Pila and AW question?

As some of you may recall, I have been having this issue with my new Pila charger only charging my AW 18650 3100mAh batteries [all new from same trusted vendor] to 4.13-4.15v. There have been many answers and suggestions from everyone and I thank you all. A very informative bunch here with tons of knowledge that I respect.

Four AW's all charge the same, all new. I came to fault the Pila charger to the point that I contacted the seller. He agreed to exchange it. But during this exchange of e-mails, I received a Romisen which came with a Trustfire 18650. Well what do you know...it charged up to 4.19v. And it has done so twice already.

Yesterday I got my Klarus XT2C in the mail along with an Eagletac 3100mAh. I stuffed it into the Pila and ....well you know where I am going here....4.19v!!

So long story short [too late huh?]....was it the AW's all along that were not charging to 4.19v and there is nothing wrong with the Pila [as most of you were telling me all along] Two other brands of 18650 charge to 4.19v with no problem.

So please fill me in with what you all think may be the reason here. I would really like to know why this can happen.
Old batteries? High internal resistance? What are your thoughts?

Oh and the Trustfire...came with the light. It will be replaced by something good soon. :]

Try bend the Pila's charging contact out a little to make better contact with the AW battery since it is the shortest protected 18650 in the market. The Pila charger is known to be
sensitive with contact resistance and will terminate early on a slight bump or when a battery is not making good solid contact.

Tried again with the same result, 4.14v. I guess it is what it is. I now have 6 AW's and they all do the same. Only the one Eagletac and the one Trustfire seem to want to go to 4.19. Gonna try some of the other high end brands next.

BUT .... The AW's are still working fine so far in all other aspects. No issues with performance or run time so I guess that's good.

Ouch, I have a 2 AW 18650s and 2 17670 and I had just started eyeing a Pila charger... I'll think twice about it now and read your other thread too!

loquutis79 said:

Tried again with the same result, 4.14v.

Click to expand...

Hi loq. Did you try AW's suggestion above? I don't own a Pila, and never have, but I do know they are actually made for Pila cells, which are button/nipple top cells. I'd make sure the cells are making good contact with the charger's + and -. I know from experience, adapting chargers into cradles for use with a hobby charger, that this is important. Early termination is one sign of a poor connection between the cell(s) and the charger.

Dave

I did bend them a tiny bit but I was worried about going to far and breaking something. I will try a bit more for the next charge.

Looking at the Eagletac and the AW side by side, without a vernier to measure, there is really very little difference in length between the AW 3100 flat top and the Eagletac 3100 button top. And its not like the AW flops around between the contacts but I hear what you are saying about your experience with hobby chargers so I will have another go at it.

I will also clean the contacts but I really can't see that being the issue as this was happening right from new. New Pila and new batteries.

I have been very happy with my Pila. 4.14v over 4.19 is a small difference IMO and will ensure cells give longer service life. In use the cells drop more than .05v quickly.