how to tell when battery needs to be charged?

[samturdo]

ive been using my nemesis for two and a half days now on a single charge, vaping moderately on a 2.0 ohm dual coil. im getting more vapor tonight than when the battery was fresh. how long do these batteries last? i couldnt get more than a day from the twist vaping the same amount. and how do i know when the battery is low? or is it low now and im getting a rapid discharge resulting in more vapor? its a samsung 18650 battery, new and its never gotten warm

 

[VHRB2014]

I use mech`s exclusively and my RTA vapor goes to almost non existant at 3.5 volts. That`s how I tell and im usually within a couple tenths of a volt on my RTA`s.

Now drippers are a different story, the other day the veritas was running so good I ran a bat down to 2.7 before it gave out (no vape) and I freaked out once I saw how low I had run it down, :?(
But the battery seems fine after a couple of cycles, :?)

Usually if I`m getting a slight increase in vapor, its BC the tank is running down or almost dry and lack of vacuum is allowing a little more juice into the wick.

I know somebodies gonna say it, get yourself something to test voltage with. It makes it much easier until you get the feel for it. Plus its fun to see how well your intuition improves with experience, :?)

 

[Lessifer]

Get a multimeter, so you can actually check your battery voltage, build resistance, and you can use it to look for shorts if something isn't working.

 

[Smann245]

Advanced equipment is for advanced users. Advanced users have multimeters. Buy a multimeter.

 

[beckdg]

2 days?

Now would be a good time.

Yesterday would have been better.

Sent from my device.

 

[samturdo]

I use mech`s exclusively and my RTA vapor goes to almost non existant at 3.5 volts. That`s how I tell and im usually within a couple tenths of a volt on my RTA`s.

Now drippers are a different story, the other day the veritas was running so good I ran a bat down to 2.7 before it gave out (no vape) and I freaked out once I saw how low I had run it down, :?(
But the battery seems fine after a couple of cycles, :?)

Usually if I`m getting a slight increase in vapor, its BC the tank is running down or almost dry and lack of vacuum is allowing a little more juice into the wick.

I know somebodies gonna say it, get yourself something to test voltage with. It makes it much easier until you get the feel for it. Plus its fun to see how well your intuition improves with experience, :?)

actually my tank is full right now

 

[samturdo]

2 days?

Now would be a good time.

Yesterday would have been better.

Sent from my device.

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

 

[Lessifer]

2 days?

Now would be a good time.

Yesterday would have been better.

Sent from my device.

Eh, I can usually go two days on a vtc4 before it needs to be charged(~3.7v), but the vape starts to get weak at about 3.8v. That's on a 0.9 build with medium to low frequency vaping.

 

[stevegmu]

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

No, not true with these types of batteries.

 

[ShariR]

You need a multimeter to check that battery. Or a mod that is vv and has the capability to check it for you. You are going to ruin the battery or do some damage if you do not think safety applies to you.

 

[beckdg]

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

Much much better than drawing the battery too low and not knowing it. And the danger is actually having too much potential energy stored all the time allowing the innards to constantly be too reactive. This allows for something along the lines of maybe 10% or so loss in capacity over the course of a year. Draw that cell below 2 volts once and it may never recover.

Eh, I can usually go two days on a vtc4 before it needs to be charged(~3.7v), but the vape starts to get weak at about 3.8v. That's on a 0.9 build with medium to low frequency vaping.

Yes. But you know that because you went through a phase of trial and error while relying on a meter. Am I right?

In his case, the forum is currently his meter.

Sent from my device.

 

[edyle]

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

That's not the case with lithium batteries.

 

[Smann245]

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

You shouldn't let it go past about 3.3 volts before charging. But since you don't have any idea what your batteries voltage is....

 

[Lessifer]

Much much better than drawing the battery too low and not knowing it. And the danger is actually having too much potential energy stored all the time allowing the innards to constantly be too reactive. This allows for something along the lines of maybe 10% or so loss in capacity over the course of a year. Draw that cell below 2 volts once and it may never recover.

Yes. But you know that because you went through a phase of trial and error while relying on a meter. Am I right?

In his case, the forum is currently his meter.

Sent from my device.

Correct, I was just saying that 2 days in and of itself isn't wrong, the important part is the actual charge.

 

[Tygerlovesdeb]

When you push the button and nothing happens.....lol

 

[Tygerlovesdeb]

Advanced equipment is for advanced users. Advanced users have multimeters. Buy a multimeter.

What type of multimeter would you suggest? Brand, model, etc.?????

 

[Lessifer]

What type of multimeter would you suggest? Brand, model, etc.?????

That depends on how low you plan to build your coils, if you're going to use it to read resistance. I don't vape below 0.7 so I'm comfortable with accuracy in the tenths. I personally use a Cen-Tech Digital Multimeter that I picked up from Harbor Freight for about $4. I just make sure to re-check the internal resistance of the leads every time I read something. For voltage, pretty much anything will do.

 

[rondasherrill]

i heard its not safe or ages the battery too fast if its charged when it doesnt need to be

Yep as others have said, this is not the case with lithium ion batteries. Understandable that you believe so.

The problem is these little factoids are learned, and then the general public, having no in depth understanding of various battery chemistries, tend to expand these factoids to assuming they encompasses all batteries as a general rule. Remember the "battery memory effect" myth that refused(refuses?) to die?

As others have said, it's best to get a multimeter. If you are over 1 ohm a cheap one will do for checking resistance. Once you have one, check the battery ever so often to see how long it takes to bring it down to the 3.3-3.5 range. After just a few days you will start to notice the difference in vape when the voltage reaches that point, and you will just know.

 

[Ryedan]

ive been using my nemesis for two and a half days now on a single charge, vaping moderately on a 2.0 ohm dual coil. im getting more vapor tonight than when the battery was fresh. how long do these batteries last? i couldnt get more than a day from the twist vaping the same amount. and how do i know when the battery is low? or is it low now and im getting a rapid discharge resulting in more vapor? its a samsung 18650 battery, new and its never gotten warm

You really need to get an inexpensive DMM so you can check battery voltage regularly for a while. Once you have felt the change in vape as the battery runs down you should not need to check as often unless you change your setup. My first DMM was a $10 unit I picked up from Amazon. All of these DMMs are good enough for battery voltage checks unless one is defective.

I have vaped a battery down to around 2.5V a couple of times, both with a new setup that I was not used to. It can be done . Hybrid Li-ion batteries can take that, but go any lower and they develop internal problems that can cause them to have internal shorts later. That's the worst kind of short a battery can have, the most dangerous and it's unpredictable when it will go off.

You can not get 'a rapid discharge' from a battery unless your setup changes, like the resistance goes down with a mechanical mod. Checking your atty resistance with the DMM will help you diagnose this too.

As others have said, it does not hurt in any way to recharge a Li-ion battery early. You just don't want the battery to be fully charged all the time, that will shorten its life.

 

[Ryedan]

When you push the button and nothing happens.....lol

No. See my comment above about the danger with over-discharging these batteries.