While the lithium-ion batteries in disposable electronic cigarettes are discarded after a single use, they can continue to perform at high capacity for hundreds of cycles, according to a study published December 12 in the journal Joule.
I used to have roommates who vaped from that exact type of single-use device shown in the thumbnail diagram. They asked me to re-charge it, which I did, disassemble it, connect it to my Li-ion charger and it worked again. Apparently it didn’t taste good because it was nearly out of juice, but that was when I found out these were perfectly reusable 3.7V batteries in a disposable product.
Isn’t there a difference between rechargable and single-use-batteries? I was always under the Impression you should under no circumstances try to recharge single use batteries or they would explode?
The horrible thing about these was when they first came out they were literally regular vapes without the charging port. The board even contained the charge controller so you could stick a regular USB port on it and it would immediately work with no additional effort.
That was until the companies caught wind of what people were doing and put in a bit of extra effort to remove the charge controller and make it that bit harder to hack so profits remained high.
You’d need quite a number of alkaline batteries to get the necessary watts to drive a vape. Lithium cells aren’t just rechargable they are also good at releasing lots of energy in a short amount of time.
In general yes, but that doesn’t apply here. Vapes all use rechargeable lithium batteries, even the disposables without a charging port. Other battery chemistries at that size don’t put out enough power.
I used to have roommates who vaped from that exact type of single-use device shown in the thumbnail diagram. They asked me to re-charge it, which I did, disassemble it, connect it to my Li-ion charger and it worked again. Apparently it didn’t taste good because it was nearly out of juice, but that was when I found out these were perfectly reusable 3.7V batteries in a disposable product.
Isn’t there a difference between rechargable and single-use-batteries? I was always under the Impression you should under no circumstances try to recharge single use batteries or they would explode?
These are rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The same standard 18650 that has powered laptops, EVs, and power banks.
They’re packaged inside a single use product, but the battery is rechargeable.
Many products actually have charging ports now. All they need to do is allow users to change out the flavor wick and we will come full circle.
Yeah, some extra electronics to handle charging would go a long way.
Buuut, Quality charging controllers cost money the vapes company isn’t going to put in, and overly cheap controllers add a bigger fire hazard.
The horrible thing about these was when they first came out they were literally regular vapes without the charging port. The board even contained the charge controller so you could stick a regular USB port on it and it would immediately work with no additional effort.
That was until the companies caught wind of what people were doing and put in a bit of extra effort to remove the charge controller and make it that bit harder to hack so profits remained high.
Not an 18650, that’s way too big (18x65mm). Smaller than 14500 (AA) for sure
You’d need quite a number of alkaline batteries to get the necessary watts to drive a vape. Lithium cells aren’t just rechargable they are also good at releasing lots of energy in a short amount of time.
There is a difference. Not sure how they ar made, but the chemical composition and possibly the design is different.
Trying to recharge a non rechargeable battery can risky and there is the possibility of leaking or explosion.
In general yes, but that doesn’t apply here. Vapes all use rechargeable lithium batteries, even the disposables without a charging port. Other battery chemistries at that size don’t put out enough power.
Ah that explains it! I thought they’d built in the cheap non-rechargable ones.
You can over volt lithium cells and pop them if you don’t use the right kind of charger. But they’re 1s standard lipos.