Batteries? - CR123 vs. CR123a vs. 16340

[lemonshrew]

I'm a little confused about batteries.

I've seen CR123, CR123a and 16340 used interchangeably and/or together in many places. Are these just different designations for the same battery, or are there slight differences?

The reason I ask is that I'm looking at buying a mod that uses:
CR123 (16340) 3.0V

My husband has a huge flashlight collection, most of which use CR123's. I'm trying to make sure everything is compatible so I don't blow up a flashlight, or worse my mod.

Thanks!

 

[lemonshrew]

*dancing happy jig* BTW, 5 months analog free today! Yay for me!

 

[WomanOfHeart]

They are pretty much the same thing. Just make sure that you use protected batteries for your mod!

 

[lemonshrew]

They are pretty much the same thing. Just make sure that you use protected batteries for your mod!

OK. I'm still trying to grasp all this information about batteries. I've never really given them much thought until now.

I still have no clue about voltage and all that. The mod I'm looking at is the Q2v3 copper.

The website says: "For vaping at 6 v, this model accommodates two (3.0 v) 16340 batteries (compatible with all atomizers), or two (3.6 v) protected batteries for 7.2 v vaping."

The link to the 16340 batteries says the are un-protected. The link for the protected batteries says they are 16340 batteries, but at 3.6v instead of 3.0v.



This stuff requires so much research!

I guess my real question is: Can I buy protected rechargeable CR123 batteries that will work both with the Q2v3 and flashlights?

Also, using at 6v, can I still use my favorite 510 LR Dual Coil Carto's?

 

[six]

cr123, 1200-1400 mah.. typically not rechargeable.

rcr123, usually LiFeP04 and native 3 volts (3.4 with a full charge), require a 3 volt charger

16340/rcr123A these are really a li-ion 4.2 volt battery with the output regulated down to 3 volts. These will usually charge on any li-ion charger.

16340/rcr123A 3.7/4.2 unregulated output rating 3.7v come off the charger at 4.2 also li-on and will charge on any li-on charger. You have to read descriptions closely to know if you are buying a "regulated to 3.0v" battery or a 3.7v 16340.

Ask your husband about his flashlights. I'll have to think he's running non rechargeable cr123's probably. According to a lot of things I've read in the flashlight forums, you'll be blowing out LEDs if they're supposed to be 3.0v and you run them at 4.2. Or if they are supposed to be run at 6.0v and you run them at 7.4 to 8.0v.

The unprotected 3.0v batts you saw may have been LIFEP04 which is a safe chemistry battery and doesn't require a protection circuit.

The Dual Coils cartos at 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 ohms are fine on 6.0v. If you have 1.5 ohm DCs, remember to take very short drags or you'll scorch juice and it will taste sort of burnt at 6.0v. it is juice dependent, but lots of juices will scorch at 6.0v from the 1.5 ohm DCs.

 

[Stosh]

candlepowerforums has a lot of good battery information, also batteryuniversity dot com.

The proper term is CR123A. This stand for cylindrical shape and lithium chemistry (CR), a single cell (1),
that is 2/3 the size of an A cell (23A). This designation is for a primary cell.
16340 is 16 mm X 34 mm 0 = round, simply a size designation and nothing about the actual battery,
or if it's protected or not.

 

[six]

The proper term is CR123A. This stand for cylindrical shape and lithium chemistry (CR), a single cell (1),
that is 2/3 the size of an A cell (23A).

If the battery is stamped "cr123a" it probably isn't rechargeable. If it is stamped "rcr123a" it is rechargeable. If it is only stamped "123a" and doesn't mention "cr" or "rcr", it is probably LIFEP04.

 

[Buzzy]

Keep in mind too, that if you go to 6v or 7.4v vaping, you will want to use only HV atomizers/cartomizers rated 3.5 ohms or higher. 4 ohms is also fairly common. Otherwise, you will "pop" your atties/cartos very quickly as the coil burns.

 

[lemonshrew]

Wow! Thanks guys. And, yes hubby informed me yesterday that his good flashlights can't use rechargeables because all the rechargeables they make aren't stackable (I think he said stackable, something like that.). Anyway, it doesn't look like I'm gonna be able to find batteries that will work in both. Oh, well. It was worth a try.

 

[Caddyman]

i stack rechargeable Tenergy (lifep04) RCR123A's all the time in my GTTS

 

[lemonshrew]

i stack rechargeable Tenergy (lifep04) RCR123A's all the time in my GTTS

I think those are the ones I was looking at on Amazon. They specifically said won't work with Surefire flashlights (which is what hubby uses). I think the flashlight is the problem.

I'm happy with the AW 14500's I have now. I think I'll stick with those.

Thanks!

 

[air1]

The Dual Coils cartos at 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 ohms are fine on 6.0v. If you have 1.5 ohm DCs, remember to take very short drags or you'll scorch juice and it will taste sort of burnt at 6.0v. it is juice dependent, but lots of juices will scorch at 6.0v from the 1.5 ohm DCs.

OK this is a little old, but... If the battery can deliver the full 4 amps to drive this, it would equate to 24 watts of power. I've tried a true 15 watts of power and it boils the juice instantly(completely unvapeable). 24 watts would melt the solder in a few seconds if the atty doesn't blow first. Soldering irons are ususlly 15/30 watts. My educated guess is that the batteries simply can't deliver that amperage, so you get what it can give, which is much less. Who knows, maybe I'm all wrong!

 

[six]

OK this is a little old, but... If the battery can deliver the full 4 amps to drive this, it would equate to 24 watts of power. I've tried a true 15 watts of power and it boils the juice instantly(completely unvapeable). 24 watts would melt the solder in a few seconds if the atty doesn't blow first. Soldering irons are ususlly 15/30 watts. My educated guess is that the batteries simply can't deliver that amperage, so you get what it can give, which is much less. Who knows, maybe I'm all wrong!

The dual coils even though advertized as 1.5 ohms are actually a little over 1.6. Fill them full of juice and they are 1.8 ohms. But, even at 1.6 ohms, it's 3.75 amps which a lot of IMR batteries are completely capable of and some (like the AW's and MNKE's) can even go above 4 amps. It's 22.5 total watts of power.

The trick here is that it has two coils in a parallel circuit, and each coil is 3.2 ohms. that equals two coils running a little above 11 watts each. So, you've got more surface area for vapor creation compared to a single coil... and IMHO, a superior filler material as well. These are quite vapable at 6.0v as long as you take short drags. I prefer them on my 5.0v regulated mods and often even a little bit lower with a ni-mh batt that drives them around 4.3 or 4.4 load volts, but I've run them at 6.0v more than a few times. I have a couple of juices that are really spectacular at 6.0v on a 1.6 ohm dual coil.

 

[air1]

Thanks for the excellent explanation. I was forgetting that this was a dual coil. drozd had a list of discharge rates on this page http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/gg/76167-holy-crap-high-drain-18650-battery-ggts-19.html which states
Ultrafire CR123a...880 at 1.5C...max discharge is 1.32A
AW CR123a...750 at 2C....max discharge is 1.5A
AW IMR 16340....550mAh at 8C...max discharge is 4.4A

So only one of those batteries can deliver that kind of power, but it's a 3.7V battery, so it will consume 4.625 amps, which it can almost deliver. But that's 34.225 Watts. It will drain after 5 minutes of vaping. All I'm saying is that it's probably on the very outer edge of vaping. I know that it's way too hot for me. But at 5 volts, it has got to be pretty awesome.

I know that it reads like a lot of math (which I like), but nothing beats real world experience.

 

[six]

AW IMR 16340....550mAh at 8C...max discharge is 4.4A
I know that it reads like a lot of math (which I like), but nothing beats real world experience.

Yeah. the IMR's are pretty much the only batts that can do it. Li-Ons (the "cr" is the li-on chemistry specification in the designation rcr123a or cr123 or etc) are mostly not up to the task. There are some lifep04's that can get pretty close to the 4 amp range too, but the ones I have max out around 3.4 amps.

I have a couple of madvapes voltmeters so I can test load volts easily with a carto on. And resistance testing just takes a moment with my multimeter. - I'm a "real world" results sort of person, too.