AL85 battery problems

[pilsfire]

Hello,

I'm having some issues with my smok AL85 (single battery mod). I currently use the rba baby with the pre-installed coil.

The mod shows 'battery low' signal while my battery is fully charged (in external charger) at 60- 65 watts. Resistance reads 0,33 ohm and the batteries I use are sony vtc6's. These are 6 months old but it does the same with a brand new Samsung 30q.

vaping below 60w is possible but my batteries run low much faster than they used to. Plus at 56% battery at 50- 55 watts i get the 'battery low' message. (I am aware this is because of the voltage drop but shouldn't it be able to go lower?).

Thanks in advance!

 

[stols001]

It could be an electrical fault in the mod which is not reading the batteries correctly, if they're fairly new and you have taken care of them.

If you have another mod, you could test the batteries in those and see how they perform. If you are within the warranty period on your mod, I would say do this sooner rather than later, or possibly a good brick and mortar shop could help you isolate the problem (the batteries or the mod).

Drop off happens, but that seems to be rather an extreme drop off to me which is why I'm wondering if it could be the mod reading the batteries incorrectly. Full disclosure, I don't own this mod or any smok products, so someone may be along with a better solution for you.

Best of luck,

Anna

 

[Izan]

Hello,

I'm having some issues with my Smok AL85 (single battery mod). I currently use the rba baby with the pre-installed coil.

The mod shows 'battery low' signal while my battery is fully charged (in external charger) at 60- 65 watts. Resistance reads 0,33 ohm and the batteries I use are sony vtc6's. These are 6 months old but it does the same with a brand new Samsung 30q.

Vaping below 60w is possible but my batteries run low much faster than they used to. Plus at 56% battery at 50- 55 watts i get the 'battery low' message. (I am aware this is because of the voltage drop but shouldn't it be able to go lower?).

Thanks in advance!

Hi and welcome.
60 Watts is about the MAX you can expect out of a single 18650.
Using the 30Q, .33Ω@ 60 watts, Steam-engine estimates:

A two battery device is a better choice if you want to vape at 50w-60w and need a longer runtime.

HTH
I

 

[suprtrkr]

I tend to agree. You're pushing a single cell machine to the limit of its capacity. By the time you've come a couple tenths of a volt off full charge, the cell is stressing to make 60watts. Voltage sag is doing you in. You can safely vape it at that level, but expect it to shut down with lots of life in the cell yet, just as it's doing. If you want to vape that high, a two battery mod is recommended. Fill it with 30Qs or HG2s and vape on at 60 watts. Welcome to the board.

 

[Baditude]

I agree with the above comments.

The Samsung 30Q and Sony VTC6 are both rated at 15 amp continuous. That works out to about 45 watts per battery.

Samsung 30Q 3000mAh 18650…a great 15A/20 battery!
Sony VTC6 15A 3000mAh 18650…a fantastic 15A/20A battery!

​

 

[BrotherBob]

The mod shows 'battery low' signal while my battery is fully charged (in external charger) at 60- 65 watts.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Could see CoastalCowboy's comments regarding your problem.I could not say it better.
Re: https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/threads/smok-qbox.831267/#post-20080501

 

[pilsfire]

Thank you all for the input!

Indeed, 60- 65W is a bit too much for a single 18650. I am planning on making a coil to vape at lower wattage. However, my battery life is much shorter than it used to be.

Here are the 2 scenarios I observed:

• 1) I vape with the smok X4 coil at 0.16 ohm. At 50W the mod shows 17.78 amps and 2.913 volts.

• 2) I vape with the rba at 0.33 ohm. At 50W the mod shows 12.3 amps and 4.2 volts.

My question is:
Isn't a 18650 4.2 volts when fully charged? So once it drops below that I would get a battery low message?

Thanks!

 

[Baditude]

My question is:
Isn't a 18650 4.2 volts when fully charged? So once it drops below that I would get a battery low message?

If I'm understanding your question, no.

Yes, a fully charged battery is 4.2 volts. The nominal or average voltage will be around 3.7 volts. Most regulated mod's chip will cut off somewhere between 3.2 - 3.4 volts and give the low battery message.

I think what was happening in your case was you were asking the regulating chip to put out more watts than it could supply, thus the regulator chip was complaining it wasn't getting enough juice from the battery, so it gave the error message "low battery".

Now, since an unregulated mechanical mod doesn't have a chip, you might drain the battery below 3.0 volts or more. If a battery is drained below 2.5 volts, it can actually harm the battery beyond repair.

 

[Gramdogg]

Thank you all for the input!

Indeed, 60- 65W is a bit too much for a single 18650. I am planning on making a coil to vape at lower wattage. However, my battery life is much shorter than it used to be.

Here are the 2 scenarios I observed:

• 1) I vape with the smok X4 coil at 0.16 ohm. At 50W the mod shows 17.78 amps and 2.913 volts.

• 2) I vape with the rba at 0.33 ohm. At 50W the mod shows 12.3 amps and 4.2 volts.

My question is:
Isn't a 18650 4.2 volts when fully charged? So once it drops below that I would get a battery low message?

Thanks!

Ohms mean nothing on a regulated device. The battery powers the regulator not the coil so the Amps displayed are not correct either as it displays the power from the regulator to the coil not the power from the battery to the regulator. You will get much better run time with a Sony VTC5A then a 3000mAh because you won't get the battery low warning till much later if at all.

 

[Baditude]

You will get much better run time with a Sony VTC5A then a 3000mAh because you won't get the battery low warning till much later if at all.

All things equal (power demands), the Lg HG2 3000mah 20 amp battery would probably give the Sony VTC5A 2500mah 25 amp battery a pretty good race.

 

[Gramdogg]

Yeah at first but the low battery warning will start to pop up sooner and sooner over time with the HG2 while the 5A should be good at 65w for quite awhile before it even shows up.