If you have a vaping device with removable batteries, that gives you the luxury of charging your batteries with an external battery charger if you like. Many vapers opt not to do that, though, because virtually all vaping devices also have USB ports for charging. Why would you bother buying a standalone battery charger when you can charge your vaping device just by connecting it to your computer? For that matter, why spend the money that premium battery chargers usually cost when a free USB cable can do the same job?
You’re about to learn why a great battery charger from a vape shop like Blackout Vapors is a much better investment than you might realize. In fact, it’s one of the best investments a vaper can make. Here’s why.
Vape While Charging
Most modern vaping devices don’t support pass-through charging. Even if a device does allow you to vape during charging, the repeated charging and discharging is bad for the battery and can reduce its longevity. If you have a standalone charger, you can charge one pair of batteries while vaping with another. It’s better for the batteries, and it also means that you don’t have to stop vaping while your batteries charge.
Better Battery Longevity
If you’re using two pairs of batteries rather than one, it’s better for the longevity of the batteries. That’s not just because you’re dividing the usage among twice as many batteries; it’s also because you’re giving your batteries a break between charge-discharge cycles.
Safer Battery Charging
You’ve probably heard that any lithium-ion battery has a small chance of overheating during charging or use. You may have even heard that a few vape battery explosions have occurred over the years. Thermal incidents with lithium-ion batteries are extremely rare, but they’re even rarer with high-quality batteries and chargers. Now, if you’re using a mod that costs $50 – and you can buy a battery charger for around $50 – what do you suppose is the value of the charging components in the $50 mod?
A high-quality battery charger provides the safest possible way to charge your vape batteries. That’s not just because of the quality of the charger itself; it’s also because of the safety features that a good charger offers. These are just a few of the safety features that you can expect a top-quality standalone battery charger to have.
- Individual balancing and monitoring of each battery cell
- Better heat dissipation during charging
- Flame-retardant materials
- Temperature monitoring
- Short circuit detection
- Monitoring for battery cell degradation
- Monitoring of the battery’s internal resistance
Ability to Charge Multiple Battery Types
One of the greatest things about owning a really good battery charger is that it’s more than just a tool for charging your vaping batteries. Many battery chargers have the ability to automatically detect the chemistry and type of any connected battery. In that way, a good charger isn’t just for charging basic 18650 vaping batteries. It can also charge 20700 or 21700 cells if you decide to upgrade to a larger vaping device one day.
If you happen to own AA, AAA, C or D batteries using the NiMH or NiCad chemistries, a good battery charger can usually handle those as well. Why have a million different cables, wires and chargers around the house when you can handle all of your batteries with just one device?
Choose Your Charging Speed
When you charge a device through your computer, you don’t get to choose the charging speed. That’s negotiated via the USB power delivery protocol between your computer and the device’s charging circuitry. When you have a standalone battery charger, though, you can enjoy much finer control over how your batteries charge.
If you don’t want to change anything about how your batteries charge, you can simply charge them with a 1-amp current. If you do that, your batteries will charge exactly as they do now. If you want to reduce the heat that your batteries give off during charging, though, a good battery charger will let you reduce the charging speed to a 0.5-amp current. Heat-related stress is the top factor that reduces a battery’s longevity. Although reducing the charging current will roughly double the amount of time that your batteries take to charge, it may also mean that your batteries will last significantly longer before you need to replace them.
On the other hand, you may be the type who doesn’t care about battery longevity. You’d rather spend as little time as possible waiting for your batteries to charge, even if that means you’ll need to replace the batteries more often. If that’s the case, today’s high-end battery chargers can provide fast-charging currents of up to 3 amps. Before using this feature, though, be warned that fast charging can cause batteries to get fairly hot. Be certain that your batteries support fast charging before using this feature.
Recover Some Dead Batteries
When a lithium-ion battery reaches 4.2 volts, it’s fully charged – and if you’re new to this type of battery, you might assume that the battery is dead when it reaches 0.0 volts. That, however, isn’t how lithium-ion batteries work. Your vaping device will actually tell you that your batteries are dead when the cells reach about 3.0-3.3 volts. That’s true of all devices using lithium-ion batteries.
Let’s suppose, though, that you use a mechanical mod. A mech mod has no internal electronics and doesn’t monitor the voltage of your battery. If your vaping device doesn’t monitor battery voltage, it’ll let you continue using your battery until the power level dips well below 3.0 volts.
At extremely low voltages, a lithium-ion battery can undergo permanent chemical changes that will damage the cell and may present a fire risk. For that reason, a lithium-ion battery enters a sort of “sleep mode” at this stage. In sleep mode, the battery will read 0.0 volts when connected to a standard charger, and the charger will not attempt to charge the cell.
One of the money-saving features you’ll enjoy with a good battery charger is that some chargers can actually force dead batteries out of sleep mode and revive them. Once a battery has been in sleep mode, it’s likely that its capacity will be somewhat diminished. However, having a lower-capacity battery is better than having a battery that doesn’t function at all. Once you’ve revived a few dead batteries, a high-quality battery charger essentially pays for itself.
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