I'm new - researching batteries & chargers

[Kristi55057]

I completely agree that a good charger is a necessity, but you might want to reconsider your charging rate. According to the all-wise Mooch, 1 amp is the sweet spot for charging our vaping 18650s. A new or very good condition 18650 will start heating up if you charge above 0.5 - 0.75 amps. By 2 amps, it'll be getting warm enough to really accelerate aging. 1 A offers a reasonable trade-off between charging speed and heat-induced damage.

Of course, it really comes down to priorities. If faster charging is important to you, it might well be worth replacing your batteries more often and accepting the (slightly) higher risk of more damage. If extending battery life means more than quick charging, then a slower rate of 500 mA or 700 mA would suit you best.

You can check out Mooch's Battery Charge Current Ratings table for details of particular batteries.

@Kristi55057, I think Baditude's blog covers this, but if it doesn't, the generally-recommended chargers around here are ones by Xtar, Nitecore and Efest's LUC line (only the LUC line for Efest). There are a number of other good chargers, but the ones I listed tend to be widely available and reasonably priced, so they're a good place to start.

I'm definitely a charge slower, buy batteries less often person. Thanks for the info. So helpful.

 

[Hawise]

I'm definitely a charge slower, buy batteries less often person. Thanks for the info. So helpful.

So am I, although lifestyle becomes a factor in this because batteries should never be charged unsupervised - while you're out or asleep. Charging is one of the most common times for battery fires. It's true that a well-treated battery probably won't do anything untoward and most people will never see a battery fire, but if you are the unlucky person who encounters the exception you really want to be around to stop your house burning down.

 

[score69]

I recently did this too and I came away with an xtar dragon Vp4 plus. It was probably overkill. It does some stuff I don’t really need. Also the instruction manual is the absolute bare minimum possible. A video or two will need to be watched to even understand the what the various functions do and how to activate them. It’s a bit complicated.

The features I do like and bought it for:
It will charge 2x700s and 26650s without having to juggle your battery slots around, it will charge just about any rechargeable battery regardless of chemistry (including household rechargeables like AAAs) and it has a bunch of battery health monitoring features.

Less useful features:
It does a bunch of other things too, like act as a large battery bank and as a USB wall adapter. You can even plug another larger plate battery into it and use it to charge other smaller batteries

Video link if you happen to care. It is what I am using in place of a functional user manual

I picked up the same charger about 8 months ago and it's just a fantastic charger. I don't use most of the advanced features either, but it's nice to know they are there if I want to use them.

Best part is that I'm using primarily 20700 and 21700 cells for a while now. They were a tight fit in my older chargers. Not a problem with the VP4 Plus. Any battery, any slot, and plenty of room to spare. No longer feel like I'm going to break my charger inserting a 2x700 cell and don't have to worry about damaging wrap either.

 

[bombastinator]

I picked up the same charger about 8 months ago and it's just a fantastic charger. I don't use most of the advanced features either, but it's nice to know they are there if I want to use them.

Best part is that I'm using primarily 20700 and 21700 cells for a while now. They were a tight fit in my older chargers. Not a problem with the VP4 Plus. Any battery, any slot, and plenty of room to spare. No longer feel like I'm going to break my charger inserting a 2x700 cell and don't have to worry about damaging wrap either.

The “hidden” feature I’ve found I like the most so is The battery refresh button.
Great for checking battery health and making sure you can get the most life out of a given battery

I also plan on doing internal resistance testing on some batteries as their total capacity drops nearer 2/3rds using the probes. Thee problem is the number means nothing to me at the moment. I know lower is better but I don’t know what high and low is for a given battery model, so currently it’s useless. Also all my batteries are near enough to their original max capacity that they shouldn’t be worn yet. I think anyway. It’s something I need to know more about.

 

[score69]

The “hidden” feature I’ve found I like the most so is The battery refresh button.
Great for checking battery health and making sure you can get the most life out of a given battery

I also plan on doing internal resistance testing on some batteries as their total capacity drops nearer 2/3rds using the probes. Thee problem is the number means nothing to me at the moment. I know lower is better but I don’t know what high and low is for a given battery model, so currently it’s useless. Also all my batteries are near enough to their original max capacity that they shouldn’t be worn yet. I think anyway. It’s something I need to know more about.

I could be wrong, but the internal resistance rises as batteries age, right?

So maybe another good way to check battery condition is to measure the internal resistance for a new set of cells, and then every few months to monitor them?

 

[Baditude]

I could be wrong, but the internal resistance rises as batteries age, right?

So maybe another good way to check battery condition is to measure the internal resistance for a new set of cells, and then every few months to monitor them?

 

[bombastinator]

I could be wrong, but the internal resistance rises as batteries age, right?

So maybe another good way to check battery condition is to measure the internal resistance for a new set of cells, and then every few months to monitor them?

That very well be the only way to do it. None of my batteries are new though. I’ve wanted to check them all and rewrap for a few months but simply couldn’t find my heat gun. It turned up a few days ago so I refreshed and measured max ma capacity on all my batteries and rewrapped them. I didn’t find out about the internal resistance measurement option until I was part way through.
Apparently afaik there are two ways to measure battery age: what is their total capacity, and what is their internal resistance. I’ve got total capacities now, so I can see any danger signs from that end at least. I plan on retiring any batteries that reach 2/3fds of origional marked internal capacity. None of my current batteries are particularly close atm. The metric of internal resistance would be nice though. I understand it may be more accurate.

 

[Hawise]

I could be wrong, but the internal resistance rises as batteries age, right?

So maybe another good way to check battery condition is to measure the internal resistance for a new set of cells, and then every few months to monitor them?

As I've recently learned from Mooch's video (the one Baditude posted above), there are two kinds of internal resistance:

• DC internal resistance, which is a big factor in how the battery hits
• AC internal resistance, which rises with age

Having just read through my charger's (Zanflare C4) manual and website, I can say with absolute certainty that I have no idea whatsoever which type of internal resistance it measures.

 

[bombastinator]

As I've recently learned from Mooch's video (the one Baditude posted above), there are two kinds of internal resistance:

• DC internal resistance, which is a big factor in how the battery hits
• AC internal resistance, which rises with age

Having just read through my charger's (Zanflare C4) manual and website, I can say with absolute certainty that I have no idea whatsoever which type of internal resistance it measures.

Argh. Maybe shoot an email to zanflare? I’ll likely have to check with xtar for mine. Or at least watch that video again and hope I get lucky.