Well, I restarted the test on Wed morning (6-15-11) and after about 8 ½ days, its finally complete. Heres how this simple in-the-field test was conducted and what it revealed.
The test was conducted in two phases or two parts. During each phase I used the same three AW IMR 18490 batteries twice, a total of six battery cycles per each phase or 12 battery cycles for the duration of the whole test. I turned the Lo feature Off and let the ProVari shut itself down when the battery needed to be changed. I checked every battery every time the unit shut down. The ProVari displayed a 3.3V reading. The DMM obviously showed a higher voltage reading, around 3.55V with +/- 0.03V.
During the first half of the test, the ProVari was set at 4.6V and used with a brand new Joye 510 atty metering at 2.1 ohm, creating 10.08 watts. During the second half, the ProVari was set at 5.6V and used with a brand new HV510 atty metering at 3.1 ohm, creating 10.11 watts. I wanted to make sure that the wattage was nearly identical on both setups, creating nearly the same vaping experience; otherwise the whole test would have been pointless IMO. I paid very close attention to keeping my vaping habits as consistent as possible, taking 4-5 drags every few minutes (5 seconds per drag), never over-dripping and wasting juice and creating the increase in load when the atty is flooded. Also, in between every battery change I maintained the atty by blowing out the juice and re-priming it with 4 drops. Oh, and in case its relevant, I used the same juice for the duration of the whole test.
The objective was to simply find out which setup will allow a longer battery life by measuring which setup enabled greater juice consumption for each part of the test. Here is the outcome from both tests:
4.6V with
2.1 ohm (10.08 W) used
19 ml of juice during 6 battery cycles - about 3.2 ml per battery cycle
5.6V with
3.1 ohm (10.12 W) used
22 ml of juice during 6 battery cycles - about 3.7 ml per battery cycle
This non-scientific but relatively accurate hands-on test suggests that a higher voltage w/ higher resistance atty combo on a ProVari provides a slightly longer in-between-charges battery life than a lower voltage with lower resistance atty combo does when the same wattage is achieved. However, I believe that many people will suggest that this marginal difference is insignificant since it averages out to only 0.25 ml per battery cycle when comparing the two setups used during this test.
I was pretty surprised by these findings. For some reason I assumed that I would find a much greater difference in battery life between the two setups. I am actually happy to now know otherwise. And now I can finally allow myself to relax, vape more and think less
