Charger belly-up?

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thewomenfolk

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Colorado John 3:16
I have a 2-slot Intellicharger 12 that's been charging my batteries for many months. But now it doesn't seem to have the umph to charge my 18650 batts any more. It charges the lesser batteries just fine but just keeps blinking on the 2nd bar (out of 3) and won't complete the charge for the 18650's. Anybody got any idea what's happened?
 

Ryedan

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Do you have a DMM to check your batteries before and after charging? I would do that first, including the smaller batteries to see if they are fully charging before tossing the charger.

This ^^^, however once a charger goes rogue you can never be really sure what is going on. And that can be really bad.

The Intellicharger's are good, but anything can fail. If I had a charger that was acting strangely in a way I didn't understand I would buy another one and recycle it. Chargers are cheap and when they are performing well will keep you safe.
 

catilley1092

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It's noted in the package, just got mine a couple of weeks ago from a reputable eBay supplier for $10.99 shipped & was genuine after checking (2014 Version on the package), that if a battery drops too low, as in running way down, it may not be rechargeable, or won't fully charge. My 18650's are dead on the money at 4.25V when removing, though my Samsung's are fairly new & I don't let them go below 4.0V if I can help it. I can tell when they're dropping & will pull one out & test with a simple digital multimeter.

Actually I purchased the Intellicharger 12 to be a spare, to have in case my Efest LUC V2 went down, but after seeing it was right on target, versus 4.30V for the LUC V2, made it my primary charger & put the LUC V2 in it's box as a backup.

Bunnykiller raises a great point above, if doing any serious sub-ohming, batteries needs to be frequently checked & swapped. I always carry a spare set in my pocket in the plastic case that shipped with the two batteries. Swap as needed for best battery life & safety. If I had a set that wouldn't charge fully & the same happened on another charger, would purchase new batteries & properly recycle the old (drop off at a local battery store).

Any rechargeable battery has a certain number of charging cycles, this can be increased by not pulling down too much, and will certainly be decreased by pulling below 3.4V on a regular basis. I take it with a grain of salt that these can be used down to 2.4V, that's a sure fire battery killer.

Cat
 

thewomenfolk

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Colorado John 3:16
Thank you all for the time you took to help me! I truly appreciate it and have read all your posts and learned from them.

My batteries are not old and I don't sub-ohm, well not on purpose anyway. Now and then a 1.0 Ohm build will fall a little bit lower. Two of the batteries won't blink above the 2nd of 3 bars on the charger and they test at 4.0 V. Usuallly my 18650's go up to 4.2 V though. Thanks for the warnings about letting the batteries get too low. I will change my ways.

Well, I think I should buy another charger. Oh, this charger seems to be charging my smaller batteries (18500) just fine. Thanks again to all of you! :)
 
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93gc40

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How many volts is the CHARGER putting out?
How low are you draining the batteries? They are a 3.7 volt battery, safe range is 3.2 to 4.2 volts. Serious damage wont occur until around 2.2-2.5 volts. Not draining a batteries ENOUGH before charging is almost as bad for a battery as running it too low.
How many times do you guess each of those batteries has been charged? I charge my 18650 batteries at a rate of 1-2 batts per day......... Depending on how many batteries you run in rotation , 300 charge life cycle can come faster than you think.
 
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