......And i was with you all the way until the last paragraph as i didn't see any terms that meant it would charge a Li-Ion 900mAH 145000 ok?
I know its my lack of knowledge on terminology, But that would be my smallest cell so if it will work as intended on that cell ill be happy.
Hey Das. As long as the capacity of the cell you want to charge is 600mAh or higher, and you can physically fit it into the charger, you're good to go. You may have to use additional spacers, or both of the ones that come with the Pila on one side for example, but as long as you can rig it up, it'll work. Some folks run wires from the charger terminals and charge 26500-32650 cells. It's a bit slow naturally, but it'll work.
So, your 14500 cells (which are likely only about 700-750mAh, at best) will charge fine in the Pila. Just don't try to charge a 10440 cell (the highest capacity of these cells is about 300mAh, regardless of what distributors print on the sides of the cell) or something with a capacity of less than 600mAh. Some RCR123/16340 cells are actually under 600mAh (again regardless of what's printed on the side, eg. "1200mAh", but are actually 550mAh), but you can get away with charging them since they're close to 600mAh, it's just not ideal.
Besides AW cells, What are the others i should look at?
To each their own, Das. You pretty much always get what you pay for though. That doesn't mean you can't get decent xxxxxFire et al cells, but the quality varies, so you can never be quite sure what you're going to get.
For cell consistency from batch to batch, dependability and so on, I'd go with, LG, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony, Samsung, Redilast, AW's etc. With the exception of the last two, these are all manufacturers, but a lot of AW's cells are these brands also, as are Redilast's (Panasonics), under the wrapper. Some of AW's aren't, like some of the weird sizes that I use (14250, 15270 etc.) that the "big boys" don't even make. For these oddball sizes we're pretty much stuck with unknown Chinese manufacturer's cells. I have to say in these weird sizes, I've had the best luck with AW's cells.
Also, if you want protection circuits on the cells, or positive nipples, you'll have to go with a distributor that adds these on, such as AW. There aren't any Li-Ion cell manufacturers that I'm aware of that manufacture anything but unprotected flat top cells. This is because Li-Ion cells are manufactured for the making of battery packs, not cells for flashlight use, or anything else requiring individual, or "loose" cells, as they are called. The manufacturing of battery packs does not require positive nipples, or individual cell protection, as the protection circuitry is added to the pack, not each cell individually.
Dave
