Question regarding VTC4's

[KyleH83]

I have question regarding VTC4 batteries.
For a long time, it was my understanding that they were extremely hard to find, real ones at least, and that Sony has stopped production of these batteries.

Now it appears there is a 'new' supply of them, and they are relatively cheap on sites that are suppose to be recommended by people like @Mooch, for example liionwholesale.com.

My quesion is this: If Sony is no longer making this battery and there is 'new' supply, even if they are legit VTC4 cells, wouldn't that make them old stock; and don't these [along with all cells in general] degrade in performance over time, even if brand new and never been used before?
Is it worth getting these, knowing that they are most like a few years old?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Imfallen_Angel]

I remember seeing this rumor (of Sony discontinuing these) more than once in the last 2 years....

I've yet to see an actual confirmation of this. Lots of speculation, one saying yes they have, others stating that they've increased production.

vtc4 battery Sony - Google Search

So, to be honest, as many are still selling this and as these are reputable sellers, odds are that Sony simply doesn't want the association with vaping at this point (still) and there's very little info, but from what I can see, it does appears that they are still making them.

Should it turn out that those out there are old stock, remember that Lithium batteries do have a limited shelf life, so if they are a few years old, this will affect their capacity.

 

[KyleH83]

@Imfallen_Angel

Thanks for the reply. I was really curious as to other's thoughts on this and it sounds like your thinking is the same as mine.

If they are actually new, then this is awesome.
And if they are old, capacity will suffer.

I'm just waiting for a 30a CDR 3000mah cool running low voltage sag battery. But i guess everyone is looking for a unicorn. LOL

 

[Imfallen_Angel]

@Imfallen_Angel

Thanks for the reply. I was really curious as to other's thoughts on this and it sounds like your thinking is the same as mine.

If they are actually new, then this is awesome.
And if they are old, capacity will suffer.

I'm just waiting for a 30a CDR 3000mah cool running low voltage sag battery. But i guess everyone is looking for a unicorn. LOL

No problem..

My go-to mod runs 2 LG HG2 (3000mAh @ 20A) in parallel. It takes a lot to get the batteries to get even a bit warm.. my mod can get hot but that's just heat transfer from my tank (which I could cook eggs on at time...)

Thank goodness for my mouthpiece heat-fins.

 

[bwh79]

AFAIK, sony's official position is that these batteries are only available to manufacturers for use in sealed battery packs and things like that. They are not officially "available" individually to consumers, and so anything you might get your hands on is "unauthorized" and they won't acknowledge it. That doesn't make it any less authentic, though. Kind of like when FastTech scrapes the authenticity sticker off the boxes of their Aspire products, so they can sell them below recommended retail price. Aspire won't acknowledge or provide warranty service on these products, but scraping off the sticker and charging a few bucks less doesn't make what's inside the box any less "real" than it was before.

 

[Mooch]

I have question regarding VTC4 batteries.
For a long time, it was my understanding that they were extremely hard to find, real ones at least, and that Sony has stopped production of these batteries.

Now it appears there is a 'new' supply of them, and they are relatively cheap on sites that are suppose to be recommended by people like @Mooch, for example liionwholesale.com.

My quesion is this: If Sony is no longer making this battery and there is 'new' supply, even if they are legit VTC4 cells, wouldn't that make them old stock; and don't these [along with all cells in general] degrade in performance over time, even if brand new and never been used before?
Is it worth getting these, knowing that they are most like a few years old?

Thanks in advance!

They've always been available to Sony's customers and genuine new-manufacture stock is widely available from several trusted sources. The date codes for any Sony VTC battery can be checked to confirm this.

 

[KyleH83]

These are all good points. I guess I was going on the assumption that they weren't making them anymore, which didn't really seem reasonable but was still my thinking.

I'm pretty much constantly vaping and while I do love the HG2's, they seem to get somewhat warm (not measured in any other way than just holding them at the moment) when using in my Alien at 28-32a (TFV12 @ .15ohm / 115-140w). There are two of them, but they're in series.

But on my iPV5 with the TFV8 @ 90w they last almost two days! LOL
HG2 really is a great battery.

 

[K_Tech]

AFAIK, sony's official position is that these batteries are only available to manufacturers for use in sealed battery packs and things like that. They are not officially "available" individually to consumers, and so anything you might get your hands on is "unauthorized" and they won't acknowledge it. That doesn't make it any less authentic, though. Kind of like when FastTech scrapes the authenticity sticker off the boxes of their Aspire products, so they can sell them below recommended retail price. Aspire won't acknowledge or provide warranty service on these products, but scraping off the sticker and charging a few bucks less doesn't make what's inside the box any less "real" than it was before.

That's the understanding I have about the VTC4s - that Sony doesn't want to have them "on the market", so to speak, just sold to the companies that are going to assemble them into battery packs and power supplies.

 

[KenD]

These are all good points. I guess I was going on the assumption that they weren't making them anymore, which didn't really seem reasonable but was still my thinking.

I'm pretty much constantly vaping and while I do love the HG2's, they seem to get somewhat warm (not measured in any other way than just holding them at the moment) when using in my Alien at 28-32a (TFV12 @ .15ohm / 115-140w). There are two of them, but they're in series.

But on my iPV5 with the TFV8 @ 90w they last almost two days! LOL
HG2 really is a great battery.

Forget the amp display on the mod, it doesn't show the amp draw at the batteries. The way you calculate the draw is:

Watts (add 10% to account for chip inefficiency) / battery cutoff voltage = amps

So for the Alien at 140w:
154 / 5.8 (the cutoff is at about 2.9v and there's two batteries in series) = 26.55

You're definitely exceeding the cdr of your batteries when the charge gets low.

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