Vape Abbreviations: Batteries, Mods and Cells – Part II

In our previous article, we walked you through the differences between batteries, vape mods, draw-activated batteries and a few other quirks from the world of vaping. We’re staying with batteries and mods for e-cigarettes a little longer. As a vaper, you should know a bit about the electronics and the terminology used for batteries and mods. That knowledge really comes into play when you buy your tank and coils, but it would be frustrating if your tank, coils and battery didn’t work together.

 

Batteries

If you buy a mod, you’ll need batteries! Here’s the simple warning: don’t go for the cheapest ones. Steer clear of bargain buys on eBay or Ricardo. Depending on the coil head, a serious amount of current can run through a mod, and the cheapest batteries won’t do you any favors. It’s best to buy your batteries from the same place you buy your mod. No retailer wants a customer’s mod or atomizer to go wrong.

 

mAh

mAh stands for milliampere-hours. You’ll see this rating on both built-in e-cig batteries and the batteries used in mods. It tells you roughly how often you’ll need to recharge them. In other words, the mAh rating gives you an idea of the battery’s capacity. The higher the number, the more charge the battery can store. Once you know your own vaping habits, you’ll soon know how long a 2,000 mAh battery will keep you going.

 

Ohm

Ohms indicate a coil’s resistance. This number is important when setting up batteries correctly, and especially so you don’t use sub-ohm coils on an old eGo battery with 1,000 mAh, no wattage adjustment and no temperature control. Those batteries are not designed for sub-ohm vaping. We’ll cover that in much more detail in another article.

 

TC - Temperature Control

Many vapers don’t like a warm vape, and temperature control is also important in the sub-ohm range because these atomizers can get very hot. The electronics help prevent overvoltage and overheating.

 

Volt

A volt is the unit used for the electrical pressure that drives current.

 

Variable Voltage

Abbreviated VV. Variable-voltage devices let you adjust the voltage.

 

Watts

In an e-cigarette, wattage tells you the maximum power a battery or mod can run at. This figure is especially important with sub-ohm coils. The lower a coil’s resistance, the more wattage your battery or mod should be able to deliver. For sub-ohm vaping, or if you’re vaping with nickel, you should have at least 30 watts of power available.

Wattage itself describes the power an electrical circuit can deliver.

 

Variable Wattage

The wattage is adjustable. VV and VW are now found together on all higher-quality devices, letting you tailor vapor production to your own taste.

That’s why wattage matters for so-called sub-ohm coil heads. More on that in upcoming articles.

On many batteries and mods today, you can set either volts or watts individually. The advantage is that modern software also monitors the coil’s voltage, and temperature protection helps ensure everything works together safely and smoothly.

We’ll explain exactly what these settings affect, what you can do with them and how these terms relate to atomizers. Head to part 3 of our Abbreviations and Explanations for Vapers series!

As a newcomer to the world of e-cigs, pick up a simple starter kit and try different settings until it tastes best to you. Your settings will change over the course of your vaping journey anyway.

Simple, but already a solid option for beginners: a Kanger Subvod, for example, is easy to use and suitable for beginners. Or go for the classic simple battery setup – the Joyetech EGO One Set – for sub-ohm vaping without needing a PhD first.