High-capacity Efest batteries for the VAMO

[MrThunderfield]

Hi!

I just pulled the trigger on a VAMO from vaporbreak.com, along with an Efest 18650 3400mAh battery from ebay. This is the one I ordered:

Efest 18650 Li ion 3 7V Rechargeable Protected Batteries 2600 3100 3400mAh 1x 2X | eBay

Good choice for the VAMO? I hope so, with shipping and all it was pretty expensive. I've read some good things about the Panasonic NCR18650B cells it uses. Hoping for lots of battery life!

Any opinions about this battery? Also, I'm looking for some good 18350 batteries. Any recommendations?

 

[darkhood]

I use 18350's in my v8, I like and was recommended the 800mah efest batts. I'd use the 1200mah trustfires but my v8 won't eat em dunno about ur vamo tho - Efest IMR 800mAh 3.7v 18350 Battery

 

[taylormadesuperfast]

Hi!

I just pulled the trigger on a VAMO from vaporbreak.com, along with an Efest 18650 3400mAh battery from ebay. This is the one I ordered:

Efest 18650 Li ion 3 7V Rechargeable Protected Batteries 2600 3100 3400mAh 1x 2X | eBay

Good choice for the VAMO? I hope so, with shipping and all it was pretty expensive. I've read some good things about the Panasonic NCR18650B cells it uses. Hoping for lots of battery life!

Any opinions about this battery? Also, I'm looking for some good 18350 batteries. Any recommendations?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but those are protected batteries and will not work correctly with your Vamo. You need an unprotected battery. The Vamo circuitry has protection already and using a protected battery will cause issues. Get an AW IMR that's your best bet.

 

[cped]

Hi MrThunderfield. I too recently bought a new stainless VAMO, but from Tom over at TropicalVapors.com. what an amazing device!

I'm using two efest 800mah IMR 18350 Li-MN's stacked and vaping about 6ml a day at ~8.5w I get 24 hours out of em'
and they take ~3-4 hours to charge in a trustfire tr-001.

I also use use efest 2000mah IMR 18650 Li-MN's vaping ~6ml a day at ~8.5w and I get 24 hours out of them as well, but they take 15 hours to charge in the trustfire tr-001...

I can't imagine how long it would take to charge a 3400mah...

I'm considering an xtar charger, but am OK for now...

Hope this helps.

 

[hvac999]

I bought 2 Efest IMR 18650 batteries from Ebay for my vv Gripper. They have been working without a hitch. I am even thinking about going back on Ebay and getting a couple more they have been so good.

 

[MrThunderfield]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but those are protected batteries and will not work correctly with your Vamo. You need an unprotected battery. The Vamo circuitry has protection already and using a protected battery will cause issues. Get an AW IMR that's your best bet.

Hmm. I read on these forums that it doesn't really make a difference if it's protected or not... maybe I misunderstood it Hopefully I can cancel the order, it is weekend after all so it hasn't been shipped.

 

[AlB53]

I have a tr-001, I charge 2 AW IMR 2000mAh batts in 3 1/2- 4 hrs. 15 hrs? thats not right!!

 

[indianajames]

Good call on the Vamo. As for the batteries, I have used both protected and IMR batteries in mine without a problem.

 

[MrThunderfield]

Hi MrThunderfield. I too recently bought a new stainless VAMO, but from Tom over at TropicalVapors.com. what an amazing device!

I'm using two efest 800mah IMR 18350 Li-MN's stacked and vaping about 6ml a day at ~8.5w I get 24 hours out of em'
and they take ~3-4 hours to charge in a trustfire tr-001.

I also use use efest 2000mah IMR 18650 Li-MN's vaping ~6ml a day at ~8.5w and I get 24 hours out of them as well, but they take 15 hours to charge in the trustfire tr-001...

I can't imagine how long it would take to charge a 3400mah...

I'm considering an xtar charger, but am OK for now...

Hope this helps.

Yeah, it'll probably take a while, but I'm all for mad battery life! I haven't bought a charger yet. The Xtar seems nice; are there other good ones? While it's charging, I have my twist and a battery-less USB passthrough that are great to use.

 

[MrThunderfield]

Good call on the Vamo. As for the batteries, I have used both protected and IMR batteries in mine without a problem.

So no discernible difference between those whatsoever? Wow, getting really confused by all the conflicting info here...

 

[cped]

I have a tr-001, I charge 2 AW IMR 2000mAh batts in 3 1/2- 4 hrs. 15 hrs? thats not right!!

WOW that would be sweet! Must be the efest batts vs. AW? it's very consistent at 15 hours with these and 3-4 with the 800mah. Guess I'll be looking for some AW's...

 

[taylormadesuperfast]

So no discernible difference between those whatsoever? Wow, getting really confused by all the conflicting info here...

I have no first hand experience using a protected battery in the Vamo I as well am only going by what I've heard and read and up till now everyone said to use unprotected. It seems that someone in fact is using a protected battery with no issues so go figure. Not sure what to tell you at this point. If it's me I'm still using the AW but that's just me.

By the way the instruction manual for the Vamo says to only use unprotected for what it's worth!

 

[taylormadesuperfast]

This is straight out of the user manual:

Protected type Li-Ion batteries will not work in this device – the over current protection renders them unusable as they usually have a current limit of 2.5 Amperes and this device uses current higher than that figure.. Please use High drain Safe rated batteries with no on-board protection for optimum use of this device.
Recommended batteries are IMR / AW type cells. Produced

 

[cped]

Yeah, it'll probably take a while, but I'm all for mad battery life! I haven't bought a charger yet. The Xtar seems nice; are there other good ones? While it's charging, I have my twist and a battery-less USB passthrough that are great to use.

I hear ya! I've been interested in those ultra high capacity batts too, but am satisfied with these so far. keep us posted on your results when you get em in. also idk much about the chargers, but the xtar seems to get great reviews. which was my only motivator...

 

[sawlight]

Welcome to ECF!
The confusion you are running into is the difference in battery chemistry. I would strongly advise against using any unprotected Li-Ion battery in your APV, thermal runaway is a bad thing and things go boom!
The problem with the protected batteries is the limit of the overload protection circuit. It may not go high enough to work in the PV or it may fool the protection circuit in the PV into thinking the battery is dead, the problem Darkhood eluded to earlier in this thread. Battery is charged, PV wont fire because it isn't happy with what the battery is putting out.
What you are looking for are IMR batteries, these are made with a safer chemistry and don't require a built in protection circuit. They are also capable of putting out a much higher current rate because of the way they are made.
This is a UK vendor that has them, Efest IMR Batteries £4.95 - Vaping Spares - Batteries & Passthroughs Electronic Cigarettes | Vaping Devices | Accessories | E-Liquid
I hope this clears things up some for you.

 

[Baditude]

Welcome to ECF!
The confusion you are running into is the difference in battery chemistry. I would strongly advise against using any unprotected battery in your APV, thermal runaway is a bad thing and things go boom!
The problem with the protected batteries is the limit of the overload protection circuit. It may not go high enough to work in the PV or it may fool the protection circuit in the PV into thinking the battery is dead, the problem Darkhood eluded to earlier in this thread. Battery is charged, PV wont fire because it isn't happy with what the battery is putting out.
What you are looking for are IMR batteries, these are made with a safer chemistry and don't require a built in protection circuit. They are also capable of putting out a much higher current rate because of the way they are made.

Although you meant well, the statement in bold above can be confusing to a beginner.

IMR or high drain or safer chemistry batteries are NOT protected, yet are recommended in a device such as a variable voltage/wattage PV.

I even use IMR's in my mechanical mods now because they are safer than protected batteries. Protected batteries are far from fool proof. I know from personal experience.



"protected" Trustfire 14500 battery after thermo runaway.

 

[sawlight]

Although you meant well, the statement in bold above can be confusing to a beginner.

IMR or high drain or safer chemistry batteries are NOT protected, yet are recommended in a device such as a variable voltage/wattage PV. I use IMR's in my mechanical mods because they are safer than protected batteries.

Which I covered the IMR explanation in the last sentence. But I will add unprotected Li-Ion to the original post for clarification.

 

[mostlyclassics]

I just put a fully-charged TrustFire 18650 Li-Ion protected battery into my Vamo. It will not fire.

There's nothing the matter with the TrustFire battery: I then put it into my Reo mechanical mod, and it fired just fine.

There's also nothing wrong with my Vamo, as I reinserted the AW IMR 18650 2000 mAh battery that was in there before, and the Vamo works fine again.

Draw your own conclusions. Mine is that Vamos and batteries with protection circuits don't work together.

 

[Kable]

I've used batteries with the protected panasonic ncr18650b 3400 mAh cell (orbtronic branded) in both of my vamos and they work fine. You should get a couple days use out of a charge.

 

[vsummer1]

If people have used them before, and they have had thermal runaway and even provided you with a picture as proof of their mistake:

Why in the world would you risk YOUR FACE with a battery that could cause injury? If I am understanding correctly, changing a battery is so hard that you don't want to do it every day. That makes NO sense to me. If I found out I had the wrong battery type, and even if they worked well, I would not be willing to take a chance. Sure, so far they may have worked, but there is always the danger every time you vape.

Please, listen to what people are telling you as to safe batteries. It really isn't worth it.