Charging Time for New 510 Batteries

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lauraeleven

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Jun 23, 2009
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It dosen't say anywhere in the instructions on how long you should charge new batteries, the light on the charger changed from red to green in 30 minutes.

I have seen differing opinions on how long to charge anywhere from 4 to 12 hours......I just want to do this right the first time.

Anyone want to share their experience of batt maintence and charging tips?

I also bought a PCC for it which is plugged into my computer right now, the instructions on that say 4 hours charge up.

The waiting is the hardest part. :lol:
 

DC2

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I wish I could answer you question, but instead I will pile on a question of my own.

I just got my Yeti 510 with manual batteries and I LOVE it so much after struggling with my NPro for a few days. But the only, and I mean only problem I have is with the charger.

The first battery I charged it flickered red and green until I jiggled it around, and then it went red and stayed there until (supposedly) the battery was charged. The second time I charged one it was green and stayed green and I could not get it to go red so now I don't really know if it charged or not. The third time it started green, and I checked it awhile later and it was red, jiggled it a bit and it went green.

I am assuming, or at least hoping, that my charger is just lame and a new one (or two) would be a good thing. But then I wonder if maybe their chargers are just lame in general, so I have been meaning to ask.

The one good thing about my NPro was that the charger was solid.
This 510 charger I got seems to be a piece of cheap junk to be perfectly honest.
 
I wish I could answer you question, but instead I will pile on a question of my own.

I just got my Yeti 510 with manual batteries and I LOVE it so much after struggling with my NPro for a few days. But the only, and I mean only problem I have is with the charger.

The first battery I charged it flickered red and green until I jiggled it around, and then it went red and stayed there until (supposedly) the battery was charged. The second time I charged one it was green and stayed green and I could not get it to go red so now I don't really know if it charged or not. The third time it started green, and I checked it awhile later and it was red, jiggled it a bit and it went green.

I am assuming, or at least hoping, that my charger is just lame and a new one (or two) would be a good thing. But then I wonder if maybe their chargers are just lame in general, so I have been meaning to ask.

The one good thing about my NPro was that the charger was solid.
This 510 charger I got seems to be a piece of cheap junk to be perfectly honest.

I just got my first 510 the other day and the charger for mine works. I've herd that they work pretty well. You may have gotten a lemon.
 
Ok, asking about charging batteries is risking starting WWIII sometimes around here because there are so many different opinions, but I'll tell you what my instructions said and what my experience has been.

My instructions (and most 510/YETI/Titan instructions) say for the initial charge to charge the battery for a full 8 hours, use the battery for 20 minutes, then charge again for 1 hour. After that, you're ready to go and can recharge at will and/or when needed. I followed those directions for my manual and auto 510 (Yeti) batteries and they worked very well....until yesterday when one died. :-x But never mind that, most people will tell you to follow those directions which is called conditioning the batteries. I don't know why it has to be done that way, but that's what my (and a lot of other people's) instructions said to do so I did it.

For the PCC, I got no instructions with mine so I just went ahead and charged it for 4 hours and it seemed to run down fast so I charged it for 12 hours the second time, and it's worked great since then.

With the PCC, once it has charged the battery, make sure to take the battery out of the PCC or the battery will drain the charge in your PCC as the battery keeps pulling the charge, even though it's fully charged. I found that out the hard way. So you can use a PCC to charge a battery but not to store a battery in.

Deadcat2, your charger sounds wonky. I think I'd contact my supplier and ask for a replacement, just to be sure. The charger for my 402 had weird lights that went from green to red and red to green and changed when you bumped it, but my 510 charger is reliably red when I first put the battery in, then goes green after about 30 to 45 minutes and stays green even if I touch it or bump it. It sounds like you might have a short in the wire or something, and that would make me nervous since I tend to leave mine plugged into the wall overnight (I know...I shouldn't do that but I like to live dangerously:p)
 

lauraeleven

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Thanks, 8 hours that sounds good to me.

Also brings up another question which others have raised , is it safe to leave batteries in the charger for long periods of time.....like overnight or all day or does it matter??? :confused: time to get stupid questions out of the way. lol


The manual for mine said to charge it for 8 hours even if the light turns green. But I've also heard that it doesn't matter as long as the light turns green it cuts current to the battery. I'm not quite sure. I would charge it for 8 hours just to be safe.
 

Boredoftheworld

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Jun 22, 2009
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The first battery I charged it flickered red and green until I jiggled it around, and then it went red and stayed there until (supposedly) the battery was charged.

My charger is doing that too. I'm getting between 65-75 three second drags per charge, I have no idea if that's fully charged or not.
 

lauraeleven

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Yes, sounds like a plan, i'm just not familiar enough with this type batt to take any chances.


I get nervous about leaving batteries on the charger overnight, because I may sleep in, or forget about them in the morning. I found one of those timer gizmos that you can set to shut off after a certain amount of time and that seems to give me some peace of mind.
 
Just heard back from them via email (TheSmokeSafe.com) and it sounds like they are going to send me out a new one. I like the fact that there is heavy competition in this industry at this point in time.
:)

You're lucky you heard back from them, Deadcat. I got my starter kit from the same place and I emailed them this morning about my dead battery and never heard back. I was just at the website and there's a message that something came up and he had to leave town for the weekend so I'm not expecting a reply to my email until next week. :(

Laura, it's not a stupid question at all. I would say, no it's not a safe thing to do, particularly overnight when you're sleeping or any time you're not around to check on it.

I know I said I leave my batts on the charger overnight, and I do, but I definitely would not recommend anyone doing that. I just got in the bad habit and now it's hard to break. I'm just panicked about not having a fresh battery when I get up to go with that first cup of coffee in the morning. :rolleyes:

Now that one of mine died, I stocked up on extras so I should be able to always have 2 charged and can avoid leaving one in the charger overnight.
 

DC2

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Damn, you guys are scaring me with this battery stuff.
I have been leaving my NPro and 510 batteries in overnight from day one.

And I leave my cell phone plugged in overnight as well.
I don't have an iPod because I am a dinosaur, but I would probably leave that in as well.

I guess I'm not all that hip on battery dangers.
8-o

You're lucky you heard back from them, Deadcat. I got my starter kit from the same place and I emailed them this morning about my dead battery and never heard back. I was just at the website and there's a message that something came up and he had to leave town for the weekend so I'm not expecting a reply to my email until next week.
Yeah, well, my reply to his reply came after your reply to my reply.
So it might be a bit iffy regarding whether or not he gets one in the mail for me or not.
:?:

But hey, I still have my NPro and that charger works great.
So I can struggle with that learning experience for a few days or more if I must.
 

happily

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follow the recommendations if ya like but I have volt tested my four one month old batts and my 6 new batts (from day one) and did half of them as per instructions and half by the green light...........all of them charge to between 3.97v and 4.01 volts and the light turns green and the charger shuts off, or pcc shuts off..........then they run down to approx 3.3 volts and when they start blinking they lockout to 0v.....which means they are protected

your pcc and other charger will shut off when the light goes green,

I wouldn't lose any sleep over any of it(overcharging, conditioning, charging before dead)
stick them in when u feel like it, pull them out when u feel like it, leave em in.........whatever
 

tambur

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Apr 7, 2009
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Li-Ion batteries should be charged first time the same as any other time, until the charger light turns green. Overcharging batteries will lead to a shorter life spam.
8hrs first charge is a non sense. I charged my batteries first time 20 mins, until they were fully charged and afterwards 45-55mins and they last me well over 3hrs.
Anyone who says that these type of batteries should be charged differently doesn't know a thing about li-ion technology and probably skiped to many classes in school.
 
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