1st Post and a ? about batteries

[jkdozer-2012]

first and foremost Hi, ....
Ive been vaping for about a year now never bothered with the forums before. I mix my own juice and make some really nice blends but, that's not why I'm writing this here today.

Recently It seems Ive gone threw quite a lot of batteries I always keep My contacts clean and sparkling .

I was wondering has or do any of you discharge your batteries fully before recharge? I know some types of rechargeable batteries when not fully discharged before re-charging will maintain memory and not fully discharge and recharge to 100%.

 

[YoureFired]

I hardly ever wait 'til the batteries are completely dead before recharging. I've been keeping four on charge rotation about every 6-8 hours.. Works just fine for me.

 

[sailorman]

Do NOT fully discharge lithium batteries before recharging. Unlike the old NiCad batteries, lithium batteries do not have a memory effect.

If you are having a problem with battery life, the first suspect (besides low quality batteries) would be the charger. The output of your charger should never be more than the mah rating of the battery, preferably 1/2 or less. The other factor is age. The shelf life of a lithium is about 2 years FROM DATE OF MANUFACTURE, regardless if they're being used or sitting on a shelf somewhere. So, you could have a batch of old batteries.

The things that will prematurely kill a lithium battery are heat (usually from charging too fast), over charging and over-discharge.

Check your batt's with a multimeter when they come off the charger. They should read 4.2V +/- 0.03V.

I generally recharge my 18650 batteries when they hit 3.7 or 3.8V. That's a bit sooner than necessary, but it gives me a good 8 hours of vaping. I would recommend 3.5V for most cases. Lithium batteries are cumulative in their cycle lives, unlike NiCads. If a lithium battery is rated for 1000 cycles and you only discharge it halfway, you can charge it 2000 times. They should never be discharged below 2.7V under any circumstances. That's where most of the protection PCBs are set at, but that's the absolute lowest charge before they heat up, vent or explode.

 

[AttyPops]

Hi newbie-pro. Welcome to ECF.

Well, It may help to give some specifics if the above is not enough. Which batteries are you using? What charger?

If the the "batteries" are separate li-Ion cells with a protection circuit, they will auto-cut-out before going too low. I run sets of 14500's from max charge to cut-off without issues and have some sets that are over a year old. No problems. They do get old and eventually wear out. It's actually the charging that wears them out (like mentioned above. Fast charging in particular. I don't mind that my charger is slower.)

If, by "battery", you mean stock e-cig with a built-in battery... that situation is a bit different in some respects. Will provide more info if necessary/wanted.

 

[jkdozer-2012]

sailorman Nice informative post thanks for the info. I'm obviously behind the times in battery technology still living in the past drawing on knowledge of days gone by racing RC cars. I must of got a bad batch these all seem to kick around the same time.

It looks like the multimeter comes out of the garage and finds a new home on the counter in the recharge station /slash/ catch-all .. lol just what she always wanted more clutter up there haha.

 

[jkdozer-2012]

Hi newbie-pro. Welcome to ECF.

Well, It may help to give some specifics if the above is not enough. Which batteries are you using? What charger?

If the the "batteries" are separate li-Ion cells with a protection circuit, they will auto-cut-out before going too low. I run sets of 14500's from max charge to cut-off without issues and have some sets that are over a year old. No problems. They do get old and eventually wear out. It's actually the charging that wears them out (like mentioned above. Fast charging in particular. I don't mind that my charger is slower.)

If, by "battery", you mean stock e-cig with a built-in battery... that situation is a bit different in some respects. Will provide more info if necessary/wanted.

These are the EGO type 1100 mah Enclosed battery with activation switch light basic USB charger that comes with them.
The 14500's Like you mentioned I haven't graduated to that type of big boy status yet.. However I did stay at a holiday Inn express last night and have a ProVari on order

 

[AttyPops]

Good work on the H. Inn and the new order. However, once culprit with battery quick-death for those types of things is often the charger. Now, since it's a USB unit, you could be charging with USB or with the charger that you screw the battery into.

If USB, check that your USB power supply is sufficient... like a AC->USB charger. If screw-on, get a replacement.

If you don't think it's the charger, over-amping these units by using very low ohm stuff is reported to do that too. They get "flaky" and then fail. Also, shorted atty/cartos (internal short even with clean threads) can do that too. Reportedly fries the mosfets (part of the circuitry).

Also, buttons not working can sometimes be attributed to getting juice in the button.

 

[sailorman]

These are the EGO type 1100 mah Enclosed battery with activation switch light basic USB charger that comes with them.
The 14500's Like you mentioned I haven't graduated to that type of big boy status yet.. However I did stay at a holiday Inn express last night and have a ProVari on order

Well, I'm afraid the multimeter will be of limited use with an eGo battery. They're a regulated battery and won't show more than the regulated voltage, about 3.4V I think, even when hot off the charger.

Given the type of battery you have, there are really only 2 things that would be causing your problem. The first is your charger. The chargers included in your kit are notoriously cheap. It might not be fully charging, or it could be overcharging. You can meter the output to see if it's putting out 4.2V, but that's about all you can do. It might be worth investing $4 in a new one if you're going to keep the ego's for a while. That is the strongest possibility.

The other, less likely, thing is that they could just be old. If you're getting them from a low volume vendor, they could have been sitting on the shelf for a long time. There's really no other explanation I can think of. There have been known to be bad batches, but if this has been happening over more than an order or two....????

 

[YoureFired]

I broke one of my eGo chargers already by screwing the battery in too tight. It snapped like a twig.. but that was totes my fault.