So I recently purchased a Sigelei #24. I like it. It has a top button, which I prefer, it's telescopic, and it is even kickable. It has one serious problem though as it comes stock - Massive Voltage Drop.
I wanted to share with the community how I was able to combat that loss. I'm definitely no expert when it comes to mechanical mods btw. Until I purchased the #24, my primary mods were the Vamo
and the Sigelei Zmax v2. I wanted to experiment with sub-ohm coils though, and to do that I needed a mech. My first sub-ohm coil was .65 ohms. I have a voltage checker, and when I first used it to
measure the voltage drop under load, I was severely disappointed by the results. My 4.19 volt Efest IMR18490 was dropping down to 3.5 volts! That's a drop of .69 volts, and I knew from things I had
read in other users' posts that a drop of that size is considered to be excessive. I was pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with the battery as it was brand new, and to the best of my knowledge
is rated for at least 8 amps of current draw, so I knew it had to be something else.
The first thing I did was purchase two copper replacement springs from VaporTek. Well, that helped a few hundredths of a volt, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped. I'm no electronics expert either,
but I was leaning towards the voltage drop coming from the springs, so I started thinking of ways to bypass them. I had an old Sigelei #8 laying around, so I decided to see if I could pull parts from it. I
want to keep this somewhat short, so let me just say that, through experimentation I found that the loss had nothing to do with the spring on the negative end of the battery. I don't know why that is,
just that it is. lol The spring that connects the top of the switch to the center pin seems to be the major culprit, so I took the brass screw from the #8's center pin, and found that it is just the right size
so that I could use it as the center pin in the #24 while leaving enough of it sticking out to make contact with the head of the other brass screw at the top of the switch. My voltage drops are now only
maxing out at .40 volts (with a .45 ohm coil), and are typically in the .30-.35 volt range with coils in the .60-.80 ohm range. The higher drop with the .45 ohm coil is probably related to the 8.33 amp
current draw, which is probably pushing the battery a little more than I should.
I wanted to experiment with micro-coils, and have been using my new Kick 2 with 1.6-1.8 ohm micro-coils at 15 watts with zero problems since tackling the voltage drop problem. Unfortunately, my little
voltage indicator won't measure the voltage produced by the Kick 2. It's just blank, so I don't have any numbers to report, but I can tell you from my own experience that the #24 performs like a champ
with it as well. Anyway, I was lucky enough to have an old Sigelei mod laying around that I could use for parts. If you don't have anything like that available, I don't know where to tell you to get a brass
screw from, or even what size it is for that matter. I sent VaporTek an email though suggesting that it would be great if they would carry even more replacement parts than they currently do. I ended up
cross-threading one of the little white Delrin pieces that go to the switch, but the #8 came to my rescue there as well. The Delrin piece it uses is identical to the ones in the #24.
I hope someone out there find this useful. I apologize for being so wordy. I just can't help myself - I talk a lot, okay? lol
BTW, if anyone who has more knowledge about these things would care to confirm or dispute any of the suppositions that I made in this post, please do - I always like to learn something new. I'd also
like to know why only the spring on the positive side of the battery made a difference and not both of them if someone knows the reason.
Here's a pic for reference - replaced prior bad pic...
I should probably mention that you will lose the bottom adjustable airflow by using this modification. The holes become nothing more than decoration, but if you're anything like me and only use genesis-style
RBAs, it will have zero effect on the performance of your atomizer.
I wanted to share with the community how I was able to combat that loss. I'm definitely no expert when it comes to mechanical mods btw. Until I purchased the #24, my primary mods were the Vamo
and the Sigelei Zmax v2. I wanted to experiment with sub-ohm coils though, and to do that I needed a mech. My first sub-ohm coil was .65 ohms. I have a voltage checker, and when I first used it to
measure the voltage drop under load, I was severely disappointed by the results. My 4.19 volt Efest IMR18490 was dropping down to 3.5 volts! That's a drop of .69 volts, and I knew from things I had
read in other users' posts that a drop of that size is considered to be excessive. I was pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with the battery as it was brand new, and to the best of my knowledge
is rated for at least 8 amps of current draw, so I knew it had to be something else.
The first thing I did was purchase two copper replacement springs from VaporTek. Well, that helped a few hundredths of a volt, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped. I'm no electronics expert either,
but I was leaning towards the voltage drop coming from the springs, so I started thinking of ways to bypass them. I had an old Sigelei #8 laying around, so I decided to see if I could pull parts from it. I
want to keep this somewhat short, so let me just say that, through experimentation I found that the loss had nothing to do with the spring on the negative end of the battery. I don't know why that is,
just that it is. lol The spring that connects the top of the switch to the center pin seems to be the major culprit, so I took the brass screw from the #8's center pin, and found that it is just the right size
so that I could use it as the center pin in the #24 while leaving enough of it sticking out to make contact with the head of the other brass screw at the top of the switch. My voltage drops are now only
maxing out at .40 volts (with a .45 ohm coil), and are typically in the .30-.35 volt range with coils in the .60-.80 ohm range. The higher drop with the .45 ohm coil is probably related to the 8.33 amp
current draw, which is probably pushing the battery a little more than I should.
I wanted to experiment with micro-coils, and have been using my new Kick 2 with 1.6-1.8 ohm micro-coils at 15 watts with zero problems since tackling the voltage drop problem. Unfortunately, my little
voltage indicator won't measure the voltage produced by the Kick 2. It's just blank, so I don't have any numbers to report, but I can tell you from my own experience that the #24 performs like a champ
with it as well. Anyway, I was lucky enough to have an old Sigelei mod laying around that I could use for parts. If you don't have anything like that available, I don't know where to tell you to get a brass
screw from, or even what size it is for that matter. I sent VaporTek an email though suggesting that it would be great if they would carry even more replacement parts than they currently do. I ended up
cross-threading one of the little white Delrin pieces that go to the switch, but the #8 came to my rescue there as well. The Delrin piece it uses is identical to the ones in the #24.
I hope someone out there find this useful. I apologize for being so wordy. I just can't help myself - I talk a lot, okay? lol
BTW, if anyone who has more knowledge about these things would care to confirm or dispute any of the suppositions that I made in this post, please do - I always like to learn something new. I'd also
like to know why only the spring on the positive side of the battery made a difference and not both of them if someone knows the reason.
Here's a pic for reference - replaced prior bad pic...
I should probably mention that you will lose the bottom adjustable airflow by using this modification. The holes become nothing more than decoration, but if you're anything like me and only use genesis-style
RBAs, it will have zero effect on the performance of your atomizer.
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