Battery charging question

[bushmaster]

The VP1 is the first charger that I've owned with variable amperage settings. Is there any reason to set it at .25 or .50 amps as opposed to the full 1 amp when charging 18650 batteries? The suggestion in the instructions is that the lower settings are for smaller batteries but I wondered if it would be in any way easier on my 18650's to charge them at a lower rate.
I'm thanking you battery gurus in advance.

 

[vang0gh]

I'm far from a battery guru, but I remember reading that a slower charge is better for the battery. How much better? I have no idea. Personally, I'm not a patient person. So, I'd just go with the full amp charging myself.

 

[bushmaster]

I'm far from a battery guru, but I remember reading that a slower charge is better for the battery. How much better? I have no idea. Personally, I'm not a patient person. So, I'd just go with the full amp charging myself.

Thanks for the input. I just now tried the VP1 for the first time on the 1 amp setting and it is much faster than the default .25 setting. Theoretically, it should be 4 times as fast, right? I guess I could go hang out at Lighthound where they're fanatical about this stuff. They probably have it charted and graphed to the nth degree.

 

[Thunderball]

A slow charge is always better for any battery....

 

[RedhatPat]

Roger, let us know what you find out because I am curious too, just not overly curious. Take this with a grain of salt but the impression I get from the REOlounge's chatter when I bought mine was that .25 amp will allow for more cycles for the life of the battery than 1amp (assuming you're always using that setting with the same battery instead of mixing it up).

So theoretically, 2 new 18650's, one always charged at .25 vs one always charged at 1amp, the 1 amp will die on ya first. All things being equal. The trade off is that you'll be adding a couple extra hours to your charging time.

So basically i'm in vang & thunder's camp. But I'm no expert, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

RHP

 

[MamaTried]

The VP1 is the first charger that I've owned with variable amperage settings. Is there any reason to set it at .25 or .50 amps as opposed to the full 1 amp when charging 18650 batteries? The suggestion in the instructions is that the lower settings are for smaller batteries but I wondered if it would be in any way easier on my 18650's to charge them at a lower rate.
I'm thanking you battery gurus in advance.

considering i had no idea my vp1 actually had a setting for the charging rate until i read this post, i'm now counting you as one of my battery gurus.

why start to RTFM this late in life, eh?

 

[RedhatPat]

Dennis, what did ya think that button in the middle of the screen was for?

RHP

 

[MamaTried]

Dennis, what did ya think that button in the middle of the screen was for?

RHP

never saw the button. heck, i can only see the screen when it's in the right light.