Mod problems? Test your batteries.

[zodduska]

My mom bought a VV Grand a little while back along with four AW 18350s, she started having trouble right off the bat and I witnessed it first hand trying to get it to work for her but I didn't have my multimeter with me to really test it out. I suggested she send it back for Rob to look at but it was returned to her with a clean bill of health, I guess it worked for a little bit but she ended up sending it back again only to have it confirmed working once more and returned. Again it worked for a while then stopped, she gave up frustrated and asked if I would sell it for her.. I told her I didn't feel right selling it if it really has problems and I offered to swap another one of my REOs with her for it. I picked it up last night, she's out of town and I was feeding her cat, this time I had my multimeter to test everything.. turns out two out of four 18350s read 0 volts, completely dead duds.

So it was like at least a 75% chance a random combination of her four new batteries would result in a non-working mod.. I should have tested them earlier on and it would have saved a lot of shipping and Rob's time.

I'm just hoping she remembers the trauma and doesn't want to trade back after I tell her what the problem was.

 

[CATastrophe]

Metering batteries is a very good thing, especially when stacking. I meter mine every time I put them in my VVGrand. Sometimes a charged pair is off by .1 so in that instance, it tells me I should put the higher reading one on top of the stack. I'm not picky about swapping a pair around periodically when using them, but I check them before putting them in the REO.

Get her a quick little battery checker that she can use.

 

[zodduska]

Metering batteries is a very good thing, especially when stacking. I meter mine every time I put them in my VVGrand. Sometimes a charged pair is off by .1 so in that instance, it tells me I should put the higher reading one on top of the stack. I'm not picky about swapping a pair around periodically when using them, but I check them before putting them in the REO.

Get her a quick little battery checker that she can use.

Is there anything other than a multimeter you'd suggest for that?

Although a multimeter might be good so she can check the ohms on her rebuildables too.

 

[super_X_drifter]

Is there anything other than a multimeter you'd suggest for that?

Although a multimeter might be good so she can check the ohms on her rebuildables too.

Sterno's doohickeys are the best battery checkers there are

 

[CATastrophe]

Our man Sterno makes a nice "doohicky" that I believe he sends to anyone who asks. Of course he also accepts donations to help defray cost.

 

[CATastrophe]

You beat me to it Super, but I added the link!

 

[zodduska]

Wow that is very generous of him, I'll look into getting one for her. Thanks guys

 

[CATastrophe]

You can also find a cheap multimeter that would serve the purpose at harbor freight or RTDVapor.

 

[CATastrophe]

I just noticed this when I went back and reread the original thread. Get a multimeter if she's rebuilding. It's good practice to meter any new build before firing it. Don't want to blow a spring or fry a VV chip.

 

[FeistyAlice]

My mom bought a VV Grand a little while back along with four AW 18350s, she started having trouble right off the bat and I witnessed it first hand trying to get it to work for her but I didn't have my multimeter with me to really test it out. I suggested she send it back for Rob to look at but it was returned to her with a clean bill of health, I guess it worked for a little bit but she ended up sending it back again only to have it confirmed working once more and returned. Again it worked for a while then stopped, she gave up frustrated and asked if I would sell it for her.. I told her I didn't feel right selling it if it really has problems and I offered to swap another one of my REOs with her for it. I picked it up last night, she's out of town and I was feeding her cat, this time I had my multimeter to test everything.. turns out two out of four 18350s read 0 volts, completely dead duds.

So it was like at least a 75% chance a random combination of her four new batteries would result in a non-working mod.. I should have tested them earlier on and it would have saved a lot of shipping and Rob's time.

I'm just hoping she remembers the trauma and doesn't want to trade back after I tell her what the problem was.

Glad you found the issue. Over the past couple of years I've had a few AW 18350 batteries, bought from two different, reputable vendors, that were just plain bad, despite keeping in marked pairs and switching their stacked position every ml or so of juice each use cycle.

My mistake was not catching them soon enough, by metering them and keeping record (metering after use, when they came off charger, and after resting off charger, and metering before using after being stored for day to days) within a time from purchase to feel okay asking vendors for replacement. (It's up to individual vendors whether or not to offer replacement. I understand if they don't/won't especially with batteries used for stacking as there are so many variables that could be considered "user abuse.")

The reason I routinely switch stacked positions several times during use cycle is to keep drain on each battery as even as possible. It's easier for me to do it that way and only takes seconds to switch positions.

Another mistake was chucking (recycle) both batteries of sets instead of keeping lone good one to match up with another good one, from other sets where one was bad. Last batch I got a battery in two matched sets that were duds. (Dud in that it drained out to low voltage <3.2 within a ml use time.) As they were most likely from same manufacturing run and same use time I combined the good batteries to make a "new" set. That set is performing as expected.)

I think TennDave has reported this, also.

Feisty Alice