Battery Orientation in Box Mod : iStick 100

[akksnv]

I have a "hypothetical" question for the battery/safety pros if I were to have hypothetically accidentally put one of two 18650 batteries in my iStick 100w, would that cause any safety concerns, or is it just "wrong" but not necessarily dangerous? If it is dangerous, is it only dangerous white it was in upside down, or could this have done any permanent damage to either the battery or mod? I didn't notice any problems other than my battery getting drained much quicker than normal (based on the charge indicator on the iStick), but that would make sense if it was only "seeing" one battery.

However, here comes the weird part. Before taking batteries out, my charge showed a little under half charged. When I took the battery out that was upside down (still having one battery in correctly), the charge indicator dropped to nearly dead. When I flipped the battery and put it in correctly, the charge indicator showed a little over half charged. It's like when in was in upside down, it wasn't completely ignored but it also wasn't recognized for it's full capacity.

I then put the batteries on the charger and noticed the battery that was in correctly showed about 3.7v and the upside down battery showed just under 4v. Both batteries had a fresh charge prior to one being put in upside down, so this kind of confirms the one was not ignored but also not used normally (as it was not at full charge but not an equal discharge). For what it's worth, the battery that was in upside down is the one on the right (I'm not sure if that matters with how current is pulled). I was vaping all day at around 14w.

Edit: I should also add that the charge levels that i mentioned above might not be 100% accurate to what they really were, but are accurate enough for the point I was trying to make. For example, I said the correct battery alone showed nearly dead on the charge indicator but showed about 3.7v on the charger. Maybe it wasn't really nearly dead (but was much lower than before) or maybe it was lower than 3.7v.

 

[classwife]

Moved to VV/VWAPV Discussion and added iStick 100 to title

 

[sonicbomb]

The question clearly isn't hypothetical, just don't do it.
As to whether you have damaged your batteries, I don't know. I did a quick search and I couldn't find any mention of reverse battery protection.

 

[Baditude]

If a regulated mod doesn't have "reverse battery protection", placing the batteries in the wrong way could fry the circuit board.

 

[nyiddle]

I'm not exactly sure if your batteries are damaged, but I can confirm that they're unmarried because one was clearly discharged ~half a cycle more than the other.

I'd get a new pair for the 100W just to be safe. Batteries in series need to be married.

 

[akksnv]

Baditude, thanks for the information, that's good to know.

Nyiddle, they are "permanently" unmarried from this one incident? I've since gave them both a full charge, and this is the one and only time something like this has happened. I'm always sure to charge them both at the same time and alternate which side each goes into.

 

[nyiddle]

Baditude, thanks for the information, that's good to know.

Nyiddle, they are "permanently" unmarried from this one incident? I've since gave them both a full charge, and this is the one and only time something like this has happened. I'm always sure to charge them both at the same time and alternate which side each goes into.

Yes, technically, because one was at 3.7V and had to charge all the way to 4.2V and the other only needed .2V or whatever to get to full charge.

Realistically you'd probably be fine using them but I wouldn't test the waters, personally.

 

[Jim_ MDP]

Mooch was quite clear we're too hung up on this issue.
Keeping them within a handful of cycles is still a minor fraction of their cycle life.
Treat them well, charge them to the same level and discharge them together.

I'm more interested with what happened going a full cycle, reversed in the parallel sled.

 

[nyiddle]

Mooch was quite clear we're too hung up on this issue.
Keeping them within a handful of cycles is still a minor fraction of their cycle life.
Treat them well, charge them to the same level and discharge them together.

I'm more interested with what happened going a full cycle, reversed in the parallel sled.

I mean it shouldn't be a problem, especially if your device's chip is operating well, but I don't like to test the waters in something like that. Also in something like a 3-battery mod like the RX200, which already kinda discharges batteries a little weird, it just seems like it could eventually lead to a bad news bears type situation. (inb4 everyone says "well you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.")

Also I didn't really mention it but it's quite curious that the battery was fully charged and managed to near-instantly get drained to 3.7V. And if I'm understanding correctly, that wasn't the battery that was inserted the wrong way. Dunno why that would happen, and I'd be a little cautious about that battery.

 

[akksnv]

Sorry I didn't think to mention it originally, it wasn't drained instantly, this was over the course of the day. In the morning I took them off the charger, throughout the day I noticed it was discharging faster than normal, and at night I went to charge again and realized one was upside down (which explained the fast discharge).