14500 cells and charger?

[thiswayup]

I was planning to get the "Trustfire" 900mAH protected cells and Ultrafire WF139 from DealExtreme (or to possibly get the charger from ebay, as there are sellers there who offer it with the slight advantage of a UK power lead). My LF5 is supposed to safe with unprotected cells, but I thought they would be safer in case of problems with the charger.

Are there any other products I'd be off with with, better places to purchase?

 

[thiswayup]

Most interesting thread I've found so far:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=161549

- Charging is the time of danger, and it is important that cell has protection against over-charging.

 

[Illum]

AW protected 14500 user here
the reasons why I don't use unprotected:

• most chargers you can find around here always have some sort of flaw that can result in catastrophic failure of unprotected cells...such as high charge current, overcharging without 4.2V cutoff and so forth [with the exception of the Pila charger]
• with unprotected the user has to prevent the cells from over-discharging and over-recharging, which means frequent handling of cells and a DMM...personally I just find the whole apparatus time consuming.

the reasons why I use AW protected 14500s:

• easily available from www.lighthound.com ,cheered by the forum since day one for its customer support, shipping quality, etc
• Will not overcharge, will not overdischarge, caps discharging current [might not be handy for hotwire applications, but could prevent venting in the case of a dead short]
• the charger [DSD] and aluminum charging spacers are on the same site, buying it all at once saves you shipping

heres the links
AW protected 14500s
Charging spacers [one per slot if you plan to use the DSD since its made to charge batteries up to 17670]
the DSD charger I bought have been replaced with the DSD 2, from the looks of it, the only modification visually would be the universal plug. the description [for some reason] indicates the acceptability of 18650s, though I dont see how thats possible without modification

cheers to lighthound

 

[thiswayup]

AW protected 14500 user here
the reasons why I don't use unprotected:

• most chargers you can find around here always have some sort of flaw that can result in catastrophic failure of unprotected cells...

That's what I was coming to conclude - thank you; very useful.