Efest 18650 drains very fast

[catlady60]

Is it normal for a 2000mVh IMR Efest 18650 not to last me a day? Or should I buy either the purple Efest?

Lately, the charge on my batts have been lasting me less than a day.

I charge them with an Intellicharger I2, BTW.

 

[Baditude]

I got to say that I'm not a fan of Efest batteries. In my research, I've found that Efest tends to over-state the specifications of their batteries.

My personal experience has proven to be much better with AW IMR's. They are worth the couple extra bucks. I have used AW IMR batteries in both my regulated and mechanical mods for nearly 2 years and been quite happy with their performance and longivity. In fact, I have a couple of AW 18650 IMR batteries in my current rotation which are about 2 years old and just now starting to show their age.

On a whim last summer, I purchased a couple of 14500 Efest IMR (for my daughter's mechanical mods) and a couple of 18350 Efest IMR (for my Mini Provari), and put them in rotation with my AW's. No noticeable difference for the first 2 - 3 weeks, then the Efests started to not hold a charge as long as when new. They soon got put in a drawer for a rainy day, and I'm now using only AW's. My daughter commented around the same time that her new Efest batteries were only lasting half as long as when new. I ended up giving her my AW IMR 14500's.

My , you get what you pay for.

Andrew Wan (AW) is a distributor in Hong Kong who purchases large quantities of batteries from Japan (known to produce the best batteries in the world). Not all batteries are created equal, and AW knows this. He and his crew individually test each battery, pick the best, place the red wrapper and hologram AW sticker on them and sell those as AW batteries. You are paying extra for the assurance that AW batteries have been cherry picked as a better battery on the inside.

Knowing that AW batteries are the most popular high drain batteries in the world, deceitful middlemen in the industry are counterfeiting AW batteries with lesser quality batteries. Buy only from authorized AW dealers such as RTD Vapor, Provape, and Super T Manufacturing among some others. All Alibaba AW batteries are fakes, and many from EBay and Amazon are also.

Rechargeable Batteries

 

[catlady60]

I got to say that I'm not a fan of Efest batteries. In my research, I've found that Efest tends to over-state the specifications of their batteries.

My personal experience has proven to be much better with AW IMR's. They are worth the couple extra bucks. I have used AW IMR batteries in both my regulated and mechanical mods for nearly 2 years and been quite happy with their performance and longivity. In fact, I have a couple of AW 18650 IMR batteries in my current rotation which are about 2 years old and just now starting to show their age.

On a whim last summer, I purchased a couple of 14500 Efest IMR (for my daughter's mechanical mods) and a couple of 18350 Efest IMR (for my Mini Provari), and put them in rotation with my AW's. No noticeable difference for the first 2 - 3 weeks, then the Efests started to not hold a charge as long as when new. They soon got put in a drawer for a rainy day, and I'm now using only AW's. My daughter commented around the same time that her new Efest batteries were only lasting half as long as when new. I ended up giving her my AW IMR 14500's.

My , you get what you pay for.

Andrew Wan (AW) is a distributor in Hong Kong who purchases large quantities of batteries from Japan (known to produce the best batteries in the world). Not all batteries are created equal, and AW knows this. He and his crew individually test each battery, pick the best, place the red wrapper and hologram AW sticker on them and sell those as AW batteries. You are paying extra for the assurance that AW batteries have been cherry picked as a better battery on the inside.

Knowing that AW batteries are the most popular high drain batteries in the world, deceitful middlemen in the industry are counterfeiting AW batteries with lesser quality batteries. Buy only from authorized AW dealers such as RTD Vapor, Provape, and Super T Manufacturing among some others. All Alibaba AW batteries are fakes, and many from EBay and Amazon are also.

Rechargeable Batteries

I didn't know about Efest overstating the capacity of their batts. Question is, how do you measure the actual capacity?
I got my Efest 18650s from MBV, but my 18350 batts came from Amazon.

 

[anumber1]

I didn't know about Efest overstating the capacity of their batts. Question is, how do you measure the actual capacity?
I got my Efest 18650s from MBV, but my 18350 batts came from Amazon.

Be wary of ebay and amazon.

I have purchased knockoff kangertech tanks and AW batteries from amazon.
I truly belive the amazon seller had no idea his AW batteries were fake. They looked pretty authentic other than where the term RoHS was printed. The "O" in RoHS was capitalized. it's not on a real AW. This was before AW went to the new hologram sticker.
The Kangertech tanks lacked "Kangertech" etched into the base.

The tanks were cheap enough that I just chalked it up to "stupid tax". The batteries concerned me because I had purchased them to go with my first mech mod and was in the process of learning sub ohm vaping.

Those counterfeit batteries could be anything and probably not going to live up to the ratings that they were marked as.
I really dont need to find out my counterfeit AW batteries are really ICR, 2 amp batteries while inhaling from my new .7 ohm build.

Cheap, knockoff tanks may or may not work right. Cheap, knockoff batteries may or may not blow up, violently, inches from my face!

Bargain hunting when buying batteries is not a risk I am going to take again.

 

[Baditude]

I didn't know about Efest overstating the capacity of their batts. Question is, how do you measure the actual capacity?
I got my Efest 18650s from MBV, but my 18350 batts came from Amazon.

If you are lucky, battery manufacturers list their specifications either on the battery itself (mAh capacity) or listed on the product sheet (C rating or amp rating). They can put whatever number they wish, there is no standardization process which oversee's the specs as authentic or accurate.

All I know is the flashlight enthusiasts have been testing batteries for years and take the specs very seriously. Word from them is Efest overstates their specs, much like Trustfire, Ultrafire, and Surefire do. One recent report from the flashlight forums said the new purple 18650 35 amp battery tested out to be only 20 amps. Now that's scarey.

 

[catlady60]

Bargain hunting when buying batteries is not a risk I am going to take again.

Problem solved. I set up an account and ordered a real AW 18650 from RTD Vapor.

 

[Froth]

All I know is the flashlight enthusiasts have been testing batteries for years and take the specs very seriously. Word from them is Efest overstates their specs, much like Trustfire, Ultrafire, and Surefire do. One recent report from the flashlight forums said the new purple 18650 35 amp battery tested out to be only 20 amps. Now that's scarey.

It does need to be said though that the use of an 18650 in a flashlight is not an ideal comparison for use in a vaporizer so a lot of the drain testing that is done over a period of time(say, 10 minutes) would never actually occur in normal vaping, You have to figure you're turning a flashlight on and you usually plan to leave it on for a long duration so making sure a high drain battery does what it should is definitely necessary. The Purple Efest 35A's should be re-worded, the 35A is their rating for "pulse" usage, which from what I have found is the rating for a 60 second pulse, so for 60 seconds sustained it can discharge 35A. I can never think of a time where I have fired a very low resistance build for more than 10 seconds, ever. So using the battery for vaping works out very well in my experiences, since vaping in and of itself is an activity that provides pulse current to the battery, not a sustained drain.

I own two of the purple Efest 18650 35A batteries along with numerous others and I feel I should share a few words, I have been running them in all sorts of builds ranging from .20 to .80, I have thoroughly taxed them in my opinion and they honestly give my Sony VTC5's a run for their money in battery life, so I wouldn't personally discount a battery simply from a test done that is in my opinion a little skewed by the focus on drain over a sustained period of time for a given amperage. Please keep in mind the ONLY Efest batteries I have used are the Purple series, I was never a fan of Efest but the purple series has really changed that. I have a dual 18650 bottom feeder(batteries in parallel) that can go through 10ml of juice at .4 ohms and both batteries will still be above 3.70v with the Purple Efest 35A, that lasts me three entire days without charging.

 

[Baditude]

Good points made by Froth. It's true that flashlights are a low drain application, compared to the high drain application of personal vaporizors. It becomes even more critical when we use these high drain batteries in high wattage applications like sub-ohm rebuildables.

The current status quo is the flashlight enthusiasts are the only technical people who are performing independent tests on the batteries that we use in mods. It would be nice to see those with the technical know how and instrumentation to do independent testing of batteries more applicable to our needs.

 

[JeremyR]

I would go through 2-3 or 4 of those a day depending on what ohms I'm running. 3 ohms will last at least twice as long as 1.5ohm. Also depends on how you vape.. 300 puffs a day or 600 puffs? Ect

What ohms and what kind of apv are you using?


The thing with flash lights is they probably put high amp draw bulbs in them that need the high drain. A bulb that pulls 5-10 amps? or something. Flash light could be on till battery dead.

 

[Rickajho]

It does need to be said though that the use of an 18650 in a flashlight is not an ideal comparison for use in a vaporizer so a lot of the drain testing that is done over a period of time(say, 10 minutes) would never actually occur in normal vaping, You have to figure you're turning a flashlight on and you usually plan to leave it on for a long duration so making sure a high drain battery does what it should is definitely necessary. The Purple Efest 35A's should be re-worded, the 35A is their rating for "pulse" usage, which from what I have found is the rating for a 60 second pulse, so for 60 seconds sustained it can discharge 35A. I can never think of a time where I have fired a very low resistance build for more than 10 seconds, ever. So using the battery for vaping works out very well in my experiences, since vaping in and of itself is an activity that provides pulse current to the battery, not a sustained drain.

If you knew anything about flashlight enthusiasts you would know they don't test a battery by sticking it in a flashlight and seeing how it's workin' ten minutes later.

Batteries and chargers

How do I test a charger