Multi-battery question I just thought about

[ScottP]

So for multi battery devices we have all heard that we should "marry" the batteries for life when using these devices BUT should they also be married to their position in the device? So for a dual battery mod should the same battery always go in the same slot, should they be rotated, or does position matter at all?

My personal Hypothesis is that in parallel mods it shouldn't matter at all but it series mods it just might.

Thought? Opinions? Test results?

 

[dc99]

Parallel doesnt seem as bad but some series mods will drain one more than the other. A lot of people used to switch them about halfway through a cycle. Most of my newer mods are pretty even so I dont bother.

 

[AzPlumber]

Wouldn't hurt to switch position after each charge

 

[Hawise]

Rotate. The purpose of battery marriage is to make sure the batteries are evenly matched and stay matched as they age, so you want them to have the same experiences. While you're correct that in many cases it shouldn't really make a difference, best practice is to rotate them just in case it does.

If you're interested in test results, have you seen the thread on Mooch's battery marriage testing? It's over in the battery forum:
Battery marriage...needed or not? Testing starts soon.

 

[ScottP]

Rotate. The purpose of battery marriage is to make sure the batteries are evenly matched and stay matched as they age, so you want them to have the same experiences. While you're correct that in many cases it shouldn't really make a difference, best practice is to rotate them just in case it does.

If you're interested in test results, have you seen the thread on Mooch's battery marriage testing? It's over in the battery forum:
Battery marriage...needed or not? Testing starts soon.

I had not seen it but no results posted yet.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

I don't think it matters if you intentionally switch positions in a multi-cell device.

If you always switch, you are reasonably sure that batteries are discharged evenly.

If you don't care and you discharge, charge and reuse the same two batteries without regard to their position, then over any long period of time the random nature of the process means position placement will be close to equal. Half the time cell A will go into slot 1 and half the time it will go in slot 2.

It could matter if you intentionally never switch, but only if the device draws more from one slot than it does the other. This ensures that one of the two cells will tire before the other, negating the effect of marrying the pair (or trio, or foursome..).

Just my opinion.

 

[IMFire3605]

IMO, as the batteries are married to each other and not the mod, it is good practice to rotate which slot the battery occupies in the mod to rotate which gets the worse wear equally.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

IMO, as the batteries are married to each other and not the mod, it is good practice to rotate which slot the battery occupies in the mod to rotate which gets the worse wear equally.

Hmmm...

If the pair is married but is used in a variety of devices, then my theory about not caring whether they're rotated makes even more sense. One cell of a married pair would have a 50/50 chance of making it into slot A in every device it's used in. Discharge, recharge and insert into a different mod and it's 50/50 again. Meanwhile, the first mod gets a freshly charged pair without regards to who gets slot A or B.

Increase the numbers of both married pairs and two-cell devices and the business of keeping up with which cell of which pair goes into slot A of which device gets rather complicated.

It's good practice to have at least two cells for every battery slot you will have occupied at any given time. So if you have two two-cell devices, you're keeping up with a double rotation of eight cells. If you have three two-cell devices, then you're keeping up with a rotation of 12 cells.

If you're ambivalent about rotating, then the more devices you have the more likely an even distribution occurs. If you only have one device, life is simple.

 

[IMFire3605]

I presently have only 2 multi-battery mods, a Project Sub-Ohm Edition IPV3 and a Sigelei 150watt original. I have 6 VTC4's (3 2pair sets) I run between them, so not hard to keep track of, have 4 more VTC4's on the side in storage for when one of the 3 previous sets wear out beyond use. I try, not always successful, but try to rotate the battery sled slots each use and charge of those 3 sets in the mods and the chargers also. That and I track their wear in a battery log spreadsheet in LibreOffice :/

Just depends how tight *blank beep* you want to be

 

[Letitia]

I have 8 married pairs for 3 primary mods. No rotation or system. Like CC I figure in the long run they'll stay balanced.

 

[OlderNDirt]

I inquired about this in the battery sub-forum some time ago and, if I remember correctly, @Mooch indicated alternating position should be done if charging them via usb in the mod. If using external charging, it isn't needed. Hopefully, he will correct me if I am wrong or mistaken.

 

[IMFire3605]

That is true, but I feel best to stay in practice when you do swap them out. The key, especially with 3 and 4 battery mods when you do rotate the batteries in the mod when using it as your charger also is to rotate the same way every time though, go clockwise, always go clockwise, start counter-clockwise, always use counter-clockwise to keep the wear and tear even. But valid point @OlderNDirt

 

[stols001]

I think intentionally switching may be a good idea if someone wants to do that, but I'm also in agreement that it would be highly unlikely that they aren't getting rotation in any case. Not unless you have some sort of conveyer-like process of taking the A battery out first, putting it in the left slot always inserting the left slot into the first position etc. I could see some people functioning that way, but I don't.

Anna

 

[ScottP]

It also sounds like buying stock in battery companies may be in order.

 

[VictorViper]

I rotated my batteries every time I installed (parallel mech) and used two married sets, labelled for easy tracking. Set 1 a/b, set 2 a/b, set 1 b/a, set 2 b/a, repeat.

Not sure if it was strictly necessary to be so .... about things, but my married pairs each went two solid years and stayed perfectly even throughout.

 

[Eskie]

Best practice is to rotate. However, I've got a bunch of 2 battery mods, using batteries now approaching well over a year, and when I stick them on my external charger (Nitecore D4) all the batteries (including 3 battery mod sets) are either precisely the same voltage, or 0.01 of each other. I've never seen any gaps developing between cells. Besides, I'd never remember which battery goes where (was A the last one positive down or B?) and I've already got too many spreadsheets going on for vaping.

 

[fifamymaingame]

I just Throw them in off the charger don't matter imo

 

[bobwho77]

While I know that my batteries are married (I officiated the ceremony) I haven't gotten personal enough to ask them what positions they prefer, or which one likes to be on top

 

[Eskie]

While I know that my batteries are married (I officiated the ceremony) I haven't gotten personal enough to ask them what positions they prefer, or which one likes to be on top

Well set up a nanny cam or something so you can record what they're up to when you're out of the room. Then you can maybe blackmail them into an extra few hundred mAh.

 

[bobwho77]

Well set up a nanny cam or something so you can record what they're up to when you're out of the room. Then you can maybe blackmail them into an extra few hundred mAh.

Hadn't thought of that. Still not sure if really want to know.