advice needed for battery problems

[petrotech]

Dumb question, as I'm not familiar with your brand of charger. Does is have different settings for different battery types? Or a switch that say 3.2v, 3.6v etc? If it got switched by accident, it might be charging to a different voltage level.

 

[Skwij]

"Weak battery" warnings are usually an indication of excessive sag under load. This can be due to batteries that have excessive internal resistance, or it can be due to connection that's not up to snuff somewhere between the battery and the board in the mod.

The first thing I would try (and it's free!) is to clean the contacts on the batteries themselves and the battery contacts in the mod.

This. I have a few VaporFlask Stouts, VaporFlask 40, etc that this happened to. A good (and I mean GOOD) cleaning of the battery ends, and the inner contacts of the mods got things back on track.

Use a pencil eraser to remove grottiness, then 95% isopropyl alcohol, and THEN Deoxit Gold. Let dry completely.

Then pop them in the mod and see if you still get the "weak battery" warning.

 

[Hawise]

This is making my head hurt.

Seems like if the Pico and the charger were both fine, I can't see a way that a bad battery could make this happen. Even if the battery was junk you wouldn't have the Pico saying it was low, and the charger saying it was mostly charged. I could be missing something though.

You could see those results if a bad battery had excessive voltage sag. Put it under load in the Pico and it could drop past the cutoff, giving a 'weak battery' warning. Then stick it in the charger and it might register a much higher voltage at rest.

 

[englishmick]

You could see those results if a bad battery had excessive voltage sag. Put it under load in the Pico and it could drop past the cutoff, giving a 'weak battery' warning. Then stick it in the charger and it might register a much higher voltage at rest.

That makes sense. Is excessive voltage sag something that happens naturally when a battery gets old? Or is it more likely to be damage or a battery that was inferior out of the box, like a rewrap?

 

[Topwater Elvis]

That makes sense. Is excessive voltage sag something that happens naturally when a battery gets old? Or is it more likely to be damage or a battery that was inferior out of the box, like a rewrap?

Yes,

As batteries age and are used they lose capacity. They harder a cell is pushed the faster degradation takes place.
A 15a cell used at a 15a drain will have a much shorter lifespan than a 15a cell used at an 8a drain.
Even batteries stored unused lose capacity over time.
If damaged they can lose capacity.
One of the main problems with using re wrap, fake or counterfeit cells - there is no telling what actual cell or the CDR of the cell used under the wrap in many cases.

Using name brand cells bought only from known reputable vendors / dealers is the very best way to prevent receiving substandard cells.

 

[Baditude]

That makes sense. Is excessive voltage sag something that happens naturally when a battery gets old? Or is it more likely to be damage or a battery that was inferior out of the box, like a rewrap?

 

[Jazzman]

Both @Rossum and @Eskie got it right I believe, and it's just bad electrical conductivity due to poor contact at the battery cap or atty threads/510 threads or pin due to being dirty. Clean em.

I've experienced this many times for both myself over the last 2 years using Picos and friends Picos as well. It always turned out to be the same cause, and the same fix.

• Take off the battery cap and clean the threads and inside the cap where the negative part of the battery contacts. You will probably notice some black from the threads on the rag or paper towel you used. Good.
• Do the same for the battery cap threads in the mod (that the cap screws into). Probably some black again. Good
• Take off the atty and clean the threads for the 510 connector and the center pin. Probably won't see any black, but juice can do this too, so nothing lost cleaning this.
• Do the same for the 510 connector on the mod including the center pin.
• Throw it back together and take a vape

The first time I experienced this it took a while to figure out and I was thinking batteries until known good batteries that test well with very low IR did the same. But subsequent times for me and my friends has showed cleaning always returned the mod to full usability and performance. I think it is from the threads in the cap and mod eating up the threads over time (hence the black).

The only other case I have seen, and is a true outlier, is one friend wore out his battery cap and the threads wouldn't grab well (mostly stripped) and would only grab the battery loosely. He ordered a new cap and that was fixed. This is not likely since you would know this already and would mentioned the stripped threads in your post I think.

Give it a good clean (only takes 3 minutes with a damp rag, no need to go crazy with fancy products) and let us know if it helps.