Charging a 10180 Li Cell

What is the best charging method for the very small 10180 cell? I just started using my new Jetbeam Mini and I want to well by that tiny little battery.

Are you not using the little lights USB ? Other than that you need a low charge rate, ideally 0.08a/0.1a . However this is not that easy to do charger dependent as most have a low of 0.2 or 0.25a rate. If i am not using the light, i use to 0.2a on the opus bt c3100 or even the 0.25a on the xtar vp2. Little much tbh, not ideal but i have not noticed any adverse effects over a few charges.

You need a charger that can charge at a very low current.

GyrFalcon (88 and 44) chargers can handle 0.1A
SkyRC MC3000 can go down to 0.05A

There is also a few chargers dedicated to small cells.

I did charge it once using the built in charger on the light, but my little Xtar USB volt/current device said that it was charging at .15A and I read somewhere in the forum that those little cells should not be charged at more than .05Amp. Do you think that a .15A charge rate is OK? You're the man on this stuff. Thanks for your help. By the way, I am patiently waiting for your review of the Dragon. I just wish they had a .25Amp setting on the thing, I know I would buy one then.

brighterthanthesun said:

I did charge it once using the built in charger on the light, but my little Xtar USB volt/current device said that it was charging at .15A and I read somewhere in the forum that those little cells should not be charged at more than .05Amp. Do you think that a .15A charge rate is OK?

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That depends on the cell, many high current cells can handle higher charge rate, but it will put some extra wear on the cell.

brighterthanthesun said:

By the way, I am patiently waiting for your review of the Dragon. I just wish they had a .25Amp setting on the thing, I know I would buy one then.

Click to expand...

That review is mostly finished, but I have a few other reviews I need to post first.

Without buying another charger, the 0.15a although a little over the recommended(well almost twice so double to be more exact) will be fine from my experience. Mine measured around 0.1a on a cooyoo with the xtar USB. Up to now, i still have 10180 cells that work fine in my spy and fairy.............these must be 3yrs old now and have had up to 0.25a(not recommending )at times . Ideally get a few of these little cells and rotate to lessen their constant use would be my recommendation.

Cottonpickers do little USB chargers, see if you can find one . The little magnets can be fiddly on these small cells though due to the small surface areas. Other than that, and your not comfortable using the 0.15a with the light, would be as HKJ suggests with the charger/s. If you have many other cells or plan on having in the future, then it would be a good investment long term.

Almost all lithium cells can be charged at 1C rate.

Specs show around 80mah or 90mah, if they actually are that(never measured and could be lower) then 0.08a or 0.09a would be the rate, however away from the light, not that much support for this lower rate. Most are 0.25a for the lowest setting other than the suggested chargers.

I charge 3 10180 cells at once at 200mA, using little magnets at both ends to place the cells in series and some more magnets to make the battery fit in a slot. Each cell is then effectively charged with 65mA.
One downside of this method is, the cells have to have about the same voltage to start with, otherwise the cells themselves will charge the weakest one.

If a want to charge small 10180 cells I use cottonpickers nona charger with 50mA charge current