The Echo Thread

[Charlz]

NW Vapors restocked with 'new style' Echos. With notes:



Looks like we can't escape the sealed single LED Echos now.

That's fine. It's the stealth model that I will be forever afraid of now. I had a hunch there was a reason the shipments were taking so long. It will be up to us to determine what these "improvements" are with the new ones. Figures. Find something good and they have to change it. Commence emailing.....I'll be back shortly.


edit: I emailed him but I see on the site that they are the stealths. The description is found in the kits. So Unhappy!!!! It also does say that the 300mah battery is for the new ones and they can't be charged with the old one. I hate being right. I also hate the way we have to discover all this info for ourselves and dedicate pages and pages to troubleshooting trying to figure out why the new batteries aren't working right.

 

[kren]

I have a 300mah charger for the "old" ones and it works fine with all my batts. Got it from NWV, too.

 

[CloveHunter]

So far, all new Echo stocks on Cropduster, NW Vapors, Mtn Vapor & VG are sealed stealth.

Those who still have old version are smoktek (Chrome 650) & Sterling (Stainless 650) - but I'm afraid their new stock will be stealth also. CMIIW.

Any US vendor I missed?

 

[CloveHunter]

I have a 300mah charger for the "old" ones and it works fine with all my batts. Got it from NWV, too.

I think it works the other way around than KR8 gen1 vs. gen2. The 300mAh is compatible with old & new version, while the 150mAh is only compatible with old version.

 

[txtumbleweed]

The 150 mah charger should work fine with both batteries. It will just take the normal 8 hr charge time. I would be careful charging the old batteries with the 300 mah charger though. It was advised against using higher mah chargers with those batteries. They might work but also might shorten the life of the battery.

 

[Cyrus Vap]

all this Echo tomfoolery on the part of manufacturers/vendors has me bummed. I'm so addicted to the tactile feel of the fat batt + matte/rubber finish it's not even funny

so who makes a rubberized vGO/iGO? lol I'm gonna jump ship!

 

[kren]

The 150 mah charger should work fine with both batteries. It will just take the normal 8 hr charge time. I would be careful charging the old batteries with the 300 mah charger though. It was advised against using higher mah chargers with those batteries. They might work but also might shorten the life of the battery.

Since I have no idea which are old and which are new batteries, I guess I'll be finding out the hard way
Seriously - there was no difference marked or advertised among the batteries. I've got "sealed" Echo 1300ma batteries (with the shielded post hole) and non-sealed Echo 1300ma batteries, and I've gotten both in the same order. Haven't bought one in about six weeks, though, so maybe there's updates I'm not aware of.

 

[lulu836]

If it ain't broke dammit, don't fix it!! The sealed batt I bought recently from Victoria is a stealth and it is a POS!!

 

[Errol]

If it ain't broke dammit, don't fix it!! The sealed batt I bought recently is a stealth and it is a POS!!

Sorry to hear that Lulu! Unfortunately that pretty well sums up my brief experience with a automatic battery.

Errol

 

[Charlz]

I don't know why they feel the need to switch all our beautiful echos over to garbage. It makes no sense. Bill's reply to my email stated that he has been trying to get specifics on the new batteries but has been unsuccessful but they did tell him to not use the new chargers on the old batteries and vice versa. If you purchased an older 300mah chager from him, I'd check.

I'm not sure I'm going to tell Bill the bad news or not. Sucks that they are pushing the new batteries on the vendors when I already know I will not be buying them. I love my autos and I love the fact that they sit flush and hold so much juice. Too bad. It's a sad day for me with taps playing softly in the background. Rewind a month or so ago and try to find a post I was on where I didn't mention the awesomeness of the echo; the only thing I found that was simple, compact, fiddle free and continued my love of the kr8 autos.

 

[txtumbleweed]

I have three unsealed auto echos and one sealed echo and all four work good for me. I don't have any stealth batteries and haven't tried any. I've been using them for a year now and I've only had three that died. I recently bought an ego 1000 auto and it lasted three days.

 

[Charlz]

I'm not so concerned about the unsealed vs sealed anymore as it makes no difference on performance and we modded our way around adapters and such. I'm more concerned with the ones that I purchased 4 months ago have gotten heavy use. It's about time to think about replacing them. I'm concerned my only option soon will be the stealth model. I'm annoyed that there are all these changes that come to us with no information and is causing us to possibly damage our batteries.

I still hold out hope that there was such a delay shipping out the new batch of batteries that they were fixing the glitches with the first round of new batteries. Anyone with me? Hope? Anyone?

 

[txtumbleweed]

So far, all new Echo stocks on Cropduster, NW Vapors, Mtn Vapor & VG are sealed stealth.


Any US vendor I missed?

Cropdusters are sealed but not stealth at least the one I got from him last week was that type.

 

[txtumbleweed]

all this Echo tomfoolery on the part of manufacturers/vendors has me bummed. I'm so addicted to the tactile feel of the fat batt + matte/rubber finish it's not even funny

so who makes a rubberized vGO/iGO? lol I'm gonna jump ship!

Smokless image sells an auto 808 vgo type 1300 and Nhaler sells the iGo but it is manual. They are both more expensive though.

 

[CloveHunter]

Cropdusters are sealed but not stealth at least the one I got from him last week was that type.

I just got the latest black 650 from Cropduster today and it's sealed and stealth.

 

[CloveHunter]

Smokless image sells an auto 808 vgo type 1300 and Nhaler sells the iGo but it is manual. They are both more expensive though.

Smokeless Image called it Volt X2, 650/900/1300 - the white & black are rubberized.

The 'vGo' from VaporSmiths is being recalled temporarily.

Both are sealed except the X2 is also a PT (and sort of 'stealth' with the cap on)

 

[txtumbleweed]

I just got the latest black 650 from Cropduster today and it's sealed and stealth.

I think I will give Tony a call and see what is going on. I thought maybe the other vendors were getting theirs from someone other than Hangsen.

 

[Charlz]

Victoria did some digging for me and seems to have come to the same conclusion about Hangsen that Bill from D&B did. She told me she is getting true echos in soon. Someday we will get to the bottom of it. We didn't need to dig when we were getting the good stuff. Now I feel we are getting something inferior while being kept in the dark. It's frustrating. I don't want to be tuning in to the echo thread and seeing posts directing me to an alternative. My echos rock! I want more. I just need to know where to get them without having to rush out and buy a hoard of the old stock.
Hopefully you'll be able to get to the bottom of it, Tex.

CloveHunter, how IS the new battery from Tony? Of course we have to ask about the charger deal too. Are you charging it with the 300mah newer charger? And does it have a rubberized finish?

 

[txtumbleweed]

I talked to Tony and he said Hangsen is making all sealed stealth now. He said the Hangsen engineers assured him that the new 300 mah chargers would work fine on the old batteries. Tony has tested several without any problems. Tony also said all of the new batteries he has sold have worked fine with no complaints. He thought if anything they seemed to hold a charge longer than the old ones. I don't think Bill from D&B Gold was getting his stealths from Hangsen but from someone else being as Hangsen just started making Stealths in the last two months. Maybe we are jumping the gun on these being bad. Who has actually had a problem with the new stealth batteries and what type of problem? Maybe we can narrow it down to see if maybe one supplier got some bad ones. Maybe some suppliers are getting theirs from someone other than Hangsen. If they are just dealing with Alibaba they could be coming from anyone.

 

[Charlz]

That's it, right there. We need to find new stealth users with new chargers. Funny that Hangsen would tell Bill from Northwest to use only the new chargers but they told Tony they are fine. Perhaps something got lost in translation. I will say that all the echomizers I've gotten from Tony have been great. The ones I got from NW Vapors have been good as well.

Still, I don't know where they got the idea to make only stealth. I like my LED light. Really wanted a red one.