What is my battery charger telling me?

[TraderX]

Here is the story folks, and I need some guidance please. I bought a used Provari, it came with two 18650 batteries and a Kayfun. I bought a XTAR VC2 charger to use with this set up. I stuck both batteries in the charger, and within 30 minutes both batteries are flashing "fully charged". At the bottom of the gauge one slot is reading 0290 mah, the other slot is reading 0012 mah. Both batteries are flashing fully charged and 4.2v.

What does this mean? How do you know if a battery is good or strong, or if it is bad or weak? Thanks folks, I will never figure this out on my own, and I can't find an answer here or on google. I thought it was best to just ask you all.

 

[DavidOck]

Don't use that charger, but this is from their site:
How to test your batteries mAh capacity:

Step 1: Insert your discharged battery (at a discharge cut-off voltage generally below 3.0V)
Step 2: Let the battery charge and notice the 0000mAh displayed on the screen. Do not remove the battery until the charge is complete.
Step 3: When the battery is fully charged, the screen will show "FULL" and the entire screen will flash 3 times every 10 seconds.
Step 4: The mAh on the screen should now give you the batteries actual capacity.

So perhaps they're still trickle charging. Unless you're not showing the FULL indicator or getting the flashing screen.

Being used when you got them, it might be time for a few new ones, anyway. But if the used ones let you vape about as long as a new one of same capacity, probably ok.

 

[Thrasher]

You have to go to 3.0v or lower, and that charger will give you an approximate idea if how good the battery is by how many mah the battery took back.

To test it I have an aw I know is dead. The battery is rated 2200 but the charger never goes above 735


It does not work well with a partially discharged battery, it still shows what it replaced but not what the cell can hold.


Cool feature and first generation, its not perfect but a great first step towards a real charger/battery analyser.

 

[edyle]

Here is the story folks, and I need some guidance please. I bought a used Provari, it came with two 18650 batteries and a Kayfun. I bought a XTAR VC2 charger to use with this set up. I stuck both batteries in the charger, and within 30 minutes both batteries are flashing "fully charged". At the bottom of the gauge one slot is reading 0290 mah, the other slot is reading 0012 mah. Both batteries are flashing fully charged and 4.2v.

What does this mean? How do you know if a battery is good or strong, or if it is bad or weak? Thanks folks, I will never figure this out on my own, and I can't find an answer here or on google. I thought it was best to just ask you all.

the charger is just telling you how much mah it put into the battery to top it up to full charger.
The charger cannot tell you how much mah was already stored in the battery when you put it on.

 

[TraderX]

the charger is just telling you how much mah it put into the battery to top it up to full charger.
The charger cannot tell you how much mah was already stored in the battery when you put it on.

Now that makes sense to me, and here I was totally confused--lol.

 

[classwife]

Moved to Batteries and Chargers from APV Discussion