My personal story:
I've always used AW IMR 18350 in my Mini Provari. Never had a problem with them; they last about 7 - 8 hours between charges as promised by the mAh rating. Last summer I bought my daughter her first mod for her birthday, along with some Efest IMR 14500's for her mod and some Efest IMR 18350's for me to try (cheaper than AW's). I also bought her a Nitecore Intellicharger i2.
I put the Efests in a rotation with my AW's in the Mini. I didn't notice any difference in performance for a couple of weeks, but after that the Efests started to drop in their charge rather quickly to the point that I removed them from my rotation.
Without asking my daughter about her's, she asked me why her new
batteries were only lasting about half as long on a charge from when they were new. I ended up giving her some of my own AW 14500
batteries and she's happy with them.
Moral of my story: AW is a better quality battery. You don't
really save money going with the cheaper Efests if they don't last. I've got some AW 18650 batteries which I purchased with my first mod over two years ago, and they are just now starting to not hold a charge as when they were new. It was worth spending a couple more bucks per battery on the AW's. I wonder how many Efests I would have gone through if I used those instead of the AW's?
@ Bodhiknight -- you might want to invest in a higher quality charger than the Trustfire. Its a bottom-of-the barrel charger. Like batteries, it pays off in the long run if you purchase a better, higher-quality charger. I recommend a Xtar WPII or Nitecore i2 charger.
I also recommend purchasing your batteries & charger from a trusted vendor like RTD Vapor so that you don't get a counterfeit battery, which is a growing problem from places like Ebay and Amazon.
