I am posting this in the new members forum as I am not allowed to put this reply where it properly belongs. People are extremely ignorant to battery safety, and particularly on forums they tend to spread false information about them. The fact that you can charge your cell phone overnight is irrelevant to whether you can charge 18650's overnight safely. Your cell phone has a circuit board that is constantly checking the voltage and changing the charge current accordingly. When your cell phone's battery has reached peak charging voltage, the circuit board tells the charger to stop charging. 18650's do not have a circuit board built into them, they are just a stand alone battery. Thus, the 18650 on it's own does not have the capability to stop the charging current when it has reached its peak voltage. It is up to your charger's circuit board to detect this and to lower/stop the charging current. If your charger fails to do so for any reason, or just simply does not have this capability (cheap charger), then it'll keep charging the 18650 until a catastrophic failure occurs. This is why you do not charge 18650's overnight, or any lithium battery for that matter. However, if you truly do not care about 100% safety and will charge over-night anyways, at the bare minimum you must use a high-end battery charger with voltage monitoring and preferably programmable modes. This way you can pre-set the charger to shut off should anything happen before you wake up (certain maH charged, peak voltage reached, etc.).
Don't charge your batteries overnight!
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I couldn't agree more. Very good advice.
A side note....you've been a member for almost 2 yrs and this is your first post?
It's a good one though.
A side note....you've been a member for almost 2 yrs and this is your first post?
It's a good one though. I must be obscenely lucky then. I've been charging 18650s overnight for almost 2 years and until a week ago, on a TrustFire charger. I have had exactly zero problems, incidents, etc. Maybe I'm just really lucky, but given that a lot of people use these things without ECFs constant paranoia about batteries and we rarely hear about incidents, I think the fear and paranoia here is slightly overblown.
Having said that, I do understand that there is some risk with LiIon batteries and particularly in sub ohm situations.
Having said that, I do understand that there is some risk with LiIon batteries and particularly in sub ohm situations.
I agree 100%. ( with OP )
I do not feel that there is a portable charger on the market that it is safe to charge overnight (or while away) with. I have had a Pila for years and years. It is rock solid and never given me a bit of trouble. I still do not charge overnight or while out of the house.
I do not feel that there is a portable charger on the market that it is safe to charge overnight (or while away) with. I have had a Pila for years and years. It is rock solid and never given me a bit of trouble. I still do not charge overnight or while out of the house.
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i had to learn this the hard way by trashing my ego-t. on the bright side, it gave me a "reason" to buy a brand new ego winder at my local shop.
Yes, you are very lucky. Do you wish to risk your life on luck?
Count me lucky as well, keep 2 18350's and 2 18650's on my i4 charger around the clock. But with that being said I trust an i4 charger exponentially more than 99% of the junk being sold on the web and at vape shops. (Not worried of they cook off, they're in my lipo safe where I charge lipo's big enough to power semi trucks.)
Spend $20 on a smart charger and throw the bundled dumb charger in the trash then the charger will tell you when you've charged long enough.
Yes you are just lucky, but that is a matter of a different discussion as to why things happen. It doesn't follow that your batteries will explode if you charge over-night. However, they can explode being left unattended, and if you want to make sure they do not explode then you should monitor the battery during its charge; such as checking temperatures throughout the charging process making sure the battery doesn't overheat. Charging over-night is not going to inevitably lead to exploding batteries, but monitoring your batteries will significantly reduce the chance of an explosion. When dealing with chemical devices prone to explosion I'd rather not take my chances.
To tmcase: I generally don't feel the need to post unless I feel I truly need to add information to a discussion, but it is quite odd it took me this long haha.
I charge them while I'm home and awake. I also use an Intellicharger I4 which is a very safe charger but it could fail so I don't trust it 100%.
honestly its not that hard to throw it on the charger watch some tv for a few hours and when the light turns green take it off the charger. there really isn't any reason you should charge them overnight considering the small chance of something happening. i rent my apartment and its a four-plex so i don't want to take the chance of something happening and burning the apartment down and maybe even killing a few people so i always watch my batteries when charging and when there done i unplug the charger, and store them in the red battery case.
Always good to have a reminder, but this and other battery safety info is shared on this forum hourly, if not more often.
Don't go cheap with batteries or chargers, they're the life of your PV, and the most "dangerous" part.
Don't go cheap with batteries or chargers, they're the life of your PV, and the most "dangerous" part.
If you charge LiPo's that big, why do you not have an actual high-end charger? A Nitecore i4 is not considered a high-end charger. A Nitecore i4 is what I would consider the bare-bones charger you can get away with, but under watch during the charge. That is exactly the type of charger I personally would not trust charging overnight. Although it has a circuit board to monitor voltage, I still would not put all of my trust in a $15 charger. A hobby-grade charger such as the HiTec X1 is what I consider a high-end charger. The X1 is the only charger I own that I personally would trust charging batteries unmonitoried, however even then I still only use my X1 when I am around to make frequent checks and never leave batteries unmonitored.
They hiss during thermal runaway. Probably enough to alert you if you are up and about, but not enough to wake you up.
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This is exactly what you do:
You should also check your batteries frequently for heat during the charge cycle. Just touch the actual battery and make sure it is not too hot to the touch. If it is more than just warm you should immediately cease charging.
Wow! I've never heard anybody say anything negative about the i4. It's been highly recommended all over the forum.
What do you mean by the comment in red?
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