I will no longer be saying a battery is accurately rated if the “pulse” rating is in huge numbers on the wrap, even if the accurate continuous current rating is also on the wrap in fine print.
This has been bothering me for a while but Nitecore has pushed me over the edge. While they have the continuous and (useless) pulse ratings spelled out it’s done in the tiniest of print while the pulse rating is repeated in huge numbers.
It’s clear to me that Nitecore, and other companies, want us to think that the pulse rating is the battery’s true rating. There are two problems with this…
1) Pulse ratings are utterly and completely useless unless we know some things about how the ratings were set. There are no standards for a pulse rating. Without knowing the length of the pulse, the time between pulses, and the criteria used to set the rating (temperature? run time? voltage sag? a combination of these?) we can’t compare one battery’s pulse rating against another’s. They’re useless.
2) These “pulse” ratings can be dangerously high. While you might normally be able to vape at that high a level without too much risk, since the current is pulsed, these ratings don’t take our safety into account in case of a mod malfunction or accidental button press. This can cause the battery to be discharged continuously, possibly causing it to vent (most likely not go into thermal runaway and burst though).
From now on whatever number is the most prominent one on the wrap will be the one I use as its claimed rating. This will be handled on a case by case basis and might need to be adjusted as a policy as testing continues.
Batteries that list both ratings equally, e.g., “20A/40A”, will have their useless pulse ratings mentioned but the first number will be considered as the continuous current rating.
This is not a perfect system and I’m sure it will need to be tweaked at some point but it’s a step that needed to be taken now due to the way these companies are presenting their ratings on the wrap.
Ratings examples: https://imgur.com/a/HqaCb
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