap be damaged, especially at the top where this ring is, the battery should be set aside until the wrap is replaced with a new one. Same goes even more for the ring.
Should you made contact and short the battery, do NOT hold on to it, you must throw it or put it down somewhere safe, a metal sink, in the grass, or anywhere should it go into thermal overload (or runaway) that no one gets armed or damage done. I've read about people throwing their batteries out the window into their backyard (and such).
Battery being shorted/overloaded can do two things:
About charging
Having a good charger is best, but with a decent mod that has a good charging circuit, it is quite fine.
Many stay with the old belief that mods do not charge correctly and repeat the dated "never charge with the mod", but the truth is, I've yet to hear of a single mod having issues due to charging. The odds of any such troubles, are very similar to a charger having a malfunction.
Of course, if you're using a very old mod, it might be questionable, but I have sealed mods from 3-4 years ago that are still working fine... note that any sealed mods (non-replaceable batteries) don't have any alternative ways to charge anyways. Odds are that the batteries will be the part that will fail before the mod's charging circuits does.
Manufacturers of mods, would not be adding this feature if they hadn't tested and insuring that it was safe, otherwise they'd be at the end of constant lawsuits and the news would be hitting the web quite fast.
Regulated mods use charging circuits similar to cell phones, they are set for a specific level of power, either 0.5, 1 or now even 2 A.
Note that the faster you charge a battery will impact it's overall lifespan. In part, this is due to the heat generated from the charging, the cooler the battery, the better for it, always. Most chargers can start at 1/0.7A and separate the output down to 0.5A.
Regardless of wall adapter, the mod will only use what it's rated for (or up to it), so if you have a mod that charges at 1A:
0.5A wall adapter = mod charges at 0.5A
1A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
2A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
Same if you have a newer mod that charges at 2A
0.5A wall adapter = mod charges at 0.5A
1A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
2A wall adapter = mod charges at 2A
But again, the faster you charge a battery, the hotter it will get and the lesser the lifespan of the battery (less recharging cycles).
I won't get into more specifics as you can check out Mooch's blog (he's easy to find) as he is the most regarded expert online.
And if you have an adapter that gets really hot, to say it simply: get another one. Adapters are built to provide their rated power output safely. A cheap one has sub-par quality parts and might be risking to use with ANY device. Stick with reputed brands.
And yes, charging via your computer's USB port is fine, and will not cause issue like some believe. If your port goes bad over charging a device, it is because the port would have failed regardless of what you plugged in it. Computer ports (USB 2.0) output 0.5A.
I've used several adapters, my computers for many years and I've yet to have a single issue, regardless of the power output. I tend to use lower power due that I prefer to charge my devices slowly (so 0.5 and 1A power output).
I charge just about all of mine via the mod and it's never been an issue, when I tested the batteries "in case" due to all the paranoia that so many have about it, I found that the batteries were just fine. I even take some batteries that have only been charged all their "lives" in my mod (Eleaf TC100W, which is a parallel), and at least several months. When I did a voltage test at discharge and they were on the spot, perfectly aligned/married still, and they charged just fine on my charger (and now back in a mod).
I also have monitored the power flow to my mods during charging, and even when I vape while plugged in, found that the power flow doesn't change, so the charging circuit appears to split the power, so the "bypass" allows one (mod) to be using the power both to fire the mod and charge simultaneously. I can't confirm this is the situation for all mods, but all the ones I have and tested appear to function as such. I know that some believe that the power gets switched from charging to firing the mod, or to stop the charging and draw from the battery at the firing, but I've yet to see evidence of this.
Let me know if I missed something, and please go read and enjoy all my other entries as I'm building my blog, I'm trying to cover every aspect of vaping that I know about. I'll keep adding items as I think of them and have the time to write them.
The "standard" 18650 are a bit of odd man out, as you need to know that there's so many variants.
First: never buy the crappy re-wrapped third party brands, only go with the manufacturers, such as LG, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic/Sanyo.
ALL other brands are getting the rejected but still useable batteries that they re-brand under their name and then make insane claims about the capacity.
Added note: Aspire now have a battery plant, so that does make them a bit better, at least it's an actual brand, but their quality is still debatable. They appear to be acceptable but I'll see Mooch's confirmation about them before I'd give them my approval... I know that I did get some a while back and my observation was that none of the Aspire batteries were reliable, some lasted much longer than others, so a married set would be out of the question if their quality is random.
Second: be aware that the 18650 are not all made the same. There is low drain and high drain types. For mods, we HAVE to use HIGH drain (high A power, limited life). The low drain ones are for low power devices (low A power, long life) such as flashlights.
There is no high drain 18650 that is over 25-30A capable, nor has over 3,000mAh of capacity.
Some low drain have a safety cap that would make them a bit longer.
Edit: I have to re-emphasize that low drain batteries are meant for low power units such as flashlights or to be in parallel packs (such as computers, power tools), as some of the stubborn members have been stating that they support using such batteries for lower wattage mods, and cannot understand that the chemistry inside these batteries are not made to withstand the repeated high hits in wattage that vaping requires.
Third: the way these (and just about all cylinder batteries) are built is that they are a closed cylinder that's filled from the top, and sealed by a very thin insulator.
This means that the whole of the battery's walls is all negative until you get to the top where the positive pin is. The positive/negative is separated by this very thin insulator, which should you cause a contact between them, you would short out the battery.
So for safety, this area where this insulator/separation is, is covered by a insulation ring, either thick paper or plastic. The wrap is what holds it in place and protects the battery.
Should the wrap be damaged, especially at the top where this ring is, the battery should be set aside until the wrap is replaced with a new one. Same goes even more for the ring.
Should you made contact and short the battery, do NOT hold on to it, you must throw it or put it down somewhere safe, a metal sink, in the grass, or anywhere should it go into thermal overload (or runaway) that no one gets armed or damage done. I've read about people throwing their batteries out the window into their backyard (and such).
Battery being shorted/overloaded can do two things:
- The lesser is called "venting" where it overloads and heats up enough to cause a release valve built into the battery to break (as a safety breaker) and the overheated chemicals will "steam" out of the battery.... it's not good, but it's the safety feature to prevent....discard the battery in an environment friendly way... do NOT use again.
- The second: Thermal runaway... which is the full firecracker and "boom" effect...after the special effect and hopefully no damage or injuring, discard as per stated.
About charging
Having a good charger is best, but with a decent mod that has a good charging circuit, it is quite fine.
Many stay with the old belief that mods do not charge correctly and repeat the dated "never charge with the mod", but the truth is, I've yet to hear of a single mod having issues due to charging. The odds of any such troubles, are very similar to a charger having a malfunction.
Of course, if you're using a very old mod, it might be questionable, but I have sealed mods from 3-4 years ago that are still working fine... note that any sealed mods (non-replaceable batteries) don't have any alternative ways to charge anyways. Odds are that the batteries will be the part that will fail before the mod's charging circuits does.
Manufacturers of mods, would not be adding this feature if they hadn't tested and insuring that it was safe, otherwise they'd be at the end of constant lawsuits and the news would be hitting the web quite fast.
Regulated mods use charging circuits similar to cell phones, they are set for a specific level of power, either 0.5, 1 or now even 2 A.
Note that the faster you charge a battery will impact it's overall lifespan. In part, this is due to the heat generated from the charging, the cooler the battery, the better for it, always. Most chargers can start at 1/0.7A and separate the output down to 0.5A.
Regardless of wall adapter, the mod will only use what it's rated for (or up to it), so if you have a mod that charges at 1A:
0.5A wall adapter = mod charges at 0.5A
1A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
2A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
Same if you have a newer mod that charges at 2A
0.5A wall adapter = mod charges at 0.5A
1A wall adapter = mod charges at 1A
2A wall adapter = mod charges at 2A
But again, the faster you charge a battery, the hotter it will get and the lesser the lifespan of the battery (less recharging cycles).
I won't get into more specifics as you can check out Mooch's blog (he's easy to find) as he is the most regarded expert online.
And if you have an adapter that gets really hot, to say it simply: get another one. Adapters are built to provide their rated power output safely. A cheap one has sub-par quality parts and might be risking to use with ANY device. Stick with reputed brands.
And yes, charging via your computer's USB port is fine, and will not cause issue like some believe. If your port goes bad over charging a device, it is because the port would have failed regardless of what you plugged in it. Computer ports (USB 2.0) output 0.5A.
I've used several adapters, my computers for many years and I've yet to have a single issue, regardless of the power output. I tend to use lower power due that I prefer to charge my devices slowly (so 0.5 and 1A power output).
I charge just about all of mine via the mod and it's never been an issue, when I tested the batteries "in case" due to all the paranoia that so many have about it, I found that the batteries were just fine. I even take some batteries that have only been charged all their "lives" in my mod (Eleaf TC100W, which is a parallel), and at least several months. When I did a voltage test at discharge and they were on the spot, perfectly aligned/married still, and they charged just fine on my charger (and now back in a mod).
I also have monitored the power flow to my mods during charging, and even when I vape while plugged in, found that the power flow doesn't change, so the charging circuit appears to split the power, so the "bypass" allows one (mod) to be using the power both to fire the mod and charge simultaneously. I can't confirm this is the situation for all mods, but all the ones I have and tested appear to function as such. I know that some believe that the power gets switched from charging to firing the mod, or to stop the charging and draw from the battery at the firing, but I've yet to see evidence of this.
Let me know if I missed something, and please go read and enjoy all my other entries as I'm building my blog, I'm trying to cover every aspect of vaping that I know about. I'll keep adding items as I think of them and have the time to write them.
