I have both Rivas. Regular meters at 3.7 off the charger, and 3.6 an hour in on a Dual coil. My batts only last me 2 hours. My SE meters 4.2v off the charger( one meter 4.1) and 3.8 at the hour mark. So I don't go by rumors or what others say- I actually verify it.
My 5v with a 4.8 nimh only lasts me 3.5 hours. So I'm a very heavy vapor. I don't like the 5v. It burns my juice, on all types of cartos. I've tried 3.3 ohms down to triple coil. It's too hot- and I like a warm vape!
Word to OP: verify the info you get here with other posts, you'll want to go with consistence and facts. I got my Rivas after I discussed the differences with a veteran who meters all his stuff. You may want to invest in the $5 meter from Harbor Freight. It's great. Just as good as my hubbies $200 electricians meter I verified it with. If you don't know how to use a particular product, drop into live chat most evenings between 9-midnight est, there are a lot of helpful folks there to answer and teach.
Interesting - your reads of 4.2 volts of the Riva SE and 3.7 volts for the Riva non-SE. Both I presume are unloaded voltages. My read of the non-SE Rivas that I have is 4.2 volts (unloaded). My Rivas were purchased around January/February of 2011 with lite-bundle kits from LF. It is my understanding that some of the earlier versions of the Rivas were PWM. But, even if you had early versions of non-SE Rivas it seems unlikely (based on my experiences) that they would read 3.7 volts just off charger. Instead, more like 3.4 as in case of Joye (or Tornado) eGo bats. A possible explanation of the 3.7 might be a non-PWM bat but one that had deteriorated over time with use to point that higher charge could not be achieved. Just guessing on the explanation. Another possible explanation might be a knock-off of a knock-off where second knock-off'er did poor job. Yet another explanation might be yet a third version of the Riva. Perhaps someone from Liberty-Flights might add some information on what they know of difference between the Riva 510 SE bats and the Riva 510, non-SE bats.
Personally, I find the vape with the Riva bats more satisfying than that with the Joye eGos. Just my opinion. However, my subjective experience is that the Riva bats fail quicker than the Joye eGo's. But that subjective experience might simply come from typically picking my Rivas more frequent than the Joye eGo. At this moment, only using Joye eGos as all Rivas that I have will no longer charge.
