Efficient Battery Usage

Battery life is a constant question we get asked about. What’s best? What lasts the longest? Why does my vape run out so quickly?

Today I’m going to have a bit of a dive into how to get better battery life out of your device.

First of all lets talk about the battery itself. Most vapes are powered by lithium ion batteries (liPo). These work just the same way as the battery in your phone, and have the same limitations. LiPo batteries can be recharged hundreds, if not thousands of times, but they all degrade eventually, as their chemical components become weaker over time. If you have noticed you need to charge your phone (or vape) more frequently after about eighteen months, this is the reason why.

This means that if you have a device with a built in battery, you may have to replace it, the same as you would your phone.

If you have a device with replaceable batteries, you can just swap them out when they start to develop a weak charge.

What drains the battery?

Every time you press the button, power is fed to the heating element (coil) and this drains a little bit of power, the longer the press, the more power is used. Most devices have inbuilt safety measures to stop the button being pressed for more tan ten seconds, avoiding over heating the battery and damaging it (Ten seconds doesn’t sound a lot, but try inhaling for ten seconds. Unless you have elephant lungs, I would bet you can’t)

Flashing lights and big screens can reduce charge life, which is why you see more simple low energy screens on most vapes. The newer devices sometimes have large screens, but technical magic has reduced the drain somewhat.

Balancing your device

Fortunately for a lot of pen and pod type vapers, this is not a factor you have to worry about, as you have one (or two) types of coil, the vape detects this and delivers a measured charge, no fuss.

For people using “box mods” this is a thing to think about. If you have a small battery and a powerful tank, 1. It’s going to flatten the battery really fast, and 2. You could over heat the device, and that is not what you want, as it could damage it. This is why you don’t see great big tanks on skinny pen batteries.

The big box mods all have “wattage control” so you can dial the power up or down according to the rating of the coil you have (the wattage range is normally etched on the side of the coil in teeny tiny writing). Some manufacturers such as voopoo have employed some form of wizardry too, so the mod reads the coil resistance, and sets the wattage for you. This is a great feature if you don’t know a lot about wattage, or like me, forget to change the settings.

Battery safety.

Lastly here are a few tips to get the best, safest use from your batteries.

Don’t leave them in hot places! Batteries don’t like being hot, it ruins them, so keep them away from heat sources, and avoid leaving them in your car on hot days.

If buying external batteries in pars, keep them together, charge and discharge them together, as a married pair. Keeping them together means they stay balanced, and you don’t get any crazy power fluctuations.

If the battery is dented, get a new one.

For external batteries, make sure the plastic wraps are intact, and the insulator ring is present. You can get replacement wraps for them, and they’re easy enough to fit.

Don’t throw old batteries in the bin as they can be a fire hazard, recycle them!