Ultrafire 14500 Charging Overnight
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I would personally never charge any batteries while I was sleeping - not mod batts - not batts for my tools - not my laptop - none. Charging flame outs are rare, but do happen. There are many posts on ECF about catastrophic battery failures. -- I've never had a mod battery explode, but I've seen a few others flame out. The worst was a battery for a popular (and expensive) model of drill mostly used in construction. The explosion was impressive and the fire required a fire extinguisher.
You can mitigate the risks. Charging bags can be found on Ebay for a couple of bucks. I have an old computer case that I removed the mainboard and power supply from. I ran a surge protector cord in through the power supply hole and used some steel screen around the cord. That makes a nice contained steel box to charge in. I still never leave batteries charging unattended even though I have them in a safe place and a steel box. I suppose that's more due to safety lessons learned at work than it is to really having any concern that a catastrophic battery failure could actually shoot any sparks or fire out of my charging box.
You can mitigate the risks. Charging bags can be found on Ebay for a couple of bucks. I have an old computer case that I removed the mainboard and power supply from. I ran a surge protector cord in through the power supply hole and used some steel screen around the cord. That makes a nice contained steel box to charge in. I still never leave batteries charging unattended even though I have them in a safe place and a steel box. I suppose that's more due to safety lessons learned at work than it is to really having any concern that a catastrophic battery failure could actually shoot any sparks or fire out of my charging box.
I always charge my batteries over night. Get a charger that cuts off when batteries are fully charged.
Sent from my flashback honeycomb gtablet
Sent from my flashback honeycomb gtablet
Do you have a link to where I can find a charger like you recommend?
There's a great sticky on charging lithium battery's in tips&tricks area- you can also read up on battery university. Charging overnight is generally regarded as a bad idea. From what I can tell, letting a lithium cell sit on a charger past 4.2v, puts unneeded stress on the battery, besides it is better to charge periodically, lithium cells do not need to be saturated. 14500s are cheap, buy more and rotate them. I had a rather expensive problem overcharging some aw imrs, it resulted in frying a pretty nice mod. Always measure your voltage with a multimeter after charging. Better safe than sorry.
I fly rc planes that use LiPo batteries and as a rule, never leave them unattended! I personnaly know a guy that burnt down his garage. Even though a Lithium ion batt is different, I would never leave any type of battery charging overnight or unattended. Better safe than sorry....
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