18650 and 26650 questions

Several questions as I am new to the Li-on rechargeable world.

I'll start by saying I have 2 18650 chargers:

One pretty much just like this one:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

the other is:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.936

Questions:

I have received several 18650 batteries (from my uncle (ledaholic) that passed away, I was given all of his flashlight collection) some are protected and some are not. I know I don't really need to worry about charging the protected batteries so when charging my (what I believe) to not be protected 18650's do I need to be basically sitting with the charger to pull them off when the charger says they are done?

Now with the 26650 batteries what do I need to use to charge them? I think they may be unprotected as well???

I have a unknown battery that I need help ID'ing but I will post about it here in a few days when I get some spare time.

Thanks for the info guys! I really appreciate it!

Jonathan

As long as your chargers auto-stop when the voltage reaches 4.2 volts (like most of the modern chargers do), you don't have to do anything different when charging protected versus non-protected cells. With cheap chargers though, it's always a good idea to pull them off when they're done just in case.

To charge 26650's, I have seen people carve out the plastic housing on 18650 chargers to charge the 26650's (since they're the same length, but much fatter). There's also mods to C (or is it D?) size battery holders to hook them up to a LiPoly hobby charger (like RC car & Airplane battery chargers).

I personally use a hobby charger meant to charge LiPo cells (which also cuts off at 4.2 volts per cell) to charge my 26650's, jury rigged with alligator clips.

with both those chargers, I would take the batteries (whether they are protect or not) off the charger soon after they are finished. The cheap chargers from dealextreme often trickle charge and may overcharge your batteries.

if a flashaholic was using unprotected, he knew what he was doing, both at the charger side AND at the discharge side in the flashlight.
if your going to use them, you gots a lot of learning to do.

like a boost driver riding off a unprotected li-ion can discharge the cell way to low. used in series (many bats) many lights could cause a catastofic failure even, due to there not being protection, because of "reverse charging" which can occur in series.

start by reading a few spec sheets for the chemisty of battery you have, and knowing the highs and lows, and learning what all can go wrong in SERIES or even as singles.

as singles it can go very badly too without protection, a "Driver" in a flashlight can bring the cell down to low, then when you go to charge it, it could have become a bad cell item , because the protection was not there (other than the knowing human) to stop the discharge from going to low.

if they are "direct drive" or "buck only" singles, or lights with full built in cutoffs that work totally correct for what the battery desires, then there is minimal problems, but there are not very many things that work like that.

once you understand what the protection was trying to accomplish, then you can determine what it does (or doesnt do) in the particular device.

if you slap together 4xLi-Ion unprotected in one of his Hotwire mods, and dont pay attention, you could ruin the batts, or worse have one pop on you while in use. if you dont know how to charge a unprotected, and using cheap china chargers, well you could burn your house down. <---- yes that bad if you dont know what your doing and it is UNPROTECTED.

there is some asumption that the person you inherited the kit from slowly learned what to do in a longer process. Vrses suddenly having a bunch of stuff that is new to you, that is not "consumer" oriented.

some of the threads on protection and chemistry , and charging and safety and danger are so long and technical a person trying to learn might just not learn anything :-( or just give up :-(
so a well written short version might be usefull as a start on the different chemistries https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/203788 and voltages and stuff.

that just leaves: NEVER charge a Lithium cell that you dont know for a fact it is rechargable, as that will most certannly blow up quite quickly.

Thanks for the good info. I have 2 protected ultrafire's and at least 2 protected tenergy (2 that im not sure about). the other 18650's that I have are samsung imr18650-22b (the ones that im pretty sure are not protected) and several misc 18650's that im sure are not protected. So, I think for the time being and untill I get pretty confident with unprotected cells I am going to put them over to the side and invest in more protected cells.

What is "the best" charger for 18650's???

NightReaper said:

Thanks for the good info. I have 2 protected ultrafire's and at least 2 protected tenergy (2 that im not sure about). the other 18650's that I have are samsung imr18650-22b (the ones that im pretty sure are not protected) and several misc 18650's that im sure are not protected. So, I think for the time being and untill I get pretty confident with unprotected cells I am going to put them over to the side and invest in more protected cells.

What is "the best" charger for 18650's???

Click to expand...

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What chargers did your Uncle use ?... Did you inherit these also ?

As he knew what he was doing, then his chargers should be suitable for these cells.
.

march.brown said:

.

What chargers did your Uncle use ?... Did you inherit these also ?

As he knew what he was doing, then his chargers should be suitable for these cells.
.

Click to expand...

The ones he used were the two that I listed (have). He may have had others and I may have not found them yet but I don't think that he did aside a programmable hobby charger.

NightReaper said:

and invest in more protected cells.

???

Click to expand...

some of his unprotected are better cells than the china cells, i just mention that before you spend any money, the learning could be more usefull

VidPro said:

some of his unprotected are better cells than the china cells, i just mention that before you spend any money, the learning could be more usefull

Click to expand...

I'm all for learning (especially because I'd love to use the stuff I got)! but also want to try and avoid destroying something at the same time....

NightReaper said:

I'm all for learning (especially because I'd love to use the stuff I got)! but also want to try and avoid destroying something at the same time....

Click to expand...

You will need a Digital Multi Meter if you are going to use 18650 cells ... There are a few good threads on meters and how to use them ... With the Li-Ions , you need to accurately measure the cell voltages so you can avoid overcharging or overdischarging them ... Again there are several good threads on this.

I would suggest that you avoid torches that use multiple Li-Ion cells if possible ... Again there are threads on this.

Good luck with your new gear ... Read and learn then you will hopefully avoid any of the possible problems ... Its not all bad.

"There's light at the end of the tunnel"
.

Jonathan,

I have a pretty good knowledge of what batteries ledaholic was using and his lights. If you need some help, give me a call or stop buy, Bob was always willing to help me, and we shared ideas all the time. I believe he had a Triton or something similar, they are excellent hobby chargers that will be safe with any cell if set up correctly.

Aircraft800 said:

Jonathan,

I have a pretty good knowledge of what batteries ledaholic was using and his lights. If you need some help, give me a call or stop buy, Bob was always willing to help me, and we shared ideas all the time. I believe he had a Triton or something similar, they are excellent hobby chargers that will be safe with any cell if set up correctly.

Click to expand...

Hobby charger + newbie = not safe.

No reason not to use the "Digital 18650 Li-ion charger" instead.