battery life?

[vermeer]

Does anyone have an estimate on the life of 14500 batteries? I've been using AW and Trustfire protected batts for a couple months and I suspect they are not charging as well.

Thanks in advance

 

[Rocketman]

What does your "METER" tell you?
You do have a meter to check charged voltage, right?
Kind of hard to use mods, sort through batteries, check chargers, and
keep things going safely without a meter.

Six months of daily use and they will be weaker.

 

[BardicDruid]

Well it depends on how you vape, if you a heavy vaper the batt won't last as long as a light vaper. Anyway an AW 14500 is rated at 750mAH which for an average vaper should last the better part of the day if not all day, the AW IMR 14500 should last a little longer since their high drain. As far as the Trustfire and Ultrafire goes there's too much variation between batts so some will last longer than others but should be about the same as the AW's.

 

[Liv2Ski]

Well it depends on how you vape, if you a heavy vaper the batt won't last as long as a light vaper. Anyway an AW 14500 is rated at 750mAH which for an average vaper should last the better part of the day if not all day, the AW IMR 14500 should last a little longer since their high drain. As far as the Trustfire and Ultrafire goes there's too much variation between batts so some will last longer than others but should be about the same as the AW's.

Good advice. I would say this is true for standard resistance atty's/cartos. When you throw LR (~1.5 ohm) stuff at a aw 14500 I get about 4 maybe 5 hours tops out of a charge. But I do hit the thing pretty hard. Another way to look at it is I can get about 3 mls through a Cisco LR 306 using a 14500 on a Provape-1 before I need to change a batt

 

[Dougiestyle]

Battery life depends on resistance of the atty/carto you're using, efficiency of the circuitry of the mod and how much/often you use it. That's alotta variables. I'd say to check that your batteries are coming off the charged @ 4.2v. Also, make sure your connector is cleaned out. Use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to get into the threads.

 

[Baldr]

BuzzKill, that makes the Buzz Pro mod, bought a battery analyzer and ran some tests. Results in this thread.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/notcigs/217475-battery-tests.html

No matter what batteries you buy, over time, they'll degrade. And no matter what batteries you buy, your vaping habits (how often you vape, how hard a hit, the hardware you are using, the voltage, etc) will effect battery life.

 

[vermeer]

Thanks all.
Baldr, That's what I was asking--the degradation of the batteries over time. But I should get a meter--that was good advice Rocketman.

 

[JW50]

I am not familiar with the meter mentioned. However, it seems your question relates to how many charge cycles should be expected. This link may give some insight into issue. How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University
What I read here is that reduced mAh occurs with each re-charge. But, you are the one who decides when the "reduced" is too reduced. But from the figures provide, it seems that 250 or so re-charge cycles should not cause a reduction of more that about 20% in mAh from "new".

 

[JW50]

From the link provided by Baldr the following is noted:

Aw 750mah test #1 :
Description: 1 Li-ion cell, 1.0 Ah @ 1.00A
Started At: 8/5/2011 6:33 PM
Discharge Rate: 1.00 A
Starting Voltage: 4.17 V
Ending Voltage: 2.57
Total Time (hh:mm:ss): 0:35:55
Tested Capacity: 0.598 Ah

If I understand the testing, these are new AW batteries rated at 750 mAh. The results though were less than 750 - new. 598 mAh tested versus 750 mAh rated. Based on info at the Battery University link, that 598 will decline with each recharge. That tested mAh was achieved by taking battery to a 2.8v cut-off. I think normal standard would be to cut-off at 3.0v. (However, not many mAhs picked up between 2.8 and 3.0 if the graph of the testing results is correct.)

 

[BardicDruid]

It's been my experience that a battery will read the rated voltage but still only able produce less than the rated capacity. That's why I have a battery meter that loads the battery to find the capacity rather than the voltage, many times I checked the voltage and it read correct but the battery meter showed less than 80%.

This is the one I use: ZTS Multi-Battery Tester (ZTS-MBT-1)

But this one will do just as well: Tenergy 01117 T-333 Universal Battery Tester Checker for more than 12 Types of Batteries

 

[Stownz]

The MAH goes down, their capacity as they age. Recharging a pair of aw IMR 14500s 2x a day and I get about 2 months before I notice their capacity dropped to a point where I buy new ones.

 

[vermeer]

Now that's a straight answer--I appreciate all the help,