What happened to my battery and charger? What charger to get?

[Adrian Ludvik]

I put 2 26650 mnke batteries on my 2014 Nitecore intellicharger I2 before I left to work for my 3 hour shift.
I got home and noticed one of my batteries was still on the middle light which is where it was before I left.
I removed the batteries, and noticed the one that was on the middle light was warm. When I reinserted it, no lights came on so I immediately removed it.
When I took the charged battery and put it in the slot, all 3 lights for each of the slots started blinking rapidly.

I won't be attempting to use or charge that battery again until I can get my hands on a volt meter.



I'm afraid to use my charger now and am going to order a new one and could use some recommendations. I'd like to upgrade to something with 4 slots. I'm considering the xtar panzer xp4 but if there's a newer or better model I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Scy123]

My Nitecore intellicharger crapped out on me too. not in the same way but it would not charge anything anymore. The Opus BT-C3100 v2.1 looks very nice. Even shows how much mah it charges the battery too. Gearbest has them for cheapest I seen... use coupon code BTC3100.

 

[ronnbert]

I love my LUC 4 bay charger. It has .5, 1, & 2 amp charging options. The 2 amp is only in the middle 2 bays and is only recommended for 26650 batteries, which would work for you. It tells you what volts you are at so you can see how far you are draining them down to.

 

[Davey59]

My understanding is the charger might do that if there is a problem with the battery, bad connection, no volt, low volt or internal failure. I don' think the Nitecore can bring an over discharged battery back.

 

[ronnbert]

The LUC can recover some batteries if overdrained. Never done that myself, but sometimes get a little too close for comfort.

 

[Adrian Ludvik]

Well, I spent plenty of hours reading up on chargers. Ended up ordering the xtar xp4 panzer.

Still not sure what the heck happened to my nitecore i2 and the battery.

 

[stevegmu]

They are all made in PRC and even the highest priced ones are inexpensive, so it's a crap shoot. My Pila charges my batteries as good as my Tenergy...

 

[Rickajho]

Well, I spent plenty of hours reading up on chargers. Ended up ordering the xtar xp4 panzer.

If you ordered from an Xtar dealer it comes with a two year warranty to back it up. In general, Manufacturers providing a two year warranty don't build crap, because they expect it to actually last... two years.

Still not sure what the heck happened to my nitecore i2 and the battery.

I have seem so many complaints about NiteCore chargers on ECF... who knows? They over heat, they explode, they some times destroy batteries by putting them way over voltage... But everyone buys them - because they have a few more LED's than a TrustFire.

Did you check the voltage of that battery when you took it off the charger?

 

[AndriaD]

The LUC can recover some batteries if overdrained. Never done that myself, but sometimes get a little too close for comfort.

I have the Luc v2, and I think you're right; earlier this evening I was shocked to find that my Vamo had allowed one of my 18650s to drop all the way to 3v before giving me any notification, and the luc seems to have saved it; it charged right up to the 4.2v without any issues, no warmth, no problem at all. I always use the 1a setting for my 18650s.

Andria

 

[ronnbert]

I have the Luc v2, and I think you're right; earlier this evening I was shocked to find that my Vamo had allowed one of my 18650s to drop all the way to 3v before giving me any notification, and the luc seems to have saved it; it charged right up to the 4.2v without any issues, no warmth, no problem at all. I always use the 1a setting for my 18650s.

Andria

3V is usually still fine for most chargers. Once it gets in the 2.X volt range is an issue. I always use 1 amp for my 18650s unless I want a slower, overnight charge at .5 amps so they aren't sitting while fully charged too long. Even though it does cut off at 4.2V.

 

[Racehorse]

Pila worth every dime I paid, going strong now for over 2 years, charges batts perfect every time.

 

[Adrian Ludvik]

If you ordered from an Xtar dealer it comes with a two year warranty to back it up. In general, Manufacturers providing a two year warranty don't build crap, because they expect it to actually last... two years.



I have seem so many complaints about NiteCore chargers on ECF... who knows? They over heat, they explode, they some times destroy batteries by putting them way over voltage... But everyone buys them - because they have a few more LED's than a TrustFire.

Did you check the voltage of that battery when you took it off the charger?

I don't have a volt meter on hand. I'm just going to call it a loss. Getting the ipv3 on tuesday, so my 26650s won't be seeing any love.