Blue "AW 18650 2800mah" batteries?

[Oktyabr]

One of my favorite suppliers has these (flat top) in stock for around $8 each BUT that is all the battery says on it! I chatted with one of their customer service reps and he didn't have access to any more information about them either. IMR? Unprotected? It sounds like I buy one I take my chances. I want to use them in my VAMO and worry about getting poor performance from a *protected* battery, as well as safety issues...

Any idea what sort of battery this might be? Blue in color, gold and black "AW" sticker, the side has the + and - marks and between them all it says is "18650 2800 mah". Battery has that little indentation around the positive end.

 

[MiamiMom63]

I personally stick with only the red AW 18650 batteries which are safe chemistry. They are the only ones that work in my Provari, and I feel they perform better. I could be wrong but that's what I think anyways. I think they make AW 18650 protected batteries also, so maybe those are the protected ones. All I know is when I first got my Provari, I tried using protected AW 18650 batts and it kept throwing error codes and shutting off my Provari.

 

[y cherry y]

Your Vamo also needs unprotected batteries. It has safety features built in and the circuitry gets "confused" by the protection. Regular red AW's will work well. So will Efest or the Panasonic CGR 18650CH hybrids. If ever in doubt, choose a vendor who knows their stuff and doesn't mind helping you over the phone.

 

[Baditude]

I've heard reports of fake AW batteries. Sounds like someone was able to find some AW stickers and stuck them on some generic batteries. I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole, myself.

Get the genuine battery. RTD has great selections and guarantee the batteries they sell are genuine brand batteries. RTD Vapor AW Batteries

 

[tc1]

As far as I know ... the blues are generally Desay or Samsung ICRs. Someone could have just put AW stickers on the batteries -or- AW is working with Samsung now.

Even if they're ICR ... they should work in the Vamo. Hard to say without a pic of the specific one you're looking at though.

 

[MiamiMom63]

In fact, I get red AW batts for all my mods, even the 14500's.

 

[PhreakySTS9]

AW IMR batts are good enough for VV mods, that's what I would stick with.

 

[poetofisis]

Hmm... not sure, but it has been my experience that blue batteries are Li-ion and the red are LiMn (lithium manganese), commonly referred to as IMR. I've noticed that batteries higher than (roughly) 2200 mah tend to be Li-ion or hybrids. I've never had an issue with the lithium-ions (most of the scare talk surrounding them is entirely unfounded) that came with my old re-branded LavaTubes, but I would definitely recommend the usage of IMR as it definitely has benefits over the former (lower internal resistance = less heat during discharge, etc).

Reference material:

Lithium ion safety
Battery Chemistry Comparison 1 - Comparison 2

*edit* I'm pleased to see my more readily available Efest's perform quite admirably compared with AW IMR's That's a relief!