About VTC5A

[Mirx23]

Hello friends, in my group of vaping friends there has been a controversy about vtc5A batteries.

It is seen that there are 2 different types, the ones that have a "G" in the wrap and another model that has a "K"

It seems that the one with a "K" is better than the one with a "G"

We have contacted a vaping shop and they have told us that they have contacted MURATA and that their response has been that it is true that there are 2 models and that one is of better quality than the other.

I personally have not noticed differences and I have of the 2 models, I would like to ask you if you have also noticed differences between models or if you have any kind of information.

Thanks.

 

[Izan]

@Mooch ,

Your input is respectfully requested.

Cheers
I

 

[Mooch]

K = Koriyama, Japan factory.
G or SG = Singapore factory.

I would be stunned if a vape shop was actually able to contact Murata. They typically do not respond to end-users directly and they do not want vapers using their batteries. To say that they have two levels of quality would be unheard of. Even if true there is absolutely no reason for them to tell an end-user that.

IMO, the shop contacted their distributor/reseller and they told them what they thought was going on. That is not a reliable source of information as they have done no testing.

Because we get all of our round batteries as excess inventory and unauthorized sales we cannot make statements like “K batteries are better” without testing a lot of batteries from both factories. Shipments can be in storage, sitting around for a couple of years before we get them. They can be stored in hot environments. They can be lower grade cells. Or a mix of all of those in addition to perhaps some recently made, decent grade cells mixed in. IMO this would have a much larger effect on a battery’s performance than the differences between factories for the same model number battery.

Even though we might want to perpetuate the myth of “Made in Japan is always better”, all this makes it much too difficult to generalize and say that K is better than G. Perhaps they are a tiny bit better but perhaps not. I don’t think we would even notice the difference if there was though.

We’re not able to reliably detect much MUCH greater differences between batteries. I see evidence of that every day. IMO, until someone does some comprehensive testing of a large number of samples of both the G and K versions we can’t say one is better than the other.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

We have contacted a vaping shop and they have told us that they have contacted MURATA and that their response has been that it is true that there are 2 models and that one is of better quality than the other.

Most likely lying to you.

I would be stunned if a vape shop was actually able to contact Murata. They typically do not respond to end-users directly and they do not want vapers using their batteries. To say that they have two levels of quality would be unheard of. Even if true there is absolutely no reason for them to tell an end-user that.

IMO, the shop contacted their distributor/reseller and they told them what they thought was going on. That is not a reliable source of information as they have done no testing.

Exactly.

 

[Mirx23]

Thank you very much @Mooch for your extensive explanation, I fully trust what you say since I have known your work for a long time.

 

[Evi|grin]

Singapore has been making high quality electronics for many many years. They made hard drives for PCs for ages as well as many other components.