Bad Luck with 900mah X2 Batteries :(

[Jolteon]

So I have loved my 650mah manual X2 battery since I got it in October, it's been a trooper and has worked fine since I got it.

However, I wanted to get another battery since I loved the 650 so much so I ordered a 900mah sky blue X2 manual. It was a revelation in battery life, relegating my 650 to backup duty, which was nice. One problem, it died after about a month of use. It just stopped firing one day after swapping T3 tanks.

I contacted SI customer service and after some troubleshooting they agreed to send out a replacement with me shipping back the defective battery on my dime. I didn't mind doing that, a small price to pay for excellent customer service.

After waiting about a week for the whole turnaround, my replacement 900mah X2 showed up last Friday. Today it's dead less than a week later. Same story, was working fine, went to change tanks and nothing. My 650 is still working just fine still (thankfully). I tested the 900mah on a multimeter and it shows 0v when turned on (even when connected to the pass-through), the 650 shows ~3.7v, as it should.

I've already contacted SI again for another replacement, basically wanted to vent a little since I have yet to really enjoy my 900mah battery for any length of time. I don't really want to pay for return postage yet again.

Going to give the 900mah one more shot, if it dies again, I'm switching to a joyetech eGo or a 510 mod.

Has anyone else had a problem with their X2's similar to this?

 

[MorpheusPA]

At the moment, I have four X2's (3x1,300, 1x900) and all are going strong four months in. I rotate them regularly, so really they've only had about 3/4 months of heavy use each.

 

[Dac311]

Yeah. Rotating batteries in important. I've always rotated 2-3 at a time and have never had one fail on me. Seems every time I hear of batteries crapping it out, it was their go to/only one.

 

[Jolteon]

With the replacement battery I did rotate them. With a fresh charge in the morning, the 900mah usually runs out of juice shortly after getting home from work, I throw it on the charger and fire up the 650mah. The 650 usually lasts till around lunchtime, like today, and I'd switch to the 900 again.

Then we get what happened today, I came home from work and swapped tanks on the 900 and nada... :/

 

[Tail11]

I had a 900 manual die on me after about a month of service. I was rotating similar to you Jolteon. Wonder if it was a bad batch? I just sent my bad battery back, so I'll have to wait and see what the new one does.

 

[Jolteon]

I just priced out an eGo kit with some Kanger T3's and heads and I don't want to pay that either. I feel trapped :/

I'm too invested in 808/SI stuff to change at the moment.

Really hoping I can get a quick replacement and that it keeps working...

This has been a bad week for me with a broken T3 tank (thanks cat!) and a leaky one. Down to one T3 tank, four heads, and one battery

 

[Imagine]

did you get liquid inside the battery by any chance? Liquid can still kill a manual if the liquid gets inside the battery...

Also did it fall or was dropped at all?

If not just let CS know and they will swap it out for you for sure.

 

[Imagine]

did you try pulling up the center post to make a better connection?

 

[trichman]

I have had to pull up the posts on my T3's on occasion to get them to work especially when going from one battery to a different one. Not a bid deal. I love them on my manual X2's and can't wait to get my hands on the spinner in my vapemail today.

 

[Jolteon]

did you get liquid inside the battery by any chance? Liquid can still kill a manual if the liquid gets inside the battery...

Also did it fall or was dropped at all?

If not just let CS know and they will swap it out for you for sure.

No liquid on the battery, I haven't had any T3 leak for a while, and there was definitely no chance of water damage. It was not dropped or anything, I tried pulling on the center post, but as it's measuring 0-volts when turned on that wouldn't have helped anyway.

I have a feeling there's a bad batch with some bad/loose wiring on the center pin that causes it to lose contact with the internal battery for some unknown reason.

Maybe the T3's stick to the center post and it twists and breaks it when removed on these particular batts?

 

[Imagine]

hmm not 100% sure...usually a bad battery ships DOA though...but they will of course swap it out for you.

 

[Bimini Twist]

Just a shot in the dark here. Are you using the same USB charger every time? I don't know that it will make a difference since I've charged my 1300s on several different set ups - iPhone (500mA?) adapter, 500mA adapter, 1A and 2A adapters. I've never used my computer, though.

Still, if you've used only one adapter setup...well, it could get expensive trying to troubleshoot that, but ...

 

[Konstantine]

hmm not 100% sure...usually a bad battery ships DOA though...but they will of course swap it out for you.

One of the X2's my aunt ordered last time it was broken from the moment she got it. Unfortunatelly she didn't have an account on the site and made a quick order and didn't bothered contacting etc.

On all VOLT batteries the wiring is made with kynar (wire wrap) wire which is strong and insulated but very stiff, it breaks on the connection points and i had many of them fail at me too, usually the red (positive) wire on the 78mm batteries but the X2's have the same wirings. Poor soldering contacts may cause this.
But i believe the little guy who removed the insulation of the wire before soldering used excessive force creating metal fatigue on the starting point of the insulation removal.

 

[Jolteon]

Welp, since SI was awesome enough to send out another 900mah and not have me send my broken one back I took it apart to inspect it. It appears my assessment about the twisting centerpost was correct.

Notice how the yellow wire is coiled up, it had broken its connection to the center post after ~10 installations and removals of cartos. When I pulled the button assembly out the center post wire just sorta came out like that, all other wires were still soldered securely.

Wonder if there's something SI can do to improve the integrity of this part? Maybe something to keep the center post from spinning when installing and removing cartos.

I might put a small dab of dielectric grease on the center post of my new 900mah when it arrives to hopefully avoid this problem again.

This is all very odd to me as I've mentioned before my 650 manual has had hundreds of installations and removals of cartos and it still works like it did the day I got it. My 900's couldn't last more than a month, and in the case of the last one, less than a week.

 

[SteveI]

I've had 2 x2's for about 2 months, 650 & 900, both manuals. Along with a few small batteries, I would charge 1 over night, and use it the next day until it ran out, then switch to the little batteries. The 900 would make it almost the whole day.

When my sis got into vaping, I gave her most of my small batteries, so now I charge each battery a little more than every other day. Both have been troopers, solid.

Now I have a 650 spinner, I am charging less frequently again, and loving 'em. I find that on T3's 4.3 is perfect for me, but 3.7 is ok, so my trusty x2's still get a lotta use. Oddly, the spinner is my dedicated battery for my CE3's, so I can run them at 3.4-3.5v.

 

[Jolteon]

Just got my new black 900mah X2 manual and upon first inspection the center post is different than the one that was on my two dead sky blue models.

Hope this means good news for me!