charging 26650

[deye223]

ok I have just ordered some 26650 cells for my new torch (yet to get here) now the bit I can't

seem to track down on some of the adds they sat standard charge is 1.7A and others say a bit

more and some less is it ok to charge these with a 1A charger as I am looking at a XTAR VC2

PLUS Master .


cheers D

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: cherging 26650

ok I have just ordered some 26650 cells for my new torch (yet to get here) now the bit I can't

seem to track down on some of the adds they sat standard charge is 1.7A and others say a bit

more and some less is it ok to charge these with a 1A charger as I am looking at a XTAR VC2

PLUS Master .


cheers D

A 1 amp rate is fine for the 26650s, if not a tad slow.

Chris

 

[bella-headlight]

Re: cherging 26650

As Chris has said 1A is fine for 26650"s it will just take a while.
If for example the 26650 is fully drained & is say a 5000mah cell then charging it back up fully with 1A will take around 5 hours.
If you charge at 2A, which is still perfectly fine for a 26650 then it will be around 2.5 hours or half the time & you are still charging at less than half the cells capacity or less than 0.5C.
Li-ion charge rates are generally recommended up to 1C or once times the cells capacity per hour so you could in fact charge a 5000mah 26650 at 5A, just at this rate the cells life cycles will be reduced more than charging it at 1A or 2A.
FYI I generally charge my 26650"s at 2A just because 5 hours at 1A is a slow procedure but I will charge at 1A if I have more than 2 cells to charge at a time as I only have one charger that will charge 2 x 26650"s at 2A, the Xtar SV2 Rocket where as I have a dozen chargers that will charge 26650"s at 1A.

 

[fivemega]

1C is MAXIMUM current charging but if longer charging time is OK for you, slower charging such as 1/5C or 1 Amp is not a problem.

 

[deye223]

thanks all

 

[Overclocker]

1C is MAXIMUM current charging but if longer charging time is OK for you, slower charging such as 1/5C or 1 Amp is not a problem.

it depends. some cells accept 1c charge no problem while some degrade rather quickly at 1c rate, even name-brand ones! depends on the cell's formulation

check out Quick Charge on phones. or Tesla's supercharger. very high rates are possible within a certain SOC and temperature parameters. of course this implies the use of cells that are known to work well w/ very fast charging

for someone playing w/ a mystery 26650 from an unknown mfg the recommended rate is perhaps 0.5c or lower. i bet that's going to heat up pretty bad at 1c

 

[Gauss163]

it depends. some cells accept 1c charge no problem while some degrade rather quickly at 1c rate, even name-brand ones! depends on the cell's formulation [...]

Correct, and since too high-rate charging can cause serious degradation (generally much more so than high rate DIScharging), this is something that is worth paying attention too if you seek to maximize cell life. Another thing to keep in mind is that many studies have shown that higher-rate charging causes more damage at higher voltages/SOC (a fact that is exploited by many fast charging algorithms, which fast charge only up to a certain capacity, then switch to slower rates so to minimize damage, e.g. see some of my old posts with links to the Philips and Tesla multistage CC/CV algorithms; some of these ideas have now percolated into cell phone fast charge algorithms).

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Sal at Orbtronic says 2A is good. I go with 1A.