thanks guys
great detailed reply thank you.
what exactly is nominal voltage...the amount the vamo takes from the battery?
i have a 2.6ohm coil at the moment so i may stack them and see if it works any better.
im currently using 1 battery at i think it was 4v and 6.5w. no idea if thats right or not lol i only got it today and have been using a non vv/vw battery up until now so never had to mess with volts before.
if i double stack what volts and watts you reccomend as a starting point?
The nominal voltage is the voltage at which the battery is designed to operate.
When you charge up a 'standard' lithium ion battery that most vaping devices use, it will come off the charger at roughly 4.2 volts. As you use the battery, this charge will dissipate and drop down to around 3.7 volts. The battery is designed to operate at 3.7 volts so for most of the battery's run time, it should be at or around this level ... it should drop relatively quickly from 4.2 volts when freshly charged and drop relatively quickly to around 3.2 volts at the end of it's run time. Most batteries have a built in circuit that prevent the battery from dropping below 3.2 volts because this is damaging to the battery.
A few words of caution.. lithium batteries can store a lot of energy and if they're mistreated or used in the wrong way, they CAN (please note, can.. not will) enter what is called thermal runaway and end up going bang. There are some simple things that you can do to make sure the likelihood of this happening is very remote.
ALWAYS use the appropriate charger for the batteries, that have built in charge regulation and charge cut offs (basically, this means that the charger will stop send energy to the battery once it is fully charged ... over charging batteries can cause thermal runaway).
ALWAYS keep any spare batteries in an appropriate, non conductive container so that they can't make contact with metal, to avoid them shorting out (which, again, can cause thermal runaway).
GENERALLY try not to rush the charging cycle of your batteries. A lot of chargers these days come with an option to select the rate at which the batteries get charged at (common rates are 0.25 amps, 0.50 amps and 1.0 amps). It's a good idea to select a charging rate that's proportionate to the battery dimension, with smaller batteries using a lower charging rate. A decent rough guide would be to use no higher than 0.25 for charging 14500 batteries, no higher than 0.50 for 18350s (like your batteries) and only use 1.0 for 18500s and 18650s. The reasoning behind this is because if you try to cram too much power into too small a battery, too quickly, then it can cause overheating and (yes, you guessed it) potential thermal runaway.
GENERALLY if you are going to use batteries in stacked mode, it's a good idea to keep them in 'matched pairs' and only use the same 2 batteries in conjunction with each other.. don't 'mix and match'. Stick to batteries of the same brand and capacity, charge them up together, store them together and use them together ... in effect you should try to think of the 2 batteries as a single unit. The reasoning behind this is that not all batteries are the same.. some will have slightly different capacities and as they reach the end of their run times, if 1 of the batteries only has 3.2 volts left in it while the other still has 3.7 volts in it, the 3.2 volt one will start to pull power from the one with 3.7 volts in it, which is something you want to avoid because it can lead to (are you getting fed up of reading the term thermal runaway yet?).
As batteries get used and recharged, they gradually degrade and their capacity will begin to diminish (this is normal). If you have just 2 batteries and you use just one of them in 'single' mode some of the time and leave the other one unused, the one that you use in single mode will end up having less capacity than the unused one and so if you then go on to use both those batteries together in 'stacked' mode, it can have a similar effect as using 2 different branded/capacity batteries.
AlLWAYS check your batteries before using them.. if you see damage (obvious dents, coatings damaged or peeling off etc.) then don't use them. Bite the bullet, put em in for recycling and use another battery (not forgetting that stacked pairs should be thought of a a single unit.. if one of em is knackered, it's safer to recycle then both or just use the undamaged one is single mode.. don't pair it with a new replacement that will have a different actual capacity).
There are probably other steps that other members here might want to add too if they feel I've missed anything.
All the above sounds quite scary, but don't worry.. I'm not trying to scare you. It's just best to be aware of the possible effects if you don't treat your batteries with a little respect. If it's any reassurance to you, I've been vaping about 3 years and the only time I've ever had a battery issue was when I caused a short on my device by screwing down an atomiser so far that it broke the insulator ring, so it was my fault, not the battery.
Just try to look after your batteries and use them as intended/advised and you should be fine.
Now that's out of the way... everyone has their own particular 'sweet spot' when it comes wattage and voltage, so what works well for someone else might not work so well for you. My own personal sweet spot is around 8-9 watts .. my own suggestion to you would be to use the vamo in wattage mode, try starting at 7 watts and adjust up or down as suits you best from there.
If you want to use voltage mode, you may find this ohm's law calculator handy :
http://www.ohmslawcalculator.com/ohms_law_calculator.php if you input the voltage and the ohmage of your atty into the calculator, it will show how many watts that combination produces and also how many amps it would pull from the battery. If you have a play around with the calculator, using your 2.6 ohm atty as a base, you can see the effect that different voltages will have.
This all might sound a bit complicated and ott but don't worry, if a bimbo like me can pick it up, then anyone can.
edit : Apparently, I need a spoolchucker.
