I just got a xtar VP2 and was wondering if it would be better to set the charge current to .5A or 1.0A while charging my Sony VTC4's?
Xtar VP2 Question
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The theory is that the batteries will have an overall longer life span if charged with lower current. In practice I have never 'out-vaped' my 2 bay Xtar chargers using the lowest charge current anyway. It still keeps up fine at 500 mA or even 250 mA.
N.B.: On a VP2 only use the 3.6 volt switch setting for standard lithium batteries. The 3.7 volt setting is for 'high voltage' lithium batteries which charge to 4.35 volts - not the type of batteries we use.
N.B.: On a VP2 only use the 3.6 volt switch setting for standard lithium batteries. The 3.7 volt setting is for 'high voltage' lithium batteries which charge to 4.35 volts - not the type of batteries we use.
You can charge the batteries at 1A with no long term side effects. The batteries might get a little warm during a charge at 1A, but its perfectly normal and safe. Let the batteries cool for 30min before using them.
If you dont want to wait for 30min cool down, then stick the batteries in the freezer for 10min.
If you dont want to wait for 30min cool down, then stick the batteries in the freezer for 10min.
That's basically what I was getting at. Do most of you charge your batteries when they're at around 50%?
Errr... I'm assuming that means you are using them in some type of APV that expresses the remaining battery 'power' as some kind of percent - which can be somewhat arbitrary depending on what the device designers mean by "50%". Some APV's are excessively conservative about what that 'percent remaining' actually means in term of battery voltage.
The bottom line is almost all IMR and hybrid chemistry batteries have a safe low limit of 2.5 volts and you want to avoid dropping the battery voltage below that. (If in doubt you can always check the manufacturer specs for your batteries.) At the same time you won't harm the batteries by charging them at any point you want to throw them on the charger. Better to charge them at 50% drained than allowing them to drop under voltage.
I really can't agree with that charging philosophy.
Batteries should not be getting that warm to the touch in a properly designed charger. Any battery that is hot enough coming off the charger that you need a half hour cool down cycle or to resort to popping it in a freezer is being exposed to unnecessary thermal and chemical stress. Time to get a better charger. Even an Xtar charging at 1 amp gives you a battery that is barely warm to the touch at the end of a charge cycle.
Most of these 18650s list 2a as the max charging current, 1a should be perfectly fine.
Sorry, I left out a little bit of info. I have a IPV Mini 2 that just shows a battery level icon.
And the "cool down cycle" isn't so much for the heat dissipation as it is to allow the battery's inside goop to return to its proper state of settled goopiness.......you know, chemical separation/equilibrium and whatnot -- which endstate isn't directly linked to how warm or not warm it may "feel". I'm told that you can sometimes "see" this state of not-quite-reached equilibrium on a DMM hooked up to a fresh-charged batt, or by throwing said freshly charged batt into an SX350 mod (or some such APV with a commensurately precise realtime battery meter) and watch its standing voltage fluctuate for awhile until all those Lithiums and Manganeses and Cobalts and Whatevers finish playing trans-electrolytic footsie and finally settle down in their places. And by settled down I mean ready for some concerted amp discharge and thereby major tootage.
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