Best IMR 16340 cell and charger???

Jtolly

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
16
Location
Colorado Mountains
So, I'm kind of a Li-ion newbie and needs some serious help. I'm very confused on what cell and charger to get. Let me give you my situation and maybe some expert can chime in and help me out! I have a V10R XML that can take I guess an IMR 16340 or RCR123... I'm just not sure what is better or why.. Any help would be appreciated. I also have a Xeno Cube XML that takes a 14500... I'm not sure if I can get a IMR in that cell. Anyway, I'll need a great charger than can accommodate both cells and preferably any other cell I might get down the road. Thanks again in advance!

Joe
 

skipdashu

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
4
So, I'm kind of a Li-ion newbie and needs some serious help. I'm very confused on what cell and charger to get. Let me give you my situation and maybe some expert can chime in and help me out! I have a V10R XML that can take I guess an IMR 16340 or RCR123... I'm just not sure what is better or why.. Any help would be appreciated. I also have a Xeno Cube XML that takes a 14500... I'm not sure if I can get a IMR in that cell. Anyway, I'll need a great charger than can accommodate both cells and preferably any other cell I might get down the road. Thanks again in advance!

Joe

Battery question answer HERE.

For a relatively low cost 4 slot Li-Ion charger I've had good service from my TR-003P4. I think it was around $25. You can spend hundreds.

Skip
 

Bozzlite

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
286
Location
Central Texas
Although the Trustfire TR-003P4 is a decent charger, I am not sure it would be the best one for the 16340/rcr123 battery. At 500 mah charging rate, you would be charging an IMR 16340 at nearly 1C, which seems to be a bit too fast.

The Ultrafire WF 138A is made for 16340 and rcr 123 batteries and has a more reasonable charge rate of 250 mah.

But, of course, the 14500 battery would not fit. So, you need both, the TR-003 and the WF-138A, IMHO.

Or, for now it would be cheaper to get the WF-138A for the 16340 and the WF-138B for the 14500. But TR-003 would be more versatile as to the different types of batteries you may come across in the future.

And, yes the 14500 is available in IMR. You can find the chargers and batteries at superTmanufacturing.
 

Joe Talmadge

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 30, 2000
Messages
2,200
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Although the Trustfire TR-003P4 is a decent charger, I am not sure it would be the best one for the 16340/rcr123 battery. At 500 mah charging rate, you would be charging an IMR 16340 at nearly 1C, which seems to be a bit too fast.

1C is more than I'd be comfortable with for ICRs, but IMRs can be safely charged to over 2C ... an IMR 16340 can handle 500 mA no sweat. I'd be more worried about the Trustfire and Ultrafire chargers not following a proper CC/CV algorithm, I'd consider them both unacceptable. I might go with a 4sevens charger if you're only charging one cell at a time (I believe you'll need spacers for the 16340s), or a cottonpickers, both of which use acceptable algorithms.

To the OP: Unless you either know the light is drawing current greater than a protected ICR can sustain, *or* the flashlight has an overdischarge circuit, IMO it's best to stick with protected ICR (that is, the protected RCR123). Some of the advantages of IMRs is that they can sustain higher discharge and higher charge rates; one of the disadvantages is no overdischarge protection, so you need to manage that yourself unless the light has its own overdischarge circuit. I wouldn't completely rely on the protection circuit on an ICR, but at least that's another layer of protection against overdischarge.
 
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