Getting started with 18650

[boostedrst]

i just pick up a uterafire 3000ma protected 18650 , dsd charger and 6105 dx charger . Have a couple questions .

Which charger is best to use out of the 2 ?

Can i charge a single battery ?

If i start charging at 3.8v how long til i remove it from the charger .

Do i recharge it at 3.8v or around 2.7v ?

When i take it off the charger it should read 4.2v right ?

Thanks for the help .

 

[old4570]

First of all the bad news :

There are so many battery and charger combinations one would have chosen other than what you have chosen .

Some charge at 3.6v and call the battery empty .. Its more like 3v or just bellow , but why would you go there ? unless you had to .

I throw batteries in the charger when I notice diminished performance [ maybe around 3.8v ]

Yes by all means you can charge a single cell ...
Yes , the accepted maximum is 4.2v , but dont despair if you get 4.19 or 4.18v at termination [ green light ] as many would trade you there grandmother for a charger that stops a little shy of 4.2v .

Best out of the two chargers , ?? since Im not a DSD fan I would say the DX possibly .

May I suggest a slightly better battery choice in the future .
Hope you didnt buy too many BRC3000 batteries , and I hope even more that your not planning on running them in a High output light ..

 

[boostedrst]

First of all the bad news :

There are so many battery and charger combinations one would have chosen other than what you have chosen .

Some charge at 3.6v and call the battery empty .. Its more like 3v or just bellow , but why would you go there ? unless you had to .

I throw batteries in the charger when I notice diminished performance [ maybe around 3.8v ]

Yes by all means you can charge a single cell ...
Yes , the accepted maximum is 4.2v , but dont despair if you get 4.19 or 4.18v at termination [ green light ] as many would trade you there grandmother for a charger that stops a little shy of 4.2v .

Best out of the two chargers , ?? since Im not a DSD fan I would say the DX possibly .

May I suggest a slightly better battery choice in the future .
Hope you didnt buy too many BRC3000 batteries , and I hope even more that your not planning on running them in a High output light ..

Thanks for the response . What is bad about the battery i got ? Running it in my ssc p7 flashlight(single 18650) .I only bought one to try .I have 2 trustfire (black/red/yellow) ones coming from dx still .The ultrafire im using however tested at 3.8v out of the package so i will have to charge it tonite . Flashlight works great at 3.8v so icant wait to see it at 4.1* .Only reason i got those chargers is because i read a bunch of post about getting those . What exacty is the problem with them? Are the trustfire 18650's i mentioned better

 

[kramer5150]

I dont have first hand experience with either of those chargers, but I'll reply to some of your questions below.


If i start charging at 3.8v how long til i remove it from the charger .
Remove the cells immediately after the charger indicates they are full. Do not leave the cells in the charger. As for a specific time, its impossible to say for certain... too many variables.


Do i recharge it at 3.8v or around 2.7v ?
2.7 is a bit too low, 3.8 is better.


When i take it off the charger it should read 4.2v right ?
Not necessarily. Mine come off the charger at around 4.18-4.15


Thanks for the help .
Sure

 

[march.brown]

Do i recharge it at 3.8v or around 2.7v ?
2.7 is a bit too low, 3.8 is better.

According to the voltage/remaining capacity figures , 3.6V is empty ... So 2.7V is overdischarged.

3.7V still has about 20% capacity and 3.8V has about 40% capacity left in the battery ... I tend to top up my Li-Ions when they get down to 3.8 volts ... My Solarforces on high mode take 90 minutes to get down to 3.8 volts ... If I need to use them longer , I know that there is another hour available to use , though I do prefer to top up when the volts get down to 3.8V.

Li-Ions don't mind being topped up whenever you want , even if the voltage is about 4.0 volts ... Since they are low self-discharge , this makes them my ideal choice for the more powerful dog-walking torch.

I would suggest that protected cells are the best option , though I do still use a couple of unprotected ones ... When they eventually die , I will replace them with the protected ones.

I tend to guestimate how long I use each torch and then check the battery voltages when I think they have had about 90 minutes use ... The voltages are usually over 3.8 volts , but I top them up again anyway ... Only very occasionally do the voltages get below 3.8 volts ... Once , due to bad guestimation , the torch shut down when the low voltage protection operated on the protected battery ... If this had been an unprotected battery it might have died , then I would have been forced to buy another (protected one) ... I now over-guestimate the use of the torches in an attempt to prevent this happening again ... Ideally I should just check the voltage of my in-use batteries more often.
.

 

[qandeel]

Thanks guys.

 

[old4570]

Thanks for the response . What is bad about the battery i got ? Running it in my ssc p7 flashlight(single 18650) .I only bought one to try .I have 2 trustfire (black/red/yellow) ones coming from dx still .The ultrafire im using however tested at 3.8v out of the package so i will have to charge it tonite . Flashlight works great at 3.8v so icant wait to see it at 4.1* .Only reason i got those chargers is because i read a bunch of post about getting those . What exacty is the problem with them? Are the trustfire 18650's i mentioned better

BRC3000 has very high resistance to discharge .. Its ok up to about 1A current and after that your really putting stress on the battery ..

The red and black Trustfires are much better as are the Candy Apple Green and Red Ultrafires [ Beware Red counterfeits ]

I just noticed a BRC3600 [ ???? ] Yeah 3600mA claim , that will surely bring in the punters .

Anyhow , currently the best value for money 18650 might be the Trustfire R&B [ Red and Black ] ..

Another issue might be size ... Battery Length .

 

[mdocod]

The DSD is a single channel charger with 2 bays. The bays are wired in parallel. Be careful not to insert 2 cells in the DSD that are in radically different states of charge. The one that is in the higher state of charge will discharge into the other cell, a wide variation can cause a charge rate that is unsafe. The DSD is hit and miss for performance and reliability. It's known best for burning out the little power supply wall-wort when used on 220V, so I guess it depends where in the world you are.

The 6105 lacks proper termination so you will need to remember to remove the cells when the light turns green. The one I tested over-charged cells to ~4.26V, light didn't go green until the cells were past 4.20V in most cases either soooo....

The 3000mAH UltraFire has a horrendous track record here on CPF so far. Sorry

A good old saying that is very applicable to li-ion cells and chargers:

"You can go broke trying to save money."

Eric

 

[Monocrom]

The DSD charger is junk. If you ended up with one that actually works, count yourself very lucky.

Ultrafire cells tend to be unpredictable as Hell. Some work reliably, some won't charge up at all, some will only charge up once, some can't hold their charge at all, and some will do a combination of the above.

If you plan on using rechargeable cells on a regular basis, forget the cheap stuff from DX. Get a Pila IBC charger, and some AW brand rechargeable cells from Lighthound.com

No, that combination of charger and cells isn't cheap. But as mentioned above, if you plan on using your cells on a regular or frequent basis; save yourself the huge headache and spend the extra on quality. It'll be cheaper in the long run.