Charging with Mod?

[Rockford]

I have a new mod (Tesla WYE 85W), just bought some Samsung 30Q batts and have been charging using usb on mod as I'm waiting for my battery charger to come (slow boat from china).

I've heard you shouldn't use your mod to charge batteries, what are the safety factors and will it harm the battery structure?

Thoughts? Thank you

 

[Baditude]

Well, just think about it for a moment. The charger components in a mod must be tiny to fit into the mod, while the electrical components in an external charger are larger and more robust, and more open to free air circulation to help cool the charger down (charging often causes heat production). I put more trust into an external charger being safer (and faster charging) than what's inside of most mods coming from China.

You are also able to monitor the batteries for heat production in an external charger; you can't do that if they are inside the mod. Feeling the mod for battery heat isn't very reliable.

Unless a dual battery mod has a DNA chipset inside, charging the two batteries together in the mod often results in unbalanced charging.

The weak link with charging with micro USB is arguably the micro USB format itself. It's probably the worse format that could have been chosen because of its tiny size and lack of durability. Therefore, charging by USB should probably be limited to "emergency" use and the USB port reserved for its primary function in installing firmware updates.



Since you have an external charger on order, you'll be fine charging your batteries inside the mod until it arrives.

 

[Rockford]

I understand about an external charger being more robust for long term everyday use, but in the short term can it harm the structure of the battery its self?

btw, mine is a single batt mod

Also there are a lot of usb battery chargers now on the market.

 

[Baditude]

I understand about an external charger being more robust for long term everyday use, but in the short term can it harm the structure of the battery its self?

Also there are a lot of usb battery chargers now on the market.

Did you watch Battery Mooch's video?

"In the short term"...no.

 

[Rockford]

Did you watch Battery Mooch's video? "In the short term"...no.

not yet, i'm asking you lol

 

[Baditude]

not yet, i'm asking you lol

Well, I posted it for you to learn from an expert and professional.

There's another thread asking a similar question:
Smok alien 220w question

 

[Rockford]

The video was good info, thanks. I feel as long as I'm here and feel for battery warmth while it's charging, it's fine to charge it in my mod temporally. Mooch's video has no prob with that.

Thank you

 

[Rossum]

btw, mine is a single batt mod

Then don't sweat it.

 

[Punk In Drublic]

I shadow @Baditude post in using the correct tool for the job. However, charging via USB can be used in emergencies if we understand the risks. Take note of the current output of your wall charger, the less current the safer. The majority are around 1amp @5 volts which should be safe but newer wall warts can be as high as 5+amps to facilitate fast charging with smartphones. I bring this up because we do not know the integrity of the regulated charging circuitry within the mod….if there is even one at all. As you know, heat is your enemy – so monitor your charging and if the device gets hot, stop immediately!

What Charger did you purchase? I have found Canadian retailers to have competitive pricing in comparison to buying from overseas. Not to mention the benefits of supporting our local economy and receiving quicker support should there be an issue, And of course, avoiding that LONG wait, especially given Canada Post’s massive backlog.

 

[DaveP]

The video was good info, thanks. I feel as long as I'm here and feel for battery warmth while it's charging, it's fine to charge it in my mod temporally. Mooch's video has no prob with that.

Thank you

USB charging isn't the prime method, but it's OK for when you have to vape and the battery is going dead. An AC USB charger is easier on the mod's electronics. I'd use a standalone multibay 115vac 1A/2A charger for daily charging at home and rotate your batteries to distribute the wear and tear of charging and recharging.

A quality USB charger will charge at the rate your mod is designed for. There should be a current limiting resistor built into your mod that will cause the mod to draw its design current from the USB charger. That's the reason you can use a high amperage USB charger on any device. The current limiting resistor controls the current draw.

How USB Charging Works, or How to Avoid Blowing Up Your Smartphone - ExtremeTech

Can I blow up my USB device?

There is a huge variance, then, between normal USB ports rated at 500mA, and dedicated charging ports, which range all the way up to 3,000mA. This leads to an important question: If you take a phone which came with a 900mA wall charger, and plug it into a 2,100mA iPad charger, as an example, will it blow up?

In short, no: You can plug any USB device into any USB cable and into any USB port, and nothing will explode — and in fact, using a more powerful charger should speed up battery charging. We now do this all the time with our mobile devices here at ExtremeTech, and we’ve never had a problem.

The longer answer is that the age of your device plays an important role, dictating both how fast it can be charged, and whether it can be charged using a wall charger at all. Way back in 2007, the USB Implementers Forum released the Battery Charging Specification, which standardized faster ways of charging USB devices, either by pumping more amps through your PC’s USB ports, or by using a wall charger. Shortly thereafter, USB devices that implemented this spec started to arrive.

If you have a modern USB device, you should be able to plug into a high-amperage USB port and enjoy faster charging. If you have an older product, however, it probably won’t work with USB ports that employ the Battery Charging Specification. It might only work with old school, original (500mA) USB 1.0 and 2.0 PC ports. In some (much older) cases, USB devices can only be charged by computers with specific drivers installed, but this is now going back more than a decade.

 

[Rockford]

I shadow @Baditude post in using the correct tool for the job. However, charging via USB can be used in emergencies if we understand the risks. Take note of the current output of your wall charger, the less current the safer. The majority are around 1amp @5 volts which should be safe but newer wall warts can be as high as 5+amps to facilitate fast charging with smartphones. I bring this up because we do not know the integrity of the regulated charging circuitry within the mod….if there is even one at all. As you know, heat is your enemy – so monitor your charging and if the device gets hot, stop immediately!

What Charger did you purchase? I have found Canadian retailers to have competitive pricing in comparison to buying from overseas. Not to mention the benefits of supporting our local economy and receiving quicker support should there be an issue, And of course, avoiding that LONG wait, especially given Canada Post’s massive backlog.

I got a Xtar MC2 as it had a lot of great reviews and was cost effective. Maybe in TO your B&M's are more competitive there, but where I am they are outrages price wise compared to anywhere online. I would love to support my local shops here if they were even half way competitive. I've even tried to deal with them saying I would pay them higher prices for the same product because I understand B&M cost's but they wouldn't budge on their triple price markups, and when you live on disability I cannot afford to pay those kind of prices.

 

[stols001]

I really think it's fine occasionally to be honest. And I am glad you found your "answer." It gets tricky with long term charging and badly made mods, and etc.

Anna

 

[Rockford]

After thinking about all this "usb" charging is not robust, too flimsy, bad electronics for everyday charging, I just remembered all the millions of phones being charged 365 days a year....on ... oh yah... USB PORTS!

Not saying I disagree, but there ya go

 

[Punk In Drublic]

After thinking about all this "usb" charging is not robust, too flimsy, bad electronics for everyday charging, I just remembered all the millions of phones being charged 365 days a year....on ... oh yah... USB PORTS!

Not saying I disagree, but there ya go

That is a valid point, but take note that a phone has a battery that was built specifically for that device. The batteries we use for vaping are not designed for vaping, in fact, they are not designed for anything outside a purposely build battery pack. We take on a higher risk by using these batteries in comparison to what is used within a smart phone.

 

[Rockford]

That is a valid point, but take note that a phone has a battery that was built specifically for that device. The batteries we use for vaping are not designed for vaping, in fact, they are not designed for anything outside a purposely build battery pack. We take on a higher risk by using these batteries in comparison to what is used within a smart phone.

Thats also a valid point, but a battery is still a battery and when charging there are chemical changes which can overheat no matter built for the phone or not. Not to mention the amount of times a usb cable is plugged into a phone every day and for the most part these usb ports still keep working.

 

[Foggy Road]

I had a Single battery SMOK mod that I never cared for. But it made a great single bay charger for nearly 2 years. Had 8 various 18650s in rotation and never had one show any deterioration in that time. I finally just got tired of messing with external batts. Retired all that gear moved back to internal stuff.

 

[stols001]

Phones are also designed to die every few years. Or sooner. This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the phone companies wanting you to buy a new phone. I just replaced mine which was approximately four years old. I did so because a) the battery was dying and b) the USB port was dying (because it is elderly).

Also, the battery went to hell in the last year or so, because the phone companies were not happy with my possession of an elderly, long paid for phone. They would keep installing these automatic updates without my permission that seemed to be ah, "Designed to" kill my phone. Like a charging screen that STAYED ON ALL THE TIME, to "monitor charging" and make the charging process last longer and take more time. Although I got the husband to uninstall them, it eventually got so complex I had to go get another phone.

Phones are oddly exempt from my clumsiness, perhaps because I don't like learning a whole new phone "thing" and I also resent the price of phones, since I utilize so little of their "I am a tiny computer" capacity. I will NEVER use my phone the way I use my laptop I learned to type at age 7 and I will be damned if I am stopping NOW.

I will note I never once thought my phone was in danger of blowing up I just needed one because well, I drive long distances now.

I will also note, that I would be unhappy with a mod that behaved in a similar fashion. I do sort of have a theory that Smok has a self-destruct sequence built into their mods, so that the user will buy the "next model" up to be the envy of all their peers.

That self-destruct sequence can be a WHOLE lot more unhappy than a cellphone, however. It's one thing if your battery door dies after a certain amount of time, after you've used it enough. It is quite another thing if your USB cord melts into your mod as your batteries vent.

No one wants that, for heavens sake comparing cellphones to mods is a bit like comparing oh I would say apples to oranges, but that's not good enough. Let's make it a comparison between a cargo container and a one legged donkey, pulling a cart. IDK, whatever. You are going to be a lot less safe trying to get that donkey to oh, let's say Mecca than you would be, hiding in the cargo cart in a deserted but moderately temperate part of the country. Since we are comparing things so much.

Anna

 

[Rockford]

Did I just get blasted? lol, It's okay Anna I still luv's ya

 

[My Batt Hurts]

I hope this doesn't sound flippant or anything, but my biggest concern with mod charging is breaking the usb connector. The internal batteries in many mods/pods will probably outlive it.

If you can charge externally, probably so much the better, but... I have one or two mods where the 18650's are a tight enough fit that I've torn the odd wrap.

Enjoy (?) your new charger when it arrives, but don't postpone your vape!

 

[Foggy Road]

I hope this doesn't sound flippant or anything, but my biggest concern with mod charging is breaking the usb connector. The internal batteries in many mods/pods will probably outlive it.

If you can charge externally, probably so much the better, but... I have one or two mods where the 18650's a tight enough fit that I've torn the odd wrap.

Enjoy (?) your new charger when it arrives, but don't postpone your vape!

You're right, I do need to shake the moths outta my wallet and order a few of those magnetic USB adapters.