Bit the bullet on Efest Luc V4 - very nice!

[SkvLTD]

So recent boredom and rebuild of my Fogger 4.4 reminded me why I've yet again steered away from my mech - 18650s take 3 hours to charge on my basic Trustfire and prior to finding about Luc, no charger in this industry have been made proper for such chunky batteries. Hell, I know for a fact that 95% of you/us don't even know how these batteries work and how to charge them properly, and manufacturers thus have no standard to adhere to and end up playing things safe and horribly unsatisfactory.

Magic rule - charge at or below capacity or the discharge rating. It's what the battery was designed to do. Safe layman's rule of thumb - 1000mAh aka 1Ah batteries charged at 1A. 2000/2Ah+ at least at 2A rate. If the battery is say 2500 with 35A discharge rate, I would not try above 2.5A to play it safe, but not at effing .5A like most chargers on the market. Just, no.

All that said, really enjoying being able to charge my Efest IMR 3100/20 and new 2500/35 @ at least 2Ah. I can totally slam on either one and know that I have another that will last me while empty charges on time.

 

[Rickajho]

Huh? Wha?

That rule about not charging above the mAh/hr rating of the battery is ancient. It used to apply to ICR chemistry batteries but the maximum safe charging current for most IMR & hybrid batteries can be as high as 5 amps. It depends on what the battery manufacturer states - it has to be looked up on a case by case basis and no longer has a correlation to the mAh/hr discharge rating of the battery.

You also pay a penalty for charging at higher current with a shortened battery life span. Any decent charger can easily charge 18650 batteries at half an amp and get it done in 3 to 4 hours.

Good luck with that eFest charger lasting more than a few months. The Luc V4 isn't getting high marks around here for longevity.

 

[SkvLTD]

Guess time will tell.

 

[sando7]

mine is still doing well after about 6 mos, but it's true about the bad reviews.

i never use the 2amp feature tho.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?377070-Test-Review-of-Charger-Efest-LUC-V4

 

[Froth]

mine is still doing well after about 6 mos, but it's true about the bad reviews.

i never use the 2amp feature tho.

Test/Review of Charger Efest LUC V4

I've had mine for nearly a year and it shows no signs of anything failing, I use the 1.0A function some but mostly the .5A is what it stays on, I've used the 2.0A less than a dozen times.

 

[sando7]

on my 18650's if i'm in a hurry i'll use 1amp, any other time i just use the 1/2 amp charge, my 26650's get 1amp.

 

[Ren76]

I use mine at 0.5A, tried it once at 1.0A.
About 6 weeks in, so far so good.