Pila charger doesn't play well with IMR batteries?

[karmakatie]

I have had my Pila charger for a little over 24 hours now, and have charged 8 AW IMR's 18349 & 18650's and all charged well and meter where they should. Although I obviously can't say anything about long term use, but so far I see no problem with it charging the IMRs.....

 

[Big Hitter]

My Pila does 4.18 every time with AW IMR .... new or 8 months old .... 4.18 every time.

I would say you need to try another multi-meter just to see. I'm sure they can be off .1 v pretty easy, especially the cheap ones.

 

[MacDiver]

UPDATE

First, sorry for the typos on the voltages I said I was getting in the first post.

Searching around the web I found that the mfg charge range for a Pila charger is 4.15 to 4.25. If you are getting between those numbers then the charger is fine. After reading all the accolades about the Pila for over a year and wanting one very much I was really expecting to get the max charge to at least 4.0 every time but I find out later what the real deal is and I have to simply be happy that it is a very good charger for the money given the charge algorithmthem it uses.

Mine is defective, charging to only 4.10 to 4.11. I contacted Randy at RTD Vapor and he's sending me another one. BTW, he shipped the first one so fast that I was amazed. I was literally not looking for it for at least two more days. Wow!

 

[ltrainer]

Thanks for the update

UPDATE

First, sorry for the typos on the voltages I said I was getting in the first post.

Searching around the web I found that the mfg charge range for a Pila charger is 4.15 to 4.25. If you are getting between those numbers then the charger is fine. After reading all the accolades about the Pila for over a year and wanting one very much I was really expecting to get the max charge to at least 4.0 every time but I find out later what the real deal is and I have to simply be happy that it is a very good charger for the money given the charge algorithmthem it uses.

Mine is defective, charging to only 4.10 to 4.11. I contacted Randy at RTD Vapor and he's sending me another one. BTW, he shipped the first one so fast that I was amazed. I was literally not looking for it for at least two more days. Wow!

 

[MacDiver]

UPDATE - ANOTHER ONE

I've found that my cheap-O multimeter is the REAL problem! It doesn't read accurately enough.

Live and learn as they say. Most of us had to learn e-cigs the hard way until we got eddicated to the Reo, so this is along the same vein really, just about electronics.

I work at a Naval Avation Depot in NC. Down the hall from my office is an aircraft eletronics repair shop. I took all four of my fully charged batts there and asked one of the techs to check the charge. He whipped out a top-of-the-line Fluke brand multimeter and it read the REAL voltages. Two were fully charged to 4.20 and I assume were charged on the Pila charger and the others were 4.16 and 4.18 most likely charged on my elcheapo Ultrafire chargers. Not too shabby even at that though. I didn't record which chargers they were actually charged on so these are assumptions.

After some research - drawing on my very limited knowledge of math from skool - and a recommendation for a Sperry Instruments multimeter on the Veteran's questions forums I got one, the DM6400. Evidently you have to look for the specs to read to two decimal places in tenths. The cheap multimeters only read to hundreds. Example 4.18: An accurate multimeter will read the digit in the 8 place accurately. A cheap one won't.

I looked up the specs on my eight dollar Cen-Tech. It has an accuracy to 1.0%+1dgt. Evidently that means that the number behind the decimal point, the 1 in this case, is as accurate as it will get. The 8 digit is not accurate and could be called random.

The Sperry is rated at 0.5%+2dgt so that seems to indicate that both the digits behind the decimal point are accurate.

I'm pretty sure I got this right but hopefully someone here can verify that it's correct and say so. If not, I'll edit the post to correct it. If it is right then maybe the info should be included in one of the stickies on batteries I saw; I think Rhapsodies Fire wrote it.

The Sperry was only $25 from Amazon but that is a really good buy. It usually runs 35 to 40 on most other sites and Newegg has it for 41. The price difference isn't that great between a cheap one and a good one and I think most peeps would like to know the difference and would be willing to spend it to get accurate measurments.

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

woops....did I not correct that yet? Okay...I'm on it.

 

[Keekers]

I need a Pila ASAP! I'm so sad they aren't in stock at RTDvapor
My Ultrafire kind of melted/shocked/broke (I have no idea how to explain it, I plugged it into the wall and the cord singed, shocked and broke) on me and I have nothing to charge my batteries with. Complete anxiety meltdown! What to do without my REO?

My Ultrafire was a decent charger until it broke, always charging the IMR 14500s to 4.22 or 4.23 (except one and Randy was great and replaced it). I would not suggest the Ultrafire WF-188 after what happened though and they are really fidgetey! (I attached a pic incase anyone is wondering what it looks like now)

I'm ordering a Pila as soon as they are in stock and I can't stand my batteries running below 4.8V, not enough power!
I also agree that it took about 4-5 cycles until they reached their full capacity. Randy even told me to run them down to 4.6 or 4.5 a couple of times which he said would help them reach desired capacity. He's great to work with.

Ok I'm done. Haha sorry for the rambling. I'm freaking out my batteries have nothing to be charged with.

 

[oplholik]

kristin, I have a cheap 2 bay 14500 charger I got with a mod kit that I no longer use. I'm in So. Cal, so will take a few days to get to you. If this would help to get you by till you can get your pila, let me know via pm and I'll get it out today.

I need a Pila ASAP! I'm so sad they aren't in stock at RTDvapor
My Ultrafire kind of melted/shocked/broke (I have no idea how to explain it, I plugged it into the wall and the cord singed, shocked and broke) on me and I have nothing to charge my batteries with. Complete anxiety meltdown! What to do without my REO?

My Ultrafire was a decent charger until it broke, always charging the IMR 14500s to 4.22 or 4.23 (except one and Randy was great and replaced it). I would not suggest the Ultrafire WF-188 after what happened though and they are really fidgetey! (I attached a pic incase anyone is wondering what it looks like now)

I'm ordering a Pila as soon as they are in stock and I can't stand my batteries running below 4.8V, not enough power!
I also agree that it took about 4-5 cycles until they reached their full capacity. Randy even told me to run them down to 4.6 or 4.5 a couple of times which he said would help them reach desired capacity. He's great to work with.

Ok I'm done. Haha sorry for the rambling. I'm freaking out my batteries have nothing to be charged with.

View attachment 82217

 

[Keekers]

Oplholik, thank you so much for your kind gesture!

 

[RocketRod]

Is that cable proprietary (plug end @ charger)? Can you purchase another? I would think for it to separate right there, there was an issue at that point of the cable. Of course you would need to check the charger out too. Does the vendor where you purchased it have an offering of that or is it not economical to do that? I purchased a Pila from Overready this week. Sorry for your troubles.

 

[Keekers]

Yeah it's the part that connects directly into the charger. It was scary when it sparked and broke off! Luckily the company is awesome and they are knocking off the cost of the charger from the Pila I ordered. Haha I'm not going back to the Ultrafire!

Ultrafire seems to be the perfect name for this charger!

 

[Keekers]

Approximately 48 more hours until my charger is delivered. I'm like the little engine that said I think I can I think I can I think I can......AH. My regular 808s just aren't cutting it. 8-o8-o8-o
All these beautiful juices and of course the stunning REO unusable. Oh my. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, or not usable.

Sorry for invading my venting on your thread MacDiver!!! I'm a little crazy right now.

 

[Keekers]

I'm not sure if this has been posted but I have to press the reset button several times on my Pila charger before the batteries charge above 4V, Randy said this is normal.

 

[Mudflap]

I'm not sure if this has been posted but I have to press the reset button several times on my Pila charger before the batteries charge above 4V, Randy said this is normal.

If they haven't been discharged below 4 volts, that's true for my Pila too. I normally use them to 3.8 - 3.9 volts. Pop 'em in and they start charging.

 

[Keekers]

Haha editing my post for the simple reason I did not read the above post which was quoted by me in a previous post. Wow, blonde moment!!!!

 

[Casebomber]

eight dollar Cen-Tech

+1,000,000 pila ibc
+999,000 aw cells
-infinity harbor freight tools accuracy!

LOL

 

[TennDave]

Was having issues with my Ultrafire charger over-charging. Just got an XTAR WP2-II charger from RTDvapor.com and it has all the charging methods the Pila has at a fraction of the cost. Now every battery is coming off the charger at exactly 4.2V. I'm very pleased with this charger and it is smaller than the Ultrafire WF-139's I've been using- comes with both a wall wort socket as well as 12V car plug!! Oh, I also bought one of those battery testers from eBay (digital read-out and easy to use)...hasn't gotten here yet but will report when how it is when it does. It will streamline my battery OCD tendencies- is my hope!!

 

[Kim151]

I bought an XTAR WP2-II charger from RTDvapor.com also. Read many good reviews and the flash light mod site actually recommends them over PILA's now. Can't wait to receive it.

 

[TennDave]

I can tell it's very well built...only question I have (instructions very apparent that they were written by a Chinese who doesn't understand Engrish)...there is a setting 1 and 2...1 charges at 500ma...2 charges at 1000ma. Not sure if that means per battery or if the charging is split between the two channels. I have erred on the conservative side and charging at 500ma, but this could be split to only be charging at 250ma per channel- I don't know. Instructions are dismal at best.

 

[markfm]

Pretty sure that is the per channel ma, from reviews on cpf and budgetlight. The reviews warn not to use the 1000 setting unless you are charging high capacity cells.