SMOK BEC PRO "power reduced"

Status
Not open for further replies.

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
Does anyone know why this message comes up?

I fired an rda with a 1ohm dual micro coil at 35w and the power output reduced to 30w after the message came up? I read that the M65, M50 and the M80 also has this message. The M65/50 users claim its the battery connection and there are vids to show how to sand down the connections to prevent this from happening. The Bec Pro is a tube mod and has a screw cap for the battery with no spring.
Any ideas anyone??

My rda's are usually 0.8ohm or below, this was a test coil. Not sure if the message is consistent on other coils but it has come up before.
 

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
normally when that occurs, the battery is low enuf not to provide the expected wattage so the chip then backs off on the power and gives you that message...

I did read that about the low battery. but my battery was fully charged, an Efest 3100 20A....
I will try another fully charged battery, (35A) and post here again with the result....
There seems to be little help on this message...
Thanks for the reply Bunnykiller
 

Bunnykiller

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Nov 17, 2013
17,431
77,272
New Orleans La.
if the battery was fully charged, then the issue is a poor connection between the batteries and the contact posts... if the chip isnt "seeing" the proper amount of current ( due to a bad connection... dirty, loose, minimal surface contact) it will consider it a low voltage draw.... you may want to look into the possibility of poor contact between battery and mod

kinda like a garden hose... you know you have full pressure ( good battery) but when you pull the trigger on the spray nozzle the water just dribbles out... start looking for kinks in the hose ;)
 

Topwater Elvis

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Dec 26, 2012
7,116
16,502
Texas
I'd bet your problem is the efest 3100 mah battery, which is actually a re wrapped & erroneously labeled Panasonic ncr 18650be 6.4ish amp to 6.8ish amp battery that can be pushed to 10a.
But, that pushing does not come without the price of reduced capacity & battery life.

Simply put it just flat doesn't have the 'amps' to consistently run your power device.

As batteries are used & age they lose capacity, even more so when pushed to or over their CDR.
30w / 1Ω = 5.47 amps, this shows how much capacity the battery has lost since new & the reason reduced output message appears & output is automagically reduced.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SomeTexan

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
if the battery was fully charged, then the issue is a poor connection between the batteries and the contact posts... if the chip isnt "seeing" the proper amount of current ( due to a bad connection... dirty, loose, minimal surface contact) it will consider it a low voltage draw.... you may want to look into the possibility of poor contact between battery and mod

kinda like a garden hose... you know you have full pressure ( good battery) but when you pull the trigger on the spray nozzle the water just dribbles out... start looking for kinks in the hose ;)

Thank you again Bunnykiller
 

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
I'd bet your problem is the efest 3100 mah battery, which is actually a re wrapped & erroneously labeled Panasonic ncr 18650be 6.4ish amp to 6.8ish amp battery that can be pushed to 10a.
But, that pushing does not come without the price of reduced capacity & battery life.

Simply put it just flat doesn't have the 'amps' to consistently run your power device.

As batteries are used & age they lose capacity, even more so when pushed to or over their CDR.
30w / 1Ω = 5.47 amps, this shows how much capacity the battery has lost since new & the reason reduced output message appears & output is automagically reduced.

Thank you and Topwater Elvis for your help.

When I first started vaping, I did buy some 18650b's but got rid of them as they were my least amp rated batteries.
I was then recommended the Efests and bought them, subsequently discovering that they were re-wraps.
I have 7 Efests, 5 x 3100 20A and 2 x 2500 35A. All my Efests were bought around 8 months ago. They all worked fine with my first few mods (15-20w). The Smok Bec Pro was my first 50w. I use both clearo tanks and RDA's but never really above 30w. Last night I took the RDA to 40w and this message came on and couldn't understand why.
 

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
Problem solved I think....

Topwater Elvis, You seem to be right in what you said....my 3100's do drain fast.

I tested all my Efests batteries and tried this in normal power mode (not mech mde)

Smok Bec Pro with an RDA atop, 28awg kanthal dual micro coil, 1ohm, 40w

ALL 5 Efest 3100mah 20A batteries showed the POWER REDUCED message after pressing the fire button.
After the first press it reduced to around 35w. After the second press it reduced to around 30w.
The 3rd, 4th and 5th presses I got no message to I guess the battery CDR must have been ok.
(NB: On one battery it reduced to 27w afetr the 3rd press)

Both Efest 2500mah 35A batteries showed NO message. Fired at 40w as normal and stayed there.

One extra battery I had, UNBRANDED and labelled 2500mah and had the same purple wrap colour as the efests. This was a freebie that came with one of my mods. I assume that this was also 35A (I know its wrong to assume but my Smok will no doubt reduce power if it cant cope like it did with the other batteries).

Anyway, this battery also showed NO message. Fired at 40w as normal and stayed there.

Summation...
Looks like the "power reduced" message on the Smok is highly likely to be the battery performance rating.
Batteries are rated to what is actually underneath the wrapper. Looks like my efests 20A are not rated to 20A in pulses. Although my 2 x 2500mah are labelled Efest 35A, They are probably not, but are better than the 3100's.

Where the Smok was once my highest watt mod, It's now my lowest. On my other mods, I use a combo of 25r's and HG2's which are proper batteries. One HG2 lasts longer than 2 efests back to back. Batteries do lose capacity and amp rating after time so I will monitor all those that I have carefully. Battery safety is without compromise.

IMHO I will ditch the Efests as they cannot be trusted for where I need the watts to be.
Lucky for me the Bec Pro has this safety feature. Mech users beware I guess...

Thanks again to Topwater Elvis....seems that my problem has been answered.....
:))
 
Last edited:

IMFire3605

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
May 3, 2013
2,041
3,148
Blue Rapids, KS, US
Problem solved I think....

Topwater Elvis, You seem to be right in what you said....my 3100's do drain fast.

I tested all my Efests batteries and tried this in normal power mode (not mech mde)

Smok Bec Pro with an RDA atop, 28awg kanthal dual micro coil, 1ohm, 40w

ALL 5 Efest 3100mah 20A batteries showed the POWER REDUCED message after pressing the fire button.
After the first press it reduced to around 35w. After the second press it reduced to around 30w.
The 3rd, 4th and 5th presses I got no message to I guess the battery CDR must have been ok.
(NB: On one battery it reduced to 27w afetr the 3rd press)

Both Efest 2500mah 35A batteries showed NO message. Fired at 40w as normal and stayed there.

One extra battery I had, UNBRANDED and labelled 2500mah and had the same purple wrap colour as the efests. This was a freebie that came with one of my mods. I assume that this was also 35A (I know its wrong to assume but my Smok will no doubt reduce power if it cant cope like it did with the other batteries).

Anyway, this battery also showed NO message. Fired at 40w as normal and stayed there.

Summation...
Looks like the "power reduced" message on the Smok is highly likely to be the battery performance rating.
Batteries are rated to what is actually underneath the wrapper. Looks like my efests 20A are not rated to 20A in pulses. Although my 2 x 2500mah are labelled Efest 35A, They are probably not, but are better than the 3100's.

Where the Smok was once my highest watt mod, It's now my lowest. On my other mods, I use a combo of 25r's and HE2's which are proper batteries. One HE2 lasts longer than 2 efests back to back. Batteries do lose capacity and amp rating after time so I will monitor all those that I have carefully. Battery safety is without compromise.

IMHO I will ditch the Efests as they cannot be trusted for where I need the watts to be.
Lucky for me the Bec Pro has this safety feature. Mech users beware I guess...

Thanks again to Topwater Elvis....seems that my problem has been answered.....
:))


And here in lies why I hate Efest Purples.
1) There is no battery on the market currently that has a CDR over 30amps, so those 2500mah 35amp Efests and no name batteries can not put out 35amps continously when you learn, most times, the actual cell under than purple wrap is an LG HE2 or HE4, even a Samsung 25R, all 3 20amp CDR for the name brand A Bin spec that LG and Samsung sell of their own cells, Efest, Imren, and others buy up the lower spec B and C bin batteries, re-wrap them, the print the burst discharge rating as the continuous discharge rating of these cells.
2) Buy yourself some authentic name brand batteries, sources to look at in the US are Illumination Supply, Liion Wholesale, IMRBatteries, Orbtronics, and RTDVapor are all authorized name brand retailers of authentic LG, Samsung, Sony, and AW IMR batteries (AW are the only re-wraps I personally trust as they test each batch and do not over spec from what the manufacturers spec the batteries at)
3) Batteries to look at
AW IMR - Red Wrap 2200 Mah (20amp CDR)
AW IMR - Red Wrap 3000 Mah (20amp CDR) (These might actually be LG HG2 3000mah 20amps or Samsung 30Q)
LG HG2 (Chocolate Wrap 3000mah 20amp)
Samsung 30Q (3000 mah 20amp)
Sony VTC5 (2100mah 20amp)
LG HE2/HE4/HD2 (20amp CDR)
Samsung 25R rev3 (light blue wrap) rev5 (green wrap) 2500mah 20amp CDR (these are highly suggested, good strong all round workhorse of a cell)
Sony VTC4 (2100mah 20 to 30amp CDR) not a true 30amp but can handle 30amp loads without issue
Sony VTC3 (1600mah true 30amp CDR)
LG HB6 (1500mah true 30amp CDR) coolest running cell on the market at the moment, at full 30amps it even lower in temp compared to the VTC3 and VTC4 which are the kings of 30amp cells, LG been impressing me what they can do lately with these newer cells they are producing.
 

invisiblesun

Full Member
Sep 16, 2015
64
12
57
And here in lies why I hate Efest Purples.
1) There is no battery on the market currently that has a CDR over 30amps, so those 2500mah 35amp Efests and no name batteries can not put out 35amps continously when you learn, most times, the actual cell under than purple wrap is an LG HE2 or HE4, even a Samsung 25R, all 3 20amp CDR for the name brand A Bin spec that LG and Samsung sell of their own cells, Efest, Imren, and others buy up the lower spec B and C bin batteries, re-wrap them, the print the burst discharge rating as the continuous discharge rating of these cells.
2) Buy yourself some authentic name brand batteries, sources to look at in the US are Illumination Supply, Liion Wholesale, IMRBatteries, Orbtronics, and RTDVapor are all authorized name brand retailers of authentic LG, Samsung, Sony, and AW IMR batteries (AW are the only re-wraps I personally trust as they test each batch and do not over spec from what the manufacturers spec the batteries at)
3) Batteries to look at
AW IMR - Red Wrap 2200 Mah (20amp CDR)
AW IMR - Red Wrap 3000 Mah (20amp CDR) (These might actually be LG HG2 3000mah 20amps or Samsung 30Q)
LG HG2 (Chocolate Wrap 3000mah 20amp)
Samsung 30Q (3000 mah 20amp)
Sony VTC5 (2100mah 20amp)
LG HE2/HE4/HD2 (20amp CDR)
Samsung 25R rev3 (light blue wrap) rev5 (green wrap) 2500mah 20amp CDR (these are highly suggested, good strong all round workhorse of a cell)
Sony VTC4 (2100mah 20 to 30amp CDR) not a true 30amp but can handle 30amp loads without issue
Sony VTC3 (1600mah true 30amp CDR)
LG HB6 (1500mah true 30amp CDR) coolest running cell on the market at the moment, at full 30amps it even lower in temp compared to the VTC3 and VTC4 which are the kings of 30amp cells, LG been impressing me what they can do lately with these newer cells they are producing.

Hi,
I do not trust the Efest anymore after today. Nor re-wraps. Unfortunately, I am not in the US. But what I have found is people like you who help people like me. In the last few months I have sourced two good battery suppliers in the UK. That said, I now have in my collection proper 25r's, HG2's, VTC5's and 30Q's. The Efests and 18650B's were earlier purchases for when I vaped at less power. The Pannys have since gone. Next will be the Efests. My Smok Bec Pro is 50w but in VV mode can hit 12volts. I am not a high watt vaper but regardless, no compromises in batteries. I DONT want to learn the hard way. I have looked at the HE2/HE4's, and the AW's. So from your list, I dont look at anything more than those that I have to those on your list that I would buy. If I ever get to super sub ohm or high wattage then for sure its the VTC3 or the HB6. Right now its 20A with max capacity.
Many thanks for everyone's input here.
:))
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread