Can someone recommend a good 18650 and charger?

[paulw2014]

Horrible day yesterday. Both of my two AWs were out of juice. It turns out the cheap charger I had has gone bad, and failed the charge the battery. Good thing I found an charger for an old digital camera that outputs 4.2V, 400mah. I built a battery holder and soldered it to the cell phone charger and it successfully charged my batteries. Even then, I had to wait hours without vaping.

Got a Nitecore I4 and 5 more 2200mah cells on order now, so that'll never happen again.

Speaking of which, I probably should buy a spring too in case it drops. My REO (only one) is my ONLY PV right now. I've given away my vivi nova and EGO batteries since I got the REO.

 

[paulw2014]

That may be your conclusion but as stated many times in this an other battery threads, that is not always the case based on studying different types of batteries as they discharge.

Hi, I understand different batteries might have different curves, and I'm no expert on batteries. But I did see a few graphs, such as this one:

Notice how sharply the voltage plummets after 3.5V

 

[doots]

Go with Sonys VTC5 or VTC4's or AW 1600mah. I use a nitecore I4 and An Efest Luc 2 bay charger which I like much more than any tohers I have ever used. Hasr eadout of voltage on LCD screen.. Check them out..

 

[freedogg]

How can you tell the difference between old and new Efest Luc 4??

 

[BlueSnake]

Hi, I understand different batteries might have different curves, and I'm no expert on batteries. But I did see a few graphs, such as this one:

Notice how sharply the voltage plummets after 3.5V

I guess I'm missing your point. When using mechanical Reos it doesn't matter what happens after 3.7v.

 

[mackman]

How can you tell the difference between old and new Efest Luc 4??

The "old" version was a fixed charge rate. The new version allows one to switch between 0.5 and 1.0 V

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Hi, I understand different batteries might have different curves, and I'm no expert on batteries. But I did see a few graphs, such as this one:

Notice how sharply the voltage plummets after 3.5V

Doesn't matter because we swap batteries before 3.5 volts and better chargers will drop the charge rate as the battery gets closer to full.

What is import is that at any point in the curve above 3.5 the red line is higher, so it delivers a higher voltage longer than the others.

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Horrible day yesterday. Both of my two AWs were out of juice. It turns out the cheap charger I had has gone bad, and failed the charge the battery. Good thing I found an charger for an old digital camera that outputs 4.2V, 400mah. I built a battery holder and soldered it to the cell phone charger and it successfully charged my batteries. Even then, I had to wait hours without vaping.

Got a Nitecore I4 and 5 more 2200mah cells on order now, so that'll never happen again.

Speaking of which, I probably should buy a spring too in case it drops. My REO (only one) is my ONLY PV right now. I've given away my vivi nova and EGO batteries since I got the REO.

A bad charger can over charge and kill good batteries fast.

 

[paulw2014]

Thanks for the help so far guys.

I just took apart my REO and cleaned everything with alcohol. After cleaning everything, I measured the resistance between the flexible spring and the positive post on my RM2, and it read 0.1 ohm, which should be good.

Then, I put in a freshly charged battery in and the vape was awesome, just like when I first got the REO. The atty now makes a popping sound and gives off small "explosions" just like I wanted. In the recent days, I noticed that the vape was weak even with a fully charged battery. There was no sound when I hit the firing switch and the vape was bland.

Amazing what a good cleaning can do.

 

[JmanEspresso]

Cleaning your mech is the best. Nothing like a freshly cleaned and polished mod, hittin like a freight train to make a vapers day.

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Don't forget to add a little noalox to the contacts to keep clean longer

 

[Jet Knight]

best all round charger, I have a few but the nod goes to the I4, IMO. Batteries, hmm, AW gets the nod there, got to go with the Master's recommendations. Though those Sony V5's are looking good.

 

[KenD]

KenD,

When you get chance please link that site, I've been looking for those tests.

The site is dampfakkus.de. Click "Akkutests" in the upper left corner, "battery overview" from the menu that opens. You can then choose to sort the tests according to battery size, brand, and some other options. Not all batteries that are listed have been tested, but for many of them there are tests at 2, 3, and 5 amps (with some additional graphs for a number of the more popular batteries).

Enjoy

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[paulw2014]

Okay, I made a 0.7 ohm coil today and it beats my 1.0 ohm coil, which was better than my 1.3 ohm coil (first coil I made). I can honestly say the power of the 0.7 ohm scared me a bit when I first dry burned it to oxidize the coil initially. It glowed brighter than anything I've seen so far, as far as vaping is concerned.

My first vape was wow, this is strong. I think I'm addicted to lowering the resistance. I hope 0.7ohm would be my sweet spot now. I hope I never have to venture into 0.5 ohm or below, which I heard is dangerous...

 

[Filthy-Beast]

As with most anything when you push more power you need to know what's going on. For sub ohming you need understand the relationships between ohms, amp, battery discharge ratings. A .7 ohm coils pull 6 amps a .5 ohm coils pulls 8.4 amps and .3 ohm coils pulls 14 amps. notice how things increase as go lower in the ohms. You need to make sure your batteries max continuous discharge rating is higher than the amp load. You should also leave a safety margin by pulling no more than 70 to 80% of the max. So a .5 ohm coil is fine with an AW IMR 1600 mah but not an AW IMR 2000 mah battery.

 

[ltrainer]

KenD,

When you get chance please link that site, I've been looking for those tests.

Hi Fithy,
I just found this. IT might help. Here is Sony's testings of the VTC5 on discharge. Note the 2.5 amp line.

Here is the chart on on discharge of the AW 18650 from the battery comparator. This chart graphs 2 and 3 amp so I could compare to the 2.5 amp of the VTC5.

THe Sony reaches 3.7 volts about 1100 mAH.
The AW reaches 3.7 volts about 550 mAH.

Now perhaps the test's methodology is apples and oranges. I don't know. But I can say from my experience with both batteries that these results pretty much reflect what I am finding. Almost twice the run time for my 1.1 ohm coils. Looking at charts showing 10A also shows the same results with the VTC5s having twice the capacity to 3.7V. Its 4 Am here and I haven't had my coffee yet. <---That's my disclaimer for pretending to know anything about this stuff.

The chart for the VTC5s was pulled from here: http://www.intaste.de/community/dtf/technical_information.pdf

 

[MrPicC]

I use an i4 and it does take a while with vTC4s IMO but AW's charge up fine.
NOt sure where I found the below list but I'm pretty sure it was here some where. Hasn't been updated since VTC5s came out and I just use it as reference.. Still look up the batteries on your own.
In my REos I use SONYS. In my mini I'll use AW's.

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Lt just what I was looking for thanks!

 

[Chinner]

I'm not an authority on anything really haha but I recently took a chance on a couple of those new 2500 mah purple efest batteries that are supposedly 35a. I don't go much lower then .8, but so far these have been putting all my other batteries to shame. I've been metering constantly like an OCD person and after a long ... 12hr vape day they're still chugging along at 3.9v. I won't vouch for safety or the amp limit or anything else, but for us normal non crazy coil people that want good run time these are worth a try IMO.

 

[ltrainer]

I'm with you Chinner on these new batteries. I use the Sony VTC 2600 18650s. I believe that with the new SO kits coming out that these new type batteries are the batteries to use. In the past nipple tops were recommended but from what I've read on here flat tops should work fine with the new contacts. This is for Grands and Minis. For the Woodvil users I would go with these newer batteries now. Aws were very good in their day but I think they have seen their days. The original Grands were actually built around protected batteries, not AW IMRs. Ultrafire BRC 3000 mAH were the recommended battery. The only draw back that I can see is the throw on the firing pin will be longer with the metals. I am getting twice the vape time with mine over the AW 1600s.