My (limited) testing of the 4.8V NIMH battery

[durgidog]

I finally got a simple multimeter and did a little testing on a new NIMH 4.8V 600mah battery I purchased, it's been through three charge cycles on the Efest charger. The eFest charger is generally recommended and does indicate when charging is finished, unlike some less expensive chargers on the market. So I sat around in front of the computer and pretty close to chain vaped with it in my Prodigy 3.1 and a 3.6 single coil (tested) boge carto in a big daddy 5ml steel tank. I don't have a device to easily test voltage under load, so I didn't do any of that.

I checked the voltage on the battery randomly and recorded the time, the carto ohm level stayed the same throughout. I started vaping at 8pm and the batt abruptly slowed down vapor production at 11pm and had stopped working by 11:07, at which point it tested 4.7V on my multimeter. I tried it with many different cartos/atties, as well as in my silver bullet but no luck.

And I made a chart….oooooooh!

here's the very extensive data in table form:

8:00 PM 5.6V
8:45 PM 5.2V
9:30 PM 5.1V
10:00 PM 5.1V
10:30 PM 5.1V
11:00 PM 4.7V

For the first 2 1/2 hours it was pretty tasty with great vapor (100% VG), after 10:30pm it really started to suck. Granted I vaped practically continuously, with 5 to 10 minute breaks here and there. I know nothing about batteries but there you have it, a more casual vaper might get twice the life I did. For my use the NIMH batteries suck. I had hoped to use them with the silver bullet, but I get far more life and perfect wattage consistency using an 18490 with a kick in my SB than an NIMH. It looks like my Prodigy will be a straight up 3.7 device from here on out - the 1600mah 17670 batts it takes last a long time.

 

[MickeyRat]

Thanks for posting this. There haven't been a lot of posts about NiMH batts but, this confirms some of the few I've seen.

 

[AaronY]

I finally got a simple multimeter and did a little testing on a new NIMH 4.8V 600mah battery I purchased,

Are all the NIMH batteries that vaping sites sell the same. I notice a big change in price just curious if you or anyone knows if they are different builds or made the same.

 

[durgidog]

I'm not sure, I'd assume they are the same as long as they say NIMH 4.8V 600mah. I've noticed quite a few sales on these batts lately.

 

[Baditude]

I have been rotating three of these batteries for 3 - 4 weeks now in my Silver Bullet. I have the same charger that you have (which by the way seems to charge them pretty quickly so far...about 2 hours or less). I switch up relatively equally between the Silver Bullet and my BB. Between the two mods, these 3 NiMH's will last me all day. I do wish they stayed powered up longer, but I wanted an easy introduction into 5v vaping before investing in a variable volt devise, and I have to say I do enjoy the 5v results in increased vapor production, throat hit, and in general juice flavor.

All the NiMN 4.8v batteries that I have seen are that lime green generic-looking battery. My guess is that they are all made by a single manufacturer. I think they may be becoming more popular as more people are becoming curious about 5v vaping, and getting a couple of these and a charger isn't too much of an investment.

I had not read about the 18490 batteries with a kick, that sounds interesting. How long do you get with each battery with the kick and a Silver Bullet? Seems like the Kick is always out of stock at AltSmoke, and I assumed you had to use the proprietary 18650 batteries and a tube extender.

 

[durgidog]

Hi Baditude,

I get 7-8 hours with the kick in my silver bullet without the sleeve and an AW IMR 18490 (evolve estimates that the kick will use 20% of the battery power so batt life is a little shorter than without it). I'm self employed so not much keeps me from chain vaping most of the day. I have a new SB with extension waiting at my PO Box to kick with the 18650, I plan to keep this one at home and use the smaller when I'm out.

I purchased another kick a few days ago from Nhaler. There are 4 distributors for the kick: altsmoke, NHaler, Super-T Manufacturing, and electonicstix. I LOVE the kick. In fact I just sold a buzzpro and SS Vtube to purchase my second kicked SB.

 

[Baditude]

Glad you are enjoying your Kick.

I'm wondering if my NiMH's are starting to lose their recharging capacity. I realized that I only got about 45 minutes of fairly regular use with a couple of them today. I got ...... with the dead pulls and put in an 18650 to finish out the day.

The Kick on a Silver Bullet is intriguing. I've also been eyeing the promo shots of the Provari and mini in the upcoming new colors over at ProVape. I keep hearing nothing but good about them. Should I spend the money on a Kick, tube extension, and 2-3 more batteries; or, use that money and save up more for the Provari? It does give you a lot of usable convenience factors in one package, and ProVape seems to make devices comparable to AltSmoke's with like customer service.

 

[durgidog]

45 minutes? uggh.

As far as provari vs. kicked SB the real differences are variable wattage and variable voltage. I like being able to swap out atties and cartos without fiddling. I also am not crazy about the menu system on the provari BUT I tried one this weekend and it was FABULOUS. Provape is having a sale on blemished chrome provari's for $140 right now:

Blem Chrome ProVari

I don't think you can go wrong either way.