Draco owners - how often to you recharge?

[bltkmt]

My Dracos are my first lights using rechargeable batteries. All my other lights are using primaries. As such, I am a true newbie on how often to charge and how to know when it might be running low. I am curious what other Draco owners (or similar) are doing in practice?

 

[Jarl]

I have a raw al as my EDC, running on an unprotected 14250. Because it's unprotected, I recharge every 2 days or so, depending on usage. If you discharge a li-ion too far, then it'll permanently damage the cell and you'll have to disposer of it, hence the frequent recharging (light recharges don't hurt li-ion, unlike Ni-cd and Ni-MH, to a lesser extent)

 

[Oddjob]

It is actually better to charge the cells frequently rather than let them get close to the voltage where the proctection circuit kicks in (for protected cells). With rechareable Li-on cells I recommend getting a digital multimetre. With a multimetre you will be able to tell how much a Li-on cell has been discharged and when you charge your cells you can ensure that you are charging cells together that have similar voltages. Doing these will increase the life of your cells as well as make using them safer. I read in a post that every 0.10 is about 10% discharge so if a cell comes of the charger at 4.20 (100%) then 4.10 would be 90%, 4.00 would be 80% etc. This is only a guideline. Definitely check out the battery section for more info on Li-on batteries.

 

[BVH]

I use my Drako on Turbo most of the time. If I use it more than a couple of minutes during any day, I take battery #1 out of the light, stick battery #2 in (freshly charged) and charge #1 so it's ready for the same procedure.

 

[DonShock]

I do the same as BHV. If there's more than a quick use during the day, I swap the battery for a freshly charged one when I get home.

 

[9volt]

I charge mine roughly once every two weeks. I should use it more.

 

[Patriot]

I don't own a Draco, but I operate the 10440's the my LOD's in much the same way that BVH does. They're continually in rotation, being discharged to about 50% (sometimes more) and then going on the charger.

 

[bltkmt]

Thanks for the tips...I think the secret is for me to buy more batteries then, and do the rotation game.