Battery Confusion

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Cake112

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Mar 26, 2013
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Tampa, FL
Hi,

I have an e cig that uses a 14650 3.7v battery that has 1000 mha written on side. And I have a charger to go with it.

I also have some new 14650 3.7v but these say 1050 mha. They look identical to the other ones. Despite the difference of 50mha (whatever that is), can I still use them in the unit and charger? And, yeah, what is mha if anyone else wants to know?

Thanks!

Cake112
 

Oktyabr

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Are you sure you don't mean "18650" batteries? The first two digits, "18", means it's (roughly, depending on how many labels it has glued to it!) 18mm wide. The last three, "650", means it is 65.0 mm long. "mah" stands for "milliamp hour". If you have a 500 mah charger then a 1000 mah battery would take approximately two hours to recharge from a completely dead state (which they should never get down to). If one fits in the charger the other one will too *but make sure they are rechargeable*!!!

Plenty more to learn about batteries but there is the basics for you...
 

fabricator4

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The main thing to make sure of is the battery chemisty is correct (lithium ion in this case) and the voltage, which appears to be the same. Different manufacturers may claim different mAh capacities for their batteries, either justifiably or falsely.

1000mAh (1000 milliamp hours) equals 1 Ah (one amp/hour) which means that when fully charged it will be able to supply 1 amp at the rated output voltage for 1 hour. In actual fact it's not as simple as that, but the exact details don't need to be explored here.

Generally the rating claimed should be the acheivable capacity that can be utilised for the majority of the life of the battery. New batteries may exceed the rated value by as much as 5% or more, but if they fail to perform to the specification then you can consider them faulty in some way.

Some unscrupulous manufacturers from some countries may claim the new battery capacity, not the capacity it will still have halfway through it's warrantied usable life, because they know the average person will have little idea about what it means beyond "more is better" and will have no means to accurately test the claim in any case.

New batteries will need to be cycled two or three times before they will start giving full capacity, though battery manufacturers are doing much better in this regard these days.

You'll probably have noted by now there's really not a lot of difference between 1000mAh and 1050mAh. The claimed difference may be due to the way the manufacturer tests and rates its product, or it may indeed have that tiny bit more capacity due to manufacturing improvements which are being made all the time.
 
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Cake112

Full Member
Mar 26, 2013
6
0
Tampa, FL
Thanks! Glad I asked re mAH; that helped explain.

The main thing to make sure of is the battery chemisty is correct (lithium ion in this case) and the voltage, which appears to be the same. Different manufacturers may claim different mAh capacities for their batteries, either justifiably or falsely.

1000mAh (1000 milliamp hours) equals 1 Ah (one amp/hour) which means that when fully charged it will be able to supply 1 amp at the rated output voltage for 1 hour. In actual fact it's not as simple as that, but the exact details don't need to be explored here.

Generally the rating claimed should be the acheivable capacity that can be utilised for the majority of the life of the battery. New batteries may exceed the rated value by as much as 5% or more, but if they fail to perform to the specification then you can consider them faulty in some way.

Some unscrupulous manufacturers from some countries may claim the new battery capacity, not the capacity it will still have halfway through it's warrantied usable life, because they know the average person will have little idea about what it means beyond "more is better" and will have no means to accurately test the claim in any case.

New batteries will need to be cycled two or three times before they will start giving full capacity, though battery manufacturers are doing much better in this regard these days.

You'll probably have noted by now there's really not a lot of difference between 1000mAh and 1050mAh. The claimed difference may be due to the way the manufacturer tests and rates its product, or it may indeed have that tiny bit more capacity due to manufacturing improvements which are being made all the time.
 
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