HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
Lately, I've noticed that when I put a 16340 or 18650 on the charger by itself, with no other batteries in any of the other 3 slots, it will gradually reduce its charge current. I didn't think much of it because I assumed it was because the battery was getting closer to full charge, and the charger was just dialing back it's charge current as a result. Whether or not my old Nitecore i4 charger behaved like that was unknown, because it didn't show charge current.
Then tonight, I agreed to charge a single Eagletac protected 3100mah 18650 for the guy who I recently sold my Eagletac G25 C2 to. He hasn't bought a charger yet, but despite using it daily for about a month in his job as an armed security guard, that Eagletac battery didn't FINALLY run low until yesterday! So I brought it in and put it on the Xtar VC4 that I bought almost 2 years ago. I first set it into the 3rd slot from the left, which normally charged at 0.5A. The battery was measured At 3.0v by the charger. At first it seemed ok. After over 2 hours, it had only added 360mAh to the battery, and it was now charging at just 0.1A. I took it off, put it back on again, but it quickly dropped back to 0.1A.
The battery was NEVER even remotely warm throughout this experience btw. So I unplugged it, removed the 18650, plugged it in, and installed 4 Eneloop XX batteries from my Fenix TK-41 that I NEVER use. I had charged the other 4 last night, albeit VERY slowly(6-8 hours to add roughly 980mAh to them). But now these 4 XX's were also starting out low, and after 30 mins, they had only picked up 44mAh.
So I removed them, found an old Duracell charger to finish them off, and re-installed the Eagletac 18650. It was still at 3.6v. This time it quickly dropped to 0.1A again, then after at least 25 mins, it had only added 24mAh, and was now reading 0.0mAh charge current! I picked it up, unplugged the barrel plug from the back, plugged it back in, and now it's showing ALL 4 charging bays at 4.2V and FULL charge, despite the fact that there was only 1 battery in 1 slot, and it was really only at 3.6v!
So I fooled with that barrel plug in the back of the charger some more, then noticed that it started losing all power when the plug was properly pushed all the way in. I removed the 18650, but at least 3-4 more times, with no batteries in the charger, it once again began saying all 4 bays were at 4.2v and full.
So I pushed the barrel connector only part way in, set it down, installed the 18650 again, and for the past 20-30 mins it's been steadily charging it at 0.8A, having added a whopping 428mAh to the battery in the time it's taken me to compose this!
Then tonight, I agreed to charge a single Eagletac protected 3100mah 18650 for the guy who I recently sold my Eagletac G25 C2 to. He hasn't bought a charger yet, but despite using it daily for about a month in his job as an armed security guard, that Eagletac battery didn't FINALLY run low until yesterday! So I brought it in and put it on the Xtar VC4 that I bought almost 2 years ago. I first set it into the 3rd slot from the left, which normally charged at 0.5A. The battery was measured At 3.0v by the charger. At first it seemed ok. After over 2 hours, it had only added 360mAh to the battery, and it was now charging at just 0.1A. I took it off, put it back on again, but it quickly dropped back to 0.1A.
The battery was NEVER even remotely warm throughout this experience btw. So I unplugged it, removed the 18650, plugged it in, and installed 4 Eneloop XX batteries from my Fenix TK-41 that I NEVER use. I had charged the other 4 last night, albeit VERY slowly(6-8 hours to add roughly 980mAh to them). But now these 4 XX's were also starting out low, and after 30 mins, they had only picked up 44mAh.
So I removed them, found an old Duracell charger to finish them off, and re-installed the Eagletac 18650. It was still at 3.6v. This time it quickly dropped to 0.1A again, then after at least 25 mins, it had only added 24mAh, and was now reading 0.0mAh charge current! I picked it up, unplugged the barrel plug from the back, plugged it back in, and now it's showing ALL 4 charging bays at 4.2V and FULL charge, despite the fact that there was only 1 battery in 1 slot, and it was really only at 3.6v!
So I fooled with that barrel plug in the back of the charger some more, then noticed that it started losing all power when the plug was properly pushed all the way in. I removed the 18650, but at least 3-4 more times, with no batteries in the charger, it once again began saying all 4 bays were at 4.2v and full.
So I pushed the barrel connector only part way in, set it down, installed the 18650 again, and for the past 20-30 mins it's been steadily charging it at 0.8A, having added a whopping 428mAh to the battery in the time it's taken me to compose this!
Last edited:
