So I just bought this Efest LUC charger after reading some good reviews because my Nitecore was heating up and I've read too many horror stories of people and their Nitecores. I don't want to .... around with batteries tbh so I bought this one to be safe. So I get it in the mail a couple days ago and it seems like the damn thing gets hotter than the nitecore! I know this can't be normal so I don't know if I got a defective model or what but I've contacted both the seller and efest and neither have replied yet.
Efest LUC Charger getting HOT!
- Thread starter MrMcTully
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Chargers get warm, more bays, warmer they get when charging a lot of batteries. AC -> DC converter is where it starts with any electronic device, especially charging plugs etc. The Efest will get warmer than the Nitecore, Nitecore i4 or D4 with all 4 bays loaded will pull average about 2 amps during its charging cycle at about 1amp per 2 bays (1 and 3 same channel 1amp, 2 and 4 same channel 1amp) trickling up gradually to max 0.75amps per battery then around 80% down 0.25amps trickle charge. The Efest defaults to 0.5amps per channel, so default 0.5amps X 4 bays is 2amps, set all 4 bays to 1amp each it pulls 4amps, bay 2 and 3 at 2amp again 4amps total max amp pull.
Best test is to touch the batteries themselves to test if things are getting to hot or not, charging makes batteries get grumpy and puts them into unstable stress which can be dangerous. If they and the charger housing are just warm to the touch above room temperature you should be fine, if the batteries are truly hot and getting unstable to the point of thermal runaway, you won't be able to touch them at all (thermal runaway is about 120 to 150 centigrade which is very hot in the 250 to 350 Farenheit range). The Efest and Nitecore charger lines do monitor themselves and the batteries for temps, if a battery gets to warm the charger will ramp down on that channel to let the battery cool down, if the charger circuitry gets to warm the charger should ramp itself down, not to say things can not go wrong because they can.
Best practices I and others use when charging batteries-
1) Monitor the charging and never leave it unsupervised, just touch the batteries and charger, getting close to where you can't touch and continue touching them for a few seconds, unplug the charger
2) Keep the charger on a fire proof surface like a cookie cooking sheet/pan, pyrex heat tempered glass plate/dish, or metal box (leave it open to the air for ventilation and passive cooling circulation, never enclosed up sealed up, batteries let off hydrogen and other gases while charging, if the passive cooling is blocked even more heat is built up (just like a laptop cooling don't suffocate the cooling))
3) Have enough batteries to be able to rotate them properly, out of a mod, set aside used battery for an hour or two, set into charger, once charged set aside again another hour or two, this lets the batteries rest and settle down between charging/discharging cycles
4) Trickle charge batteries as much as you can, Nitecore chargers this is not an issue, Efest and Xtar chargers use the lowest charge current (0.5amp Efest charger, 0.25amp Xtar Charger), stated above in #3, enough batteries to rotate properly, enough for in use while others are resting and/or charging, rapid charge batteries as little as possible, this extends their life, 18350 (0.5amp), 18490/18500 (0.5amp), 18650 (0.25 to 0.5amp trickle, 1amp max rapid charge), 26650 (1amp trickle, 2amp rapid max)
5) To help with the passive cooling you can always direct a fan across the charger and in though its cooling/breathing ports to dissipate heat away more efficiently, example like how a computer CPU or Case fan works
Best test is to touch the batteries themselves to test if things are getting to hot or not, charging makes batteries get grumpy and puts them into unstable stress which can be dangerous. If they and the charger housing are just warm to the touch above room temperature you should be fine, if the batteries are truly hot and getting unstable to the point of thermal runaway, you won't be able to touch them at all (thermal runaway is about 120 to 150 centigrade which is very hot in the 250 to 350 Farenheit range). The Efest and Nitecore charger lines do monitor themselves and the batteries for temps, if a battery gets to warm the charger will ramp down on that channel to let the battery cool down, if the charger circuitry gets to warm the charger should ramp itself down, not to say things can not go wrong because they can.
Best practices I and others use when charging batteries-
1) Monitor the charging and never leave it unsupervised, just touch the batteries and charger, getting close to where you can't touch and continue touching them for a few seconds, unplug the charger
2) Keep the charger on a fire proof surface like a cookie cooking sheet/pan, pyrex heat tempered glass plate/dish, or metal box (leave it open to the air for ventilation and passive cooling circulation, never enclosed up sealed up, batteries let off hydrogen and other gases while charging, if the passive cooling is blocked even more heat is built up (just like a laptop cooling don't suffocate the cooling))
3) Have enough batteries to be able to rotate them properly, out of a mod, set aside used battery for an hour or two, set into charger, once charged set aside again another hour or two, this lets the batteries rest and settle down between charging/discharging cycles
4) Trickle charge batteries as much as you can, Nitecore chargers this is not an issue, Efest and Xtar chargers use the lowest charge current (0.5amp Efest charger, 0.25amp Xtar Charger), stated above in #3, enough batteries to rotate properly, enough for in use while others are resting and/or charging, rapid charge batteries as little as possible, this extends their life, 18350 (0.5amp), 18490/18500 (0.5amp), 18650 (0.25 to 0.5amp trickle, 1amp max rapid charge), 26650 (1amp trickle, 2amp rapid max)
5) To help with the passive cooling you can always direct a fan across the charger and in though its cooling/breathing ports to dissipate heat away more efficiently, example like how a computer CPU or Case fan works
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