Killing batteries

[cailin]

I got a penstyle generic recently and the first battery went within a week, and now the second one is on the blink (no pun intended ).

What kills batteries? Is it just that they were crappy to begin with, or is it something about the way you use them, or charge them, that kills them so fast?

I've barely used these things either. I'm still smoking regular cigs during the work day, I'm only e-smoking in the evenings.

 

[dc2k08]

did you ever connect them to any broken atomizers?

 

[cailin]

Yes! Well, a clogged atomiser. I've sinced cleaned it and it's working well again. Would that kill a battery?

 

[dc2k08]

dont know about that, but GTO explained to me on this thread to never connect a battery to a non-fuctioning atomizer as if is broken in a certain way, it can ruin your batts...he explained how to use a multi-meter to test an atomizers ohms which i do now before i connect any im suspicious of. if any read a certain way, they get chucked. hasnt happened to me yet, but the little guys do get their check-up after every bath night.

You can also test your atomizer for resistance(ohms) with a multi meter to see the state of the coil inside, same sort of test with the meter only you set it to ohms and not volts.

if you look on the bottom of the atomizer you will see and mating side from the battery (inner and outer terminals) put your meter across these (one probe inner the other probe outer) and read of the ohms from the display then compare this to a known good atomizer and the lower the no. the lower the resistance and therefor the lower the heat output if the meter reads 0 the atomizer is short circuit and should be binned so as not to damage any batterys

but, i would say 3-5 out of ten batts die within in their first week due to shoddy workmanship so perhaps you just got unlucky. I know out of 5 batts i bought, i returned 2 the first week. i had 4 going strong for over a month there but one gave up on me last week.

also the booklet that comes with these tells you to keep them away from other electrical devices so that could be a factor. otherwise, i have broken a couple simply by dropping them. they're more fragile than eggs.

 

[cailin]

Thanks for the input. That could certainly be what it is. The one was shot pretty much out of the box, but I was surprised the other one worked for only a few weeks then seemingly died.

But! After reading your thread I took my homemade cart out of it, wiped the extra juice away from the atomizer, then put in a pre-filled cart and suddenly the SAME battery that was flashing all the time is working great! So, maybe it was something about the way I was filling carts was overloading it or something? Gosh, I'll figure this thing out sometime!

But, again, thanks for the suggestions. It seems to have lead me to a solution anyway!

 

[BigBuxNoWhammy]

Yeah the batteries are trash. I have gone through a bunch in not a very long time. I have had a few that were working FLAWLESS and then the next time I went to smoke they were just completely dead and wouldnt charge anymore, makes no sense.

 

[cailin]

Crap! I spoke to soon. It just started flashing again. gah!

Yeah, it looks like they were just garbage to start with. boo.

 

[dc2k08]

what's the make and model cailin?
do they flash as in "we're low, plug us in now please" or is more of a "right i think you've had enough of that now, we're on break"
when you put them in the atmzr, does it turn it on without you sucking?

 

[signtraders]

Bad atomizers kill batteries!

 

[icemanmaz]

I wish 1 of my batteries would break.
Then I could try and make the usb battery out of it, (see my thread) but I dont want to open a working battery

 

[dc2k08]

your going about it the wrong way ice. if you want one to break, wish that it doesnt break. they respond only to reverse phsychology.

 

[cailin]

what's the make and model cailin?
do they flash as in "we're low, plug us in now please" or is more of a "right i think you've had enough of that now, we're on break"
when you put them in the atmzr, does it turn it on without you sucking?

It's a penstyle from epuffer. I forget what the model is? It looks like this:

It does the 20 blinks, which the manual says is the battery? (It's 10 for "you've been at this for too long".) But, if I leave it for a while it'll come back to life a bit, be ok for a suck or two, then it starts blinking away again. I assumed this was a bad battery? no?

And no, it doesn't turn on when I put it in the atomiser. It'll only turn on when you take a drag.

 

[dc2k08]

sounds like its a battery problem more so than a microchip problem then. its toast either way. have you looked at the warranty for e-puffer? they might replace it easy. you could try freezing it, just for the hell..see if that does anything...i did but, the fault was with the chip. if you had a multi-meter, you could test the voltage.

im afraid its only other use is for continuing the research in the field all things e-cig. pop the cap off and drag the guts out..have a look at what $8 gets you in china.

 

[cailin]

Freezing it? Really? heh, yeah, I guess could give it a try.

And yeah, I guess I could dissect it for kicks. I'll probably see what epuffer has in terms of a return policy before destroying it though.

So, what makes them die so fast? It sits on the charger for long periods of time. Would this kill it faster? Or, I drain them right to the end usually before putting it on the charger. Does this matter? Should I put it on before it's closer to empty?

 

[dc2k08]

the advice given on lithium batts is to charge them before they are fully drained..they will live longer and charge quicker this way*. why are they prone to hara-kiri?...your theories are as good as mine.

*citation needed

 

[cailin]

Well, the good news is I have more batteries on the way. The bad news is, they were supposed to be "spares". Ah well.

And I'll keep the charging advice in mind -- maybe these ones won't hate their existence as much as the current ones did.

 

[darren@first.union]

Manufacturer suggestions :

1. Change another atomizer for a try. Sometimes, it may not be the problem of battery
2. Recharge the battery for a bit longer time. Meanwhile, see if the battery indication light flashes. If no flash of the light , means the circuitry of the battery is broken.
3. if the light flashes, means it's still charging. If the light is on but no flash, means : a: the battery is bad. b: the battery is full of charge.
4. The most frequent problem is the circuitry inside the battery is broken. Sometimes because it drops on the floor, or hits strongly.

 

[katink]

Manufacturer suggestions :

1. Change another atomizer for a try. Sometimes, it may not be the problem of battery
2. Recharge the battery for a bit longer time. Meanwhile, see if the battery indication light flashes. If no flash of the light , means the circuitry of the battery is broken.
3. if the light flashes, means it's still charging. If the light is on but no flash, means : a: the battery is bad. b: the battery is full of charge.
4. The most frequent problem is the circuitry inside the battery is broken. Sometimes because it drops on the floor, or hits strongly.

Please note that this may be the way that e-puffer batteries/chargers work; but that other brands can work differently. (So as not to raise unneccessary worries )

 

[lukewells]

Over the years I have had the chance to test the effects of different charging cycles on Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer batteries (I'm IT in a medium sized company so have access to lots of laptops, phones, pdas and other portable devices)

What I have found out from experience :-

Fully discharging a battery until it shuts down is fine (there is a safety circuit in most Lithium batteries that shut them down before they experience acute voltage drop)

Leaving a Lithium battery discharged for a long time is very bad

Leaving a Lithium battery fully charged for a long time is not good

Continuously topping up a Lithium battery when only slightly discharged is very bad

Lithium batteries have a limited number of charge cycles, so to get the best use out of them I have found that fully charging them and then using them down to about 50% (or less) - and then fully charging them back up after seems to be the most effective way of using them.

The very best batteries have a useful life of only 1-2 years if treated well.

Misstreated batteries can be killed in only a matter of days.

HTH

Luke

 

[Kit]

Over the years I have had the chance to test the effects of different charging cycles on Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer batteries (I'm IT in a medium sized company so have access to lots of laptops, phones, pdas and other portable devices)

What I have found out from experience :-

Fully discharging a battery until it shuts down is fine (there is a safety circuit in most Lithium batteries that shut them down before they experience acute voltage drop)

Leaving a Lithium battery discharged for a long time is very bad

Leaving a Lithium battery fully charged for a long time is not good

Continuously topping up a Lithium battery when only slightly discharged is very bad

Lithium batteries have a limited number of charge cycles, so to get the best use out of them I have found that fully charging them and then using them down to about 50% (or less) - and then fully charging them back up after seems to be the most effective way of using them.

The very best batteries have a useful life of only 1-2 years if treated well.

Misstreated batteries can be killed in only a matter of days.

HTH

Luke

I totally agree with you luke but quite a few on here do the opposite!