Hi all!
I’m just curious if anyone can help me to understand the myriad of options for Vapcell batteries?
As I understand it, they don’t manufacture batteries themselves, but rather work with and rewrap other manufacturers batteries.
They do have a solid reputation for quality and consistency it seems, and I’ve started to acquire several for my collection, so far just a couple F15’s, N40 and N41.
Some of my primary questions are:
-Why do Vapcell batteries so often have much higher rated capacities than everything else?
Are they really just finding the best of the best and compiling them in to a kind of “all star” collection?
-Why are there so many different models (different letter prefixes) that are nearly identical in specs?
Are the different lines sourced from different manufacturers and they keep the consistency by not lumping different sourced batteries under the same label?
-Which cells are known to be manufactured by specific companies?
-Are there specific models that are known to be particularly desirable or should be avoided?
For example the N40 and N41 are so similar that it seems unnecessary to have two different models, unless they are made by different companies and that accounts for the small difference in capacity. Is there any difference in quality or cycle life between the two?
And between the F12 and F15, is there a reason NOT to use the F15 over the F12? Does the F12 get a longer service life as a trade off for slightly less capacity? Can it be chalked up to battery technology improving?
I can’t really answer most of your questions, but a guy named mooch has tested a bunch of the Vapcell batteries and they do live up to the specs pretty well. If you google something like “mooch Vapcell M11 test” you might get a result
They do seem to carry way too many older models. In any given size there are only a couple that are worth buying for either high capacity or high CDR and maybe a couple more if you want to save money.
It’s possible the N41 is just a better grade of the same cell as the N40, but we don’t really know.
For 18350 I don’t see any reason to buy anything other than H16 and M11v2. The F16 for instance has been surpassed by the H16, but you can still buy them.
For 14500 the F15 has the highest capacity, but last time I bought them they were $7 and the F12 was $3 so I bought more of those. The high CDR H10 had quality problems and was discontinued last week and there isn’t a good replacement yet.
In 18650 I like the cheaper of N40/N41 for capacity, but in the high CDR I buy Molicel so not sure what they have there.
I just looked at Illumn and the F12 flat top was $3.99 and the F15 was $4.25 and for that price difference I would buy the F15. Oddly the N41 $6.99 was cheaper than the N40 $7.25. Both seemed to be in stock at Illumn, but many retailers only carry one or the other.
Interesting. I read that some people were having problems with the H10. Did Vapcell officially announce that they were discontinuing them?
As to the OP question. All I can say is that I have had good luck with cells in 14500, 18650, and 21700 from them meeting their specifications. As to the large number of models…?? Just look for the criteria that is important to you and go with those cells.
Not sure how I missed that. I follow that thread. It is too bad. I have a bunch of H10s here and have had no problems with any of them. It is a good cell…or used to be.
I don’t recall all the details but I think the letters mean the type of battery as in high capacity low drain, high capacity, low temp or something along those lines.
Just looking at capacity overlooks other things such as constant discharge rate (how many amps can it deliver safely over longer time), max/pulse discharge rate (how much can it serve for a short turbo burst), working temp range, cycle life and possibly some other characteristics.
And lastly there is the layer of chronology - there are older and newer cells and with technology constantly improving You might have practically the same models (chemistry, cdr, cycle life etc) but with different capacities. Or have an old high drain category cell that has similar discharge parameters to a current high capacity cell (so they would have different letters)
“Mooch” recently tested the F15. Vapcell’s test data shows the F15 being superior to the F12.
The two cells I tested exceeded their 1500mAh capacity rating and their 3A current rating seems reasonable, not causing any excessive voltage sag or overheating.
The minimum capacity spec is 1150mAh though, indicating a potential large inconsistency between cells. This is typical for all of the small cells though since none of them are made by the big manufacturers