Diagnosing Faulty Charger

Hello guys i have been lurking the forums for a while and finally decided to make my first post. Glad to finally be on here and thank you for any insight in advance.

Quick shout out to r/vaporents for suggesting this forum since then i have been lurking and have come to enjoy checking daily. Little about me, i worked in mobile electronics for a few years so i have a decent understanding of D.C. and A.C. current and if i dont know i can teach myself easily.My new hobby happens to use 18650 batteries something prior to a few months ago had no experience with. I have always had quite a bit of interest in battery technology and still use my La Crosse Technology BC-9009 for my old NiMH batteris.

My Question: Is this thing functioning properly and if so are these chargers safe?

The Batteries: Panasonic NCR18650B, link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHXY72O/?tag=cpf0b6-20

The Charger: Wall Li-on Charger for 18650 Rechargeable Battery, link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DCOQ8W/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Link to IMGUR gallery of my charger : http://imgur.com/a/ghWej

I grew concerned when i had the batteries on there for 5.5 hours and only noticed a (.12) increase in voltage. The charger is rated at 1A according to the back and im assuming thats 500ma per battery when charging 2. Regardless i am not able to get the rated current, i start my test with one battery; voltage is at 3.58V. I then observed the charge current with my Fluke 115 for 5 minutes and consistently read 235ma roughly (.2A) i measured again at the 5.5 hour mark and the battery voltage was 3.7V and the current was still reading the same 235ma as it did earlier. Now if i understand correctly the Li-on charger use constant current until they reach 4.2V and then current tapers off with constant voltage. Also that typically the most of the charge time is spend at the end of the charge cycle after the battery has the 4.2. If that is then you can see my concern as my charger does not appear to be following a normal charge curve.

Well that's my story what do you guys think? Is the charger malfunctioning or is this normal?

Welcome aboard.

First things first, never cheap out on lithium ion cells and never cheap out on lithium ion chargers, especially the latter, as they can be dangerous.

Not all chargers use a CC/CV algorithm, or even good approximations.

Secondly, I'd ditch that charger and get something of known and tested quality from the likes of Xtar, Nitecore, Opus, or LiitoKala, among others.

Thirdly, you can read about chargers, charging methods, cells, batteries, power banks and adapters here:

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers UK.html

Some chargers, (good, or bad,) can take a long time to actually terminate a charge, so I wouldn't be too concerned on that front.

Chris

As Chris says,

pretty much the charger is junk unfortunately and needs to be binned , you can get a decent Xtar charger for as little as $10 or so, if you dont want to spend too much.
If you are reliant and li ions are going to be in your life for the foreseeable , then maybe look at investing in a more flexible one. For the money, the opus BT C3100 v2.2(or 3400 depending on who is selling) makes a good option. Very flexible for not much over $30's and will charge your nimh cells too(as well as various charge/discharge/test rates), from 0.2a and up to 2a on bays 1+4(or 1a across the 4 bays).

Thanks Chris and Ven i really appreciate the info. I know have a link to the ultimate god resource on batteries,charges,ect. that i will probably reference for the rest of my life...im pretty excited to look trough this gem and definitely be sure to share. As recommend the Cheapo Charger has been trashed and sadly before i saw these responses i overnight-ed the NiteCore i2 2016 version to myself from what i have observed and measured seems to be charging them correctly and i dont feel scared to put them on the charger as i did with the other. Again thanks Chris, Im such a derp de derp i should have considered that not all charger follow that charge pattern.

Quick Questions if anyone happens to see this i know its been a few days.

1. After reviewing the page Ven linked to i didn't notice the Nitecore i2 2016 in that list. Im assuming its because its either a re-brand of another charger or shares the same internals with another. If one of the above statements is true then do you know which charger that would be?

2. After some research for my application i decided on the Panasonic NCR18650B as i kept coming across a large amount of post's recommending them for the Arizer Air which is rated to consume around 35watts at 1ohm im guessing throughout the 10min run time. The OEM batteries are BAK18550CC though. Question is are the NCR18650B's generally refereed to as "trash" batteries?

thudson17 said:

Quick Questions if anyone happens to see this i know its been a few days.

1. After reviewing the page Ven linked to i didn't notice the Nitecore i2 2016 in that list. Im assuming its because its either a re-brand of another charger or shares the same internals with another. If one of the above statements is true then do you know which charger that would be?

2. After some research for my application i decided on the Panasonic NCR18650B as i kept coming across a large amount of post's recommending them for the Arizer Air which is rated to consume around 35watts at 1ohm im guessing throughout the 10min run time. The OEM batteries are BAK18550CC though. Question is are the NCR18650B's generally refereed to as "trash" batteries?

Click to expand...

The newer 2016 i2 adds support for the few 4.35v cells, like my LG D1s and E1s. It will also charge up the LiFePO4 3.2v cells, like RCR123 types and it adds a better display.

The NCR18650B cell is a great cell if you don't need more than 5-6A of current from it/them and while it's been superseded by newer generations of 10A 3500mAh cells, it's still viable. I'm probably going to pick up four of them for $5 each, for a Tomo V8-4 power bank that I have.

I don't need the higher current handling, so they're an inexpensive alternative. Maybe I'll sport a few more dollars for the Sanyo-Panasonic NCR18650GAs, if and when I decide to pull the trigger.

You've not got good stuff, safe stuff, so enjoy.

Chris