Before one posts "advice", especially someone new to the forum and new to vaping, one should state one's qualifications. My last real job was product integrity engineer for Dell computer, before they blew off product integrity in 2001. Since then, I have researched and operated lithium batteries as used in electric model aircraft for 4 years. Lithium batteries are VERY allergic to being run down to where they do not operate. Just once destroys them. The electronics are supposed to prevent that, but to meet "long life" claims they tend to cut the margin too short. Example: Just tonight I was puffing my ecig and the use light flashed that it needed recharging. But the charger would not accept it! It had run down too far. After a half hour I coaxed it back to life, but its capacity is probably permanently diminished. Chevy Volt operates their lithiums this way: They stop charging at 80%, and except for emergency use they stop discharging at 30% and stop completely at 20%. That's right, they use only HALF of their rated capacity. This is to extend battery life, because those car batteries are colossally expensive and covered by warranty that GM has to pay for. We can be less retentive about our ecig batteries, they don't cost "that" much. But if you want the longest battery life, follow these directives. *Anticipate when it needs recharging. Do not wait for the blink. It can be fatally late, and it will always be later than ideal. If your batt reads remaining charge, stop using it just below 30%. *Anticipate when it is recharged. Toward the end of the charge cycle the wall adapter will get cooler than it was while actively charging. When you feel this, unplug it. As a soft rule, lithiums should take 1 hour to fully charge at their rated mAh. That is, a 280 mAh batt should charge in 1 hour on a 280 mA charger. Chargers and batteries are not always so matched. Example, my batt is 280 but my charger is 200. So if the batt was run as low as it should get it would take 1.4 hours to get "full". But wait, we don't WANT them full, we want them to stop just past 80% or no higher than 90%. And we REALLY don't want them as low as the chip will allow them to get. I can't give you hard numbers because every model combination of chip/batt/charger is different. The charger should be labled what its mA is. The bat mAh should be identified in the sales spec but nothing says it has to be. There are more technical details but I'm withholding them because for most users they would be clutter. Just stop using, rest for 20min, a half hour before you anticipate the "blink". Then stop charging when the wall adapter gets cooler than it was 15 minutes before. DO NOT leave lithiums charging unsupervised, while you are asleep or out of the house. Boeing 787s are still grounded because their lithiums caught fire despite very elegant monitoring systems. Lithiums are advantageous for their power density per size/weight. But lithiums are the most volatile battery and must be used properly for maximum safety. I apologize for the cinderblock of text, but despite breaking it into concise paragraphs this is how the forum software chooses to display it.
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