Pila Plating

[Sleeper]

Just picked up a Pila from Lighthound to charge some AW18650's.
Even though I will probably never use the battery extenders that
came with the charger I was surprised by the crap chrome plating
job on the ends (photo). You can see it flaking off.
Is this normal for Pila ? (I thought connection was key during charging).

(brand new, out of the box, extenders)

 

[Eric242]

I´ve used the spacers of my Pila quite a lot since I use 18500 rechargeables in some lights and they still look like new. Not even visible marks.

Eric

 

[billcushman]

I have two Pila chargers. The first was bought elsewhere and the second was bought from Lighthound. Lighthound started carrying the Pila after I showed them mine and explained why it was superior to other chargers.

The plating on all four adapters looks OK, but the first charger had two different types of adapters. One does not have the molded-in legends and does not have threads all the way down. If screwed in tightly, this one can be very hard to remove, it will spin without engaging the threads unless you pull outward on it with a fingernail on the back.

I find the adapters that Lighthound sells much better than the Pila adapters.
http://www.lighthound.com/search.asp?keyword=spacer&search=GO
The short adapter works in place of the Pila adapter and the CR123 adapter allows charging CR123 cells. I am using all 18650 AW2600 protected cells and don't need the adapters but I bought two of the 15mm adapters and two of the CR123 adapters to have if I should need them in the future. I live near the Galleria and the drive to Pearland is about 40 miles round trip.

 

[Mjolnir]

I haven't used the spacers on my PILA IBC since I only use 18650 and 26650 cells, but they have not had any flaking issues just sitting there; the coating is still the same as the day that I bought the charger.

 

[Sleeper]

Thanks Guys,
I talked to Lighthound, and of course they were only too happy to send new ones but from what Robert (Lighthound) was
describing they all appeared to be similar to mine ( I sent him the same photos shown here ).
So instead of getting new ones I buffed off the chrome down to the brass (flaked off fast) as a temporary measure until
the aluminum spacers arrive - they seem to make much more sense.

(Quality of the supplied spacers was so bad I was concerned that I got a knock off charger or that some other QC problems may be going on inside)