Normal 18650 Charging time?

[trenthull]

That is a good question. I usually don't stare at my charger when my battery is on it but I would guesstimate around 3-4 hours depending on if the battery is completely dead, and how you have the charger hooked up. For example if the charger is directly connected to a wall outlet vs. a usb plugged into a laptop. Hope this helps anyone in the future.

 

[speedy_r6]

It all depends on the charge rate and capacity. If it is a 2500mah battery and basically dead, it will take roughly: 5 hours with a 0.5 amp charger, 2.5 hours with a 1 amp charger, 1.25 hours with a 2 amp charger. or half an hour with a 5 amp charger. If it is a 2000mah battery and basically dead, it will take roughly: 4 hours with a 0.5 amp charger, 2 hours with a 1 amp charger, an hour with a 2 amp charger, or about 25 minutes with a 5 amp charger. Personally I like to charge all of mine at 0.5 amps, and I wouldn't even consider charging them with anything over a 1 amp charge rate.

Charge rate and battery capacity are the two big keys in the equation.

 

[trenthull]

Fair enough, my battery is an IMR 18650 1500mah 3.7v battery and my charger is an efest battery charger charging at 5volts X 1amp.

 

[Ou2mame]

Til it's done... Haaaaaa

 

[MikeyConti]

Just want to point out and say, you should never run your 18650 Completely dead..

 

[livlifenoregrets]

It all depends on the type of charger as well

 

[Baditude]

I'm not a fan of USB charging devices. The best option is to use a dedicated box battery charger for IMR batteries.

Battery Chargers. Get the best charger that you can reasonably afford, from a reputable e-cig vendor (ie. RTD Vapor, Illumn, Orbtronics). Statistically most battery incidents occur while batteries are charging. A higher end charger will have better built-in protections. Off brand chargers are a crap shoot for quality and safety; and of course there are clones and knockoffs of the brand name chargers recommended that are best to stay away from.

Pila, Xtar, Nitecore, and Efest are the most recommended name brands. I recommend batteries be charged on a flame-resistant surface: stove top, marble countertop, metal baking pan, pyrex glass dish. Do not charge batteries if you are not physically present to keep an eye on them. (This means don't charge when out of the house, or overnight while you are sleeping.)

Many of today's higher-end box chargers have "intelligent" technology designed for the charger to shut down when the battery reaches full voltage (4.2 volts), however electronics can and do fail. Don't trust the safety of your home & family to a faulty electronic circuit or charging cord.

Rest batteries after charging
One commonly-reported factor in almost all the incidents we hear of where batteries failed violently while in use is that they were taken directly off the charger and then used immediately, at which point they failed.

Because of this, we think it may be a good idea to rest batteries after charging them. This advice will not be found in the usual 'reference bibles' on batteries, but we see more and different reports than others. Therefore we now advise:

Do not use batteries directly after charging them. Use a battery or batteries you previously charged, and that have rested for several hours. This is especially important if using a stacked pair for higher voltage, as statistically the risk is far higher.​

 

[SrK]

My charger is a Trustfire very cheap and I can charge them in about 3-4 hours

 

[Rossum]

A properly designed charger does not stop charging when the battery hits 4.2V. Under 4.2V, it applies a constant current. Once the battery hits 4.2V, it continues to apply 4.2V until the current that the battery will accept falls below a certain threshold, usually around 50mA. This means it may take longer the the simple capacity / charge rate calculation indicates, especially at high charge rates.