LR Wattage = SR Wattage? Higher voltages = Better battery life?

[Synnuh]

This is something that popped up on another thread so I figured I would start a new one to help me understand what's going on.

The first thing I'm curious about is whether the wattage on LR cartos is the same wattage on SR cartos. What I mean is, will higher ohm cartos last longer under the same wattage than an LR carto? I've been under the understanding that wattage is wattage regardless of the ohms, and that there is no extra longevity out of an SR carto.

The next thing I'm curious about is whether higher ohm cartos at the same wattage as a lower ohm carto are going to give better battery life?

The reasons I ask these questions is because I have been using Boge LR cartos at anywhere from 4.0 to 4.5 volts and have been happy. I did go through a phase where I burned up 24 cartos trying to get tanks to work, but since I have been on the same carto for 2 weeks.

Could someone with a deeper understanding help me out here? Would switching to SR cartos give me a longer life span and increased battery life at the same wattages?

 

[nanovapr]

You don't say which device you are talking about, your sig shows several. Basically for vaping, wattage is an expression of "how hot" it gets. As far as your question of "the wattage on LR cartos is the same wattage on SR cartos", that's kind of an incomplete question. Watts is watts. 60mph in a small car is just as fast as 60mph in a large car, but the large car will use more gas.

In a fixed-voltage device, LR will make more watts, be warmer, and have an overall better vape experience. In the same fixed-voltage device, SR will make less watts, cooler temps, lets vapor. LR will shorten the useful time between charges (all still on fixed-voltage).

With a VV device, you don't need to suck more current with a LR to make more watts/more vape, you can just raise the voltage. If the resistance stays the same, more voltage = more watts. With PVs, it's more efficient to alter it with more voltage, instead of less resistance

Voltage, current and resistance all interact to make "watts". You can look up the formulae widely quoted here, plug in the differing numbers and see the changes.

There are other smaller differences, as far as "what it vapes like". Some say that LR gets to it's operating temperature faster than SR, and can slightly change how it tastes.

With some VV devices, using LR can make them try to pull more current (amperage) than they are designed for and they shut down, or give error messages or otherwise try to protect themselves. In this case, a SR will definitely work better, you can get the higher temps without overloading it. This also gives you more of a full range to experiment with, instead of "only the first 3/4 and it shuts down" you might get with LR.

For fixed-voltage PVs, LR is generally better. For VV, SR is better. I have read that it's not a good idea on minis, I forget what the suggested minimum battery capacity is for them.

LR will get your fixed-voltage PV up to 60mph just fine, but it will use more gas.

 

[Synnuh]

Sorry about that. I've been vaping on the LavaTube continuously for the last 2 weeks.

 

[nanovapr]

For the LT, I think that SR would be a better way to operate it. However, I have never used a LT more than a couple of puffs. Experienced LT people, help us out here? What is the current cutoff on a LT?

 

[Synnuh]

I've seen some videos, I think from Grim Green, that showed LR atty's getting shut down to 3.3 volts when he set them over 5. I'll try to find the video.

If an SR carto is going to get more battery life, then I think it's probably what I need to do. I can get 2 days out of LR cartos on an 18650, with taking the batteries out at 3.5-3.6 volts remaining. Only part that sucks is the 25 LR cartos I just bought, but my next order will be for SR cartos.

So far, I'm thinking I was a little misunderstood about it all. I Just ran the numbers on Ohms Law Calculator and LR cartos are pulling 2.25 amps, with SR cartos pulling ~1.7 amps, so I guess the battery life thing holds up. With that being the case, I can see how lower amperage would mean longer lifespan on the batteries and the cartos. Slowly learning this stuff. Unless I'm wrong on that last one, too.

 

[nanovapr]

For reasonable, "middle of the road" use, LR should really perform fine on a Lavatube, just with shorter battery life. Unless you are trying to crank it up really hot, you probably won't bump into the current limit or reset of the LT. Especially if you've got a bunch, go ahead and use them. Perhaps set aside some of them for emergency backups, you can never have too many.

Edit/Addendum: I actually try to keep LR cartos around for my 'rainy day spares'. I use a Darwin on SR cartos most of the time, but if I had a catastrophic failure(s) I would be using a fixed-voltage device. I would then be very glad I had LRs still around...

 

[Slurp812]

In theory same wattage will result in the same battery life regardless of carto resistance. Of course you need a VV to accomplish this, and the applied voltage doesn't always match what the device is actually set to. I usually vape very close to 8 watts with 1.7, 2.0, 2.2, and 3.0 cartos on my Provari. No real difference in battery life that I notice, as long as the wattage is the same. There are many other variables involved, and precise calculations require tons of math.