We've seen a pretty good increase in cell capacity over the past few years.
However, most chargers aren't offering us higher charge currents.
It's not difficult to achieve since most hobby chargers can deliver multiple times the amount of current the "tube shape" cell chargers can.
So what's keeping them from doing this?
The latest chargers deliver around 750mA and only if you're charging 2 cells max at the time.
For 2500mAh cells this means a charge time of around 4 hours. Put 4 cells in it and it takes around 8 hours!
Charging at 0.7C (where C is the capacity of the cell) is considered standard so charging a 2500mAh cell at 1750mA is perfectly alright and won't shorten its lifespan. This means you can charge your cells more than twice as fast as most current chargers are capable of.
Ever seen the warning "Never leave batteries unattended while charging"? Well good luck staying home all day since you're charging 4 18650 cells. Such long charge times often make people decide to charge them overnight, creating an even more dangerous situation.
I really don't understand why it's so difficult for charger manufacturers to come up with a decent charger that can charge up to 2A
I'm back to using my hobby charger: it's cheaper, does balanced charging and is way quicker than all current li-Ion chargers.
However, most chargers aren't offering us higher charge currents.
It's not difficult to achieve since most hobby chargers can deliver multiple times the amount of current the "tube shape" cell chargers can.
So what's keeping them from doing this?
The latest chargers deliver around 750mA and only if you're charging 2 cells max at the time.
For 2500mAh cells this means a charge time of around 4 hours. Put 4 cells in it and it takes around 8 hours!
Charging at 0.7C (where C is the capacity of the cell) is considered standard so charging a 2500mAh cell at 1750mA is perfectly alright and won't shorten its lifespan. This means you can charge your cells more than twice as fast as most current chargers are capable of.
Ever seen the warning "Never leave batteries unattended while charging"? Well good luck staying home all day since you're charging 4 18650 cells. Such long charge times often make people decide to charge them overnight, creating an even more dangerous situation.
I really don't understand why it's so difficult for charger manufacturers to come up with a decent charger that can charge up to 2A
I'm back to using my hobby charger: it's cheaper, does balanced charging and is way quicker than all current li-Ion chargers.