Charge Time on New 18650's

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Update: Well, it seems I wasn't searching correctly. I found a ton of threads pertaining to this question. Seems the i4 is just plain slow with two or more batteries charging at once.

I bought two Panasonic NCR18650 protected 2900 mAh cells, which arrived today. I put them into my new Nitecore i4 v.2 charger. I know this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it in a search. How long does it take these cells to charge fully? They've been charging for almost three hours and the middle orange LED is still blinking.

 

[mattheww50]

Going to depend upon which 'slots' you put the batteries in. While there are 4 slots, there are in effect only two sources of charging current, so the slots are paired. The 750ma charging current is time division multiplexed between the slots that are paired, making the charging current only 375ma. In that case it is going to take about 8 hours to deliver 2900mAh.
If you used unpaired slots, the charge current is 750ma, and then it should take about 4 hours.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

I think using the unpaired slots is the way to go.

 

[gopajti]

not i4, but yesterday, I charged unprotected Panasonic NCR18650B, 3400mAh with my XTAR VP1 (1A) and results: ~3.18V -> 4.18V = ~3 hours 47min (+- few min)