Help: 510 battery problems! Dying over here.

[newunit18]

Hi. I'm a new member and new to vaping, just started and been off analogs for about 2 weeks now. I started off on a hand-me-down kit from one of my good buddies. he gave me a lo-res atty, couple cartos (that didn't work), 2 batteries, and a generic looking black PCC (think it's a joye brand...).

vaped for about 2 weeks on this kit, then the problems began...

first, one of my batteries started acting possessed at work in my cubicle. for some reason it wouldn't work right and wasn't charging right. read somewhere online to give it a good shake, so i did. well at this point i discovered to my dismay that the problem had been made worse. the battery all of a sudden had a constant light (blue tipped battery) on, even when the button was not pressed. the button no longer functioned and even if an atty was plugged up to it while the light was "on", there was no juice and the atty didn't even get warm. i would like to point out that the battery light wasn't on BRIGHT like it normally is, it looked really dim, but was on nonetheless.

after alot of jerking around with it i popped the plastic cap off the end and moved the little circuitboard with the ultrabright LED soldered to it. i found to my amazement that the battery would work, if and only if i grounded a solder point on the top of the board off on the inside of the metal tube containing the battery electronics. when i bent the circuit board over and touched this solder point to the wall of the tube it would flash like it had died or was being charged and if held there and constantly connected to it, it all of a sudden worked just fine, just like normal.

after about 4 days, the OTHER battery started doing the EXACT SAME THING... right now i have them BOTH ghetto rigged, each one with a rubber carto cap on top of it to hold the circuit board bent over touching the wall. now the performance of the batteries is suffering bad, i barely get any uptime at all and they die after give or take 15 minutes. they STILL take forever to charge too. this means i have alot of downtime and alot of temptation to return to analogs...

so i cured this problem by getting what i believe to be a 510 Tornado pink kit for my fiancee and using it when mine are dead. it resembles a pink tube of lipstick or something, and has a pink sheath that screws on over top of the atty so you don't get fluid leakage all over your fingers.

that has been working just fine for a few days now, and she has been very pleased with it. however, last night she plugged it in to charge before going to bed. the charger that came in the kit is combo charger. the battery end of it has a battery connector with a red/green led on it, connected to a usb tip. that tip then plugs into either a usb port or the other half of the charger, which is a wall adaptor with another led on it.

we woke up the next morning (today) with the light green. popped the battery off and started vaping, and 4 minutes later it died. we were very confused but nonetheless assumed since it was brand new practically it would be fine. we plugged it back up to the charger and strangely, the charger light STAYED GREEN as opposed to turning red like it should. the battery IS NOT charged, the button does not work and neither do any attys/cartos, but the charger for some reason seems to THINK it is charged. tried connecting the charger to another battery to figure out if it was the charger or that battery that was faulty, and even those messed up ghetto rigged 510 batteries i have had for a couple of weeks charge on it... i am assuming it must be the battery.

this is confusing because it's brand new. it was a friends, she bought it a while back as a spare kit and never used it, we got it after she had it for a while but it was new in the box. this battery is literally 5 days old, if that and it's already going bad.

tried mucking around with it while connected to the charger, if it's plugged up to the charger and the light is green, and i press the button on the battery, the charger light will turn red for a split second, and the light on the battery button will turn on and start flashing really fast (like it's bugging out) and randomly. after playing around it will sometimes flash like it's dying or whatever but then it just stops doing anything. no amount of anything will cause it to ACTUALLY charge.

has anyone ever had either of these problems with any of THEIR 510 batteries? i'm tempted to switch to a different model because either I'm got some sort of reverse midas touch with this model and ruin each and every battery that comes within a 5 foot radius, or these things are terribly mis-produced.

someone please help. i am hoping there will be some way to fix these damned things, read about some people with possessed batteries connecting them to wires or metal to short them out and draining them to get them working again, not sure if there's something like that i can do to cure this problem.

tried posting this to the battery technical issues forum, but i'm a new member. if someone that's been here a while can mirror this to that forum for me i'd be much obliged, i can read in it just can't post.

thanks guys. sorry for the long post, trying to explain everything in detail so you have all the info to work with.

 

[Automaton]

Ok, first question.

Did you use your low resistance (LR) atomizer on all of those batteries?

Using an LR on a 510 battery will kill it in short order. The mAh and amperage of the battery are too low to handle the power, and the switch can melt from the heat.

eGo's have higher mAh, but still not enough amperage, and still not a good enough switch. Some people don't have problems, but I have had eGo's die from using an LR. I vape heavily, and I melted the circuitry in the switch.

If you have been using LR's, go to regular atties, or get a mod that can handle the strain of an LR.

If you weren't using LR's on the eGo, did you happen to mix up the 510 charger with the eGo charger? Trying to charge an eGo with a 510 charger can mess up the charger, or the battery. You need to make sure you put it in the right charger.

Those are the issues that come immediately to mind.

 

[newunit18]

Ok, first question.

Did you use your low resistance (LR) atomizer on all of those batteries?

not the tornado. I'm kind of confused about the tornado. it's obviously the same type of e-cig as the tornado that I see online in shops but it was given to us in an E-Go carton/box so i'm not even sure if that's what it is.

Using an LR on a 510 battery will kill it in short order. The mAh and amperage of the battery are too low to handle the power, and the switch can melt from the heat.

heard this. have used the lo-res consistently on both normal 510 batteries, and noticed they got pretty hot, but when the baord is grounded to the metal tube there's no heating action unless i press the switch. don't really know much about the e-cigs since i just started but wondering if the switch was melted, would it continue to provide voltage even when grounded?

eGo's have higher mAh, but still not enough amperage, and still not a good enough switch. Some people don't have problems, but I have had eGo's die from using an LR. I vape heavily, and I melted the circuitry in the switch.

If you have been using LR's, go to regular atties, or get a mod that can handle the strain of an LR.

i'm a really REALLY heavy vaper myself even at 26mg/ml. i'll have to look into either a bigger battery or use this new regular atomizer i got.

If you weren't using LR's on the eGo, did you happen to mix up the 510 charger with the eGo charger? Trying to charge an eGo with a 510 charger can mess up the charger, or the battery. You need to make sure you put it in the right charger.

Those are the issues that come immediately to mind.

I DID use one of the generic 510 batteries on the e-go/tornado charger once, so that very well could have fried that battery, but i never did use the e-go/tornado battery on the 510 pcc. the 510 pcc that i use for my regular batteries is one of the cases that only fits a regular size battery and the tornado battery is huge in comparison and wouldn't fit in the pcc to charge. it's only been used on it's own included charger.

it's the one i'm more concerned about, since it worked so great while it WAS working. i wish more than anything that i could get it up and going again so i could use it. might have to purchase a spare battery for it or something.


has anyone mirrored this post in the battery forum?

 

[Automaton]

The eGo and the Tornado are literally the same thing. It's a Joye eGo that Joye allows Totally Wicked to re-brand for their website. So what you have is an eGo.

You probably fried the switch on those 510's. When I killed my eGo, it would still provide power to the atty. Problem was, it kept turning on by itself, and then gradually drained and died. I suspect I melted the mosfet on the switch, due to the heat from frequent vaping.

As to the Tornado... man, it's hard to say. It could be the charger, it could be the battery... it's hard to say without getting a voltmeter. And probably not worth it. If it happens to still be under warranty, let the supplier know and see if you can get a new unit.

Honestly, you're going to get more responses here than you would there anyway. You'd be surprised how many of the vets hang out in this forum. The length of the post probably delayed responses a bit. Just look around the newbie forum and post some greetings or info to get up to your 5 posts.

Also, I don't think you'd post it in the battery forum. That's for mod batteries, I believe. To be honest, this is the best place to post this.

 

[newunit18]

cool thanks for the help. i'm going to order a new battery and try to crack this one open and see if i can figure out what the problem is. if i figure it out i'll post it here. if anyone else has had this problem and can give some idea of what the hell this eGo is doing, this thread is FAR from closed at this point. i'm determined to find out why every battery i've ever touched has fried. i thought maybe it was bad vaping habits/heavy use but the eGo was in awesome condition and my fiancee took great care of it, didn't over-use, and doesn't hit it hard all the time like i do. her battery frying makes no sense whatsoever.

well i guess it's still a mystery at this point. argh. *rips out hair*

 

[Vapenstein]

The whole proprietary battery thing is a nightmare. The only way to really resolve it is to make the move to a PV that uses real batteries. Good luck.

 

[Automaton]

Like Vapenstein said, proprietary batteries are a nightmare, and extremely difficult to diagnose.

I've had really good luck with them - the eGo was my own fault - but it really is just luck. If something goes wrong, it's so hard to pin-point it. The parts are cheap even on the best models, and there's so many things that can fail. They can theoretically last for a couple years, but they almost never do because something always breaks down. Most people are lucky to get 6 months out of them. Especially if you vape heavily.

If you want to get something that's less likely to fail, and easier to diagnose and fix if it does, get a mod, like Vapenstein said. All-mechanical mods are the hardiest, because there's no wiring to break, and no chips to go haywire. It's just mechanical parts. With occasional cleaning, they can last basically forever.

That's what I'm doing, actually. Proprietary batteries are a crap shoot, and expensive to replace.

If you're not quite ready to invest in a good mod, by all means get another eGo kit. It really is the best of the proprietary e-cigs, in terms of quality. What you've experienced is probably an unfortunate fluke. They really are a quality model, and they tend to have good longevity, as these types of e-cigs go.

But as you've experienced, even they can die young for no apparent reason. If you get a mechanical mod, use protected/safe chemistry batteries, and clean it once in a while, it will basically never die. So if you're tired of battery roulette, and you're willing to invest in vaping, you may want to look into that.

 

[newunit18]

I really really want to get a mod with about 24 hours of life through even heavy vaping that i can use.

the only thing is, i'm pretty broke, and i don't really have a whole hell of a lot of money to work with from the start which is why i've been pretty much limited to cheap and/or hand me down models.

what i'm seriously considering right now is purchasing the PARTS to construct my OWN little mod, maybe something kind of like the roughstack or equivalent battery mod. thing is, i can't seem to find any good mod schematics anywhere. i've got electronics training and i'm pretty experienced with reading schemas and building circuits, project boxes and the like so the actual soldering and construction shouldn't be a big problem. I really just don't know where to start. if anyone knows of a good high voltage, reliable mod that i could build and has a parts list and schematic, let me know, post them here, or email them to me. i would be eternally grateful. I want to just start ordering parts from madvapes.com but i don't want to accumulate a bunch of stuff and still end up unable to configure it all into a couple of working mods.

ideally my mod would be around 6v or so, able to operate a lo-res atomizer for about 24 hours without burning anything out or ruining it, and be pretty rough and tumble.

i'm assuming it's not as simple as just ordering a project box that will fit the batteries, soldering some connectors and wires to a 510 connector tip and putting it all together. I would think there are some small circuits involved with resistors and the like?

someone hook it up with a good schematic that fits my ultra addict vaping needs.

on a side note, i love you guys. i'm glad PVs have come to light, it's created a really awesome community and i'm glad to be away from analogs and a part of it.

 

[Jim211]

There is some good info here about building mods. MadVapes e-Cig 'How To' Tutorials • Index page

 

[Vapenstein]

box mods are cheap...I wonder how long a 5v box mod that uses 3 aa's lasts on charge?

 

[deback]

Here's a suggestion of a great eGo 510 kit that you'd most likely be very happy with:

Joye eGo 510 - Standard Bundle (8 choices of colors - all in stock now):
Electronic Cigarette - Starter Kits - Joye eGo

Use the coupon code of ECF to buy this kit for $51.96.

This is something that'll work until you get a mod... The battery life will be much longer than the standard 510 batteries.

 

[Automaton]

The others gave great suggestions, just one note.

You can't use an LR atty on a 6v e-cig, or even 5v. It probably would pop the second you fired it.

LR atties are designed to be used on 3.7v, to increase the power to be more like 5v. The reason people do that on mods is because in e-cigs drain batteries at a high rate, and in order to get to 6v, you need to stack batteries. Doing this in such a power-hungry device creates risk of failure when stacking batteries. Lots of people do it, and with protected/safe-chemistry batteries it probably isn't so bad, but using an LR is a way to vape at higher power without having to stack batteries.

 

[JonnyVapΣ]

I have about a half dozen box mods kickin around ranging from run-of-the-mill single battery, dual battery at both 3.7v and 5v, and a couple passthroughs for me and the wife. I love box mods and building them is fun for me (been in R/C for...I dunno...almost 30 years). I've also built several for friends who don't have cash to blow on factory built units. Get all the right parts from MadVapes and you're in with a mod, 2 batteries and a charger for around 25 bucks.

Side note; you mention putting a LR atty on 6v. Don't do it...LOL

 

[taz666]

same thing happened to me both of my joy ego's died within 2 days sent one battery back to supplier has been 10 days now and still haven't rec'd a new one getting ready to email him. I am not happy at all. spent $82 total on the kit, juices, carts

 

[Shan B]

I've noticed anything higher than 4.2V will surely pop a LR atty.

and why yes Nomad, I happen to be stalking you for a moment