Replacing Batteries

[englishmick]

I've got 4 mods that use batteries. I have 6 HE2's. When I put one on to charge I just grab the next charged one off the shelf.

With 4 mods going it's hard to tell whether a particular battery is still holding its charge. Sometimes I use one mod a lot, other times I use them all equally. I suppose I could keep a log of how long each battery lasts but that seems like a lot of work.

I'm pretty easy on batteries. Mostly don't go over 12W and I try not to let them run down below 3.6V.

As far as I can tell they are all fine. But the first ones I got are a year old now. I'm a bit worried that they may be running out of steam and I might not notice that I'm having to swap them out more quickly.

I don't know whether old batteries can cause problems, or they just don't hold a charge as well.

I've seen comments here about junking batteries when they get to be a year old. This might be the way out of my dilemma. Or is there a way of using a multimeter to check whether a battery is still good?

 

[MMcQ]

You can use a MM to check if the battery is holding its charge by checking its resting voltage after its been charged and after leaving it on the shelf for a day or so before putting it into a mod. (Put the most recently charged battery to the left or right of the last charged battery and keep track that way or so.) Numbering the batteries would be a good way to keep track of which is which. This will only tell you if the battery is holding a charge though. As batteries age they may also begin to experience more voltage drop under load (when you fire it.) To test that you would have to hook up your MM to the + and - sides of an atty with a coil on it while firing and see if the drop increases over time. Basically does it feel like your mod is firing any weaker? I've never checked for voltage drop but I use a regulated device. If a battery isn't holding its charge (starts at 4.2ish volts off the charger and then drops to less than 4.1 or so over a day or so) then its probably time to replace the battery.

 

[sig-cmt]

Be wary of the IR of individual cells. You can accomplish this with a good RC charger (most reputable models support IR), a Li-ion charger with an IR metering feature such as the Opus BT-C3100, or with a dedicated ESR metering device. Also, periodically verify that your cells are holding capacity (supported charger with a charge/discharge cycle) and voltage (multimeter with cells after a predefined rest).

 

[Rossum]

I've seen comments here about junking batteries when they get to be a year old.

Meh. I've got some that are pushing two years in service and they're still going strong. I know this because I use bottom fed mods exclusively and I always fill the bottle when I swap out a battery, allowing me to do a bit of loose mental correlation between the amount of juice I've gone through and the voltage of the battery that comes out of the mod. I run mid to upper teens for wattage, sometimes low 20s, so I'm not particularly hard on batteries either. If I were pushing the batteries' limits, I might worry about their internal resistance, but I'm not, so I don't.

 

[Baditude]

I've used two year old (and older) AW IMR batteries in my Provari's. I rotated about four of them. Although I can tell that they are starting to show their age (not holding a charge as long as when they were newer), they are still serviceable. Using them in a Provari, these batteries were never "pushed to their limits".

I say continue to use the older batteries as long as they are holding a charge to where they are not becoming a pain to you to use. You are not "pushing" the batteries hard, so you are not creating an unsafe situation.

 

[edyle]

I've got 4 mods that use batteries. I have 6 HE2's. When I put one on to charge I just grab the next charged one off the shelf.

With 4 mods going it's hard to tell whether a particular battery is still holding its charge. Sometimes I use one mod a lot, other times I use them all equally. I suppose I could keep a log of how long each battery lasts but that seems like a lot of work.

I'm pretty easy on batteries. Mostly don't go over 12W and I try not to let them run down below 3.6V.

As far as I can tell they are all fine. But the first ones I got are a year old now. I'm a bit worried that they may be running out of steam and I might not notice that I'm having to swap them out more quickly.

I don't know whether old batteries can cause problems, or they just don't hold a charge as well.

I've seen comments here about junking batteries when they get to be a year old. This might be the way out of my dilemma. Or is there a way of using a multimeter to check whether a battery is still good?

If you mostly don't go over 12W then your batteries will be useable for a long time.
If you on occasion go 20 to 30 watts, then those occassions will probably show up a weaker/older battery.