Ultrafire WF-137 Charger Question.

[march.brown]

I have just received my first 18650 Ultrafire 2400mAh protected (grey) batteries (UK sourced) and I put them in my WF-137 (single battery) charger ... The charger came without instructions.

The Red LED came on then flicked off every second or so ... I assume that this is the way it indicates that it is charging the cell ... The Green LED then came on after five minutes ... Does this mean that the charge is complete ? ... I assume that the 18650 cells came pre-charged which is why it only took five minutes before the Green LED came on.

Any help would be appreciated as I am not certain whether the green LED meant that the cell was still charging, or perhaps the cell was then fully charged.

My two other chargers for AA and AAA cells display steady Green when charged ... My AA/AAA charger with the LCD indicator shows the state of the charge in sort of bands on a battery shaped icon, so is easy to use.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
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[Niconical]

On these chargers, red on or blinking is usually charging, green means finished.
However, before you try to work out if it is or isn't charging, or should or shouldn't be charging, you really need to test the voltage of the batteries, which you should have done before putting them into a charger for the first time anyway. If you have a multimeter, check the voltage on the batts. If you don't have one, get one asap.

 

[march.brown]

On these chargers, red on or blinking is usually charging, green means finished.
However, before you try to work out if it is or isn't charging, or should or shouldn't be charging, you really need to test the voltage of the batteries, which you should have done before putting them into a charger for the first time anyway. If you have a multimeter, check the voltage on the batts. If you don't have one, get one asap.

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Thank you for your prompt reply ... I don't have a Digital Multimeter, only an old Avo Model 8 which served me well for many years till my retirement 16 years ago ... As the meter would have to be used on the 10 Volt range, it would not have the accuracy that I see quoted on CPF ... It seems that I should be able to read accurately to one hundredth of a Volt ... So I would need to buy a more capable meter.

I read that the Lithium rechargeable cells, 18650 in particular, are being used by Divers, Cavers and Potholers as well as Hikers and even just for walking the dog ...

I wonder if all these people have been made aware of the dangers of these cells ? ... I very much doubt whether all these people actually use a DVM or even have access to one ... They probably don't know that there are protected and unprotected cells and possibly go for the cheapest ... Most average people will use the battery till the torch goes dim and then put a new battery in ... They then pop the 18650 into the charger and sometimes probably forget about it till the following morning.

There is no warning on the battery to say that there is any cause for concern about its use ... So, any member of the public would think that the cell was not a dangerous item ... They probably work on the principle that it must be safe because it is on sale.

It is only through looking on CPF that I realised the problems that can occur with this type of cell ... Is it up to the retailer to inform the purchaser that the battery is virtually a bomb waiting to go off ? ... If damage occurs to the user or his property, would he be able to take the battery seller to court simply because the seller had not informed the buyer of the problem ? ... Perhaps it is therefore better to buy from a well known local source, so that proceedings could be initiated in the case of a catastrophic failure ... It would be impossible to do this to a "Far East" supplier.

Many Thanks for the information on the WF-137.
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[amigafan2003]

I'd hazard a guess that 80% of people using 18650 cells DO know how to use them properly and DO own at least a DMM.

Re warnings on batteries - mine mention not to short circuit, it give the max voltage (thereby implying a charge limit). Besides, a box of matches doesn't say "caution - hot" on it does it?

they'll always be stupid people around - you can't legislate to stop them hurting themselves. I prefer to think of it as natural selection.

 

[quasarba]

I have just received my first 18650 Ultrafire 2400mAh protected (grey) batteries (UK sourced) and I put them in my WF-137 (single battery) charger ... The charger came without instructions.

The Red LED came on then flicked off every second or so ... I assume that this is the way it indicates that it is charging the cell ... The Green LED then came on after five minutes ... Does this mean that the charge is complete ? ... I assume that the 18650 cells came pre-charged which is why it only took five minutes before the Green LED came on.

Any help would be appreciated as I am not certain whether the green LED meant that the cell was still charging, or perhaps the cell was then fully charged.

My two other chargers for AA and AAA cells display steady Green when charged ... My AA/AAA charger with the LCD indicator shows the state of the charge in sort of bands on a battery shaped icon, so is easy to use.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
.

I have a similiar situation but have the WF-139 charger, just received yesterday. 2 18650 came packaged together, put both in 1 turned red and charged, the other green, swapped places, then individual the one battery always stays green and never wants to charge. The other took about two hours and turned green works fine. Is there anything I can try before I send back for a replacement or is the battery just bad?

 

[Niconical]

I read that the Lithium rechargeable cells, 18650 in particular, are being used by Divers, Cavers and Potholers as well as Hikers and even just for walking the dog ..... I wonder if all these people have been made aware of the dangers of these cells ?

The safety concerns regarding lithium rechargeables don't really apply to their use, it's about the charging. In this case for example you connected a battery to a charger and you didn't even know if it was a dead cell, or had the protection tripped, or had been run down very low. Even if your meter can confirm to within 1 volt, that's better than nothing. 4v, charge it, 4v, charge it, 4v, charge it, 0v, hhmmm, keep a close eye on this one, take it out of the charger after a few mins, see if the protection has been reset. Voltage showing as.... 3v, it seems to be ok, or at least something is happening. Showing as.... still 0v, don't charge it anymore! (Or at least keep a very close eye on it until you can do another test).

As for the public using them, amigafan2003 summed it up, "I'd hazard a guess that 80% of people using 18650 cells DO know how to use them properly and DO own at least a DMM.". For us, the 18650 is bread and butter, but 99% of the public wouldn't know what it is, where to get it, or what to do with it if you told them the what and where parts.

 

[march.brown]

The safety concerns regarding lithium rechargeables don't really apply to their use, it's about the charging. In this case for example you connected a battery to a charger and you didn't even know if it was a dead cell, or had the protection tripped, or had been run down very low. Even if your meter can confirm to within 1 volt, that's better than nothing. 4v, charge it, 4v, charge it, 4v, charge it, 0v, hhmmm, keep a close eye on this one, take it out of the charger after a few mins, see if the protection has been reset. Voltage showing as.... 3v, it seems to be ok, or at least something is happening. Showing as.... still 0v, don't charge it anymore! (Or at least keep a very close eye on it until you can do another test).

As for the public using them, amigafan2003 summed it up, "I'd hazard a guess that 80% of people using 18650 cells DO know how to use them properly and DO own at least a DMM.". For us, the 18650 is bread and butter, but 99% of the public wouldn't know what it is, where to get it, or what to do with it if you told them the what and where parts.

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My mistake, I omitted to mention that the new cells were tried first for about one minute each on high in my Saik SA-8 ... Not a proper test really which is why I didn't mention it in my original post, but I knew that the cells were at least capable of lighting the SA-8 LED ... Sorry about my omission.

Certainly the old Avo 8 would be capable of measuring four volts within about a tenth of a volt, but most of the threads on CPF are quoting to two decimal places ... The Avo 8 was used on Radio systems, Battery systems and Computerised systems where a supply to an I.C. was either there or it wasn't.

I will in future check with my Avo 8 and consider myself both chastised and enlightened ... "Enlightened" no Pun intended by the way.

Many Thanks for your comments.
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[march.brown]

I have tried to charge my two unprotected and my two protected 18650 Ultrafire batteries with no success.

My charger is a cheap one, the Ultrafire WF-137 which was bought from Hong Kong ... The two unprotected cells were also from Hong Kong and the protected ones were UK sourced.

After a few minutes of charging with the Red LED flashing, the LED goes to Green ... I checked the voltage during charge and each cell was being charged at about 3.9 volts ... The charging current when the red LED was flashing measured 0.38 Amps ... When the green LED came on, the charging current went to zero ... In actual fact the battery discharged at 2 milliAmps back into the charger ... It would seem that my cheap charger is faulty ... That's a shame as I wanted to use the 18650s in a couple of my torches ... I don't think it is worth sending the charger back to Hong Kong as it only cost £5-57 including postage ... No doubt someone will say "well what do you expect for £5-57 including postage" ... I will now have to put off using the 18650s till I can get a better charger ... I will put this small financial loss and the big inconvenience down to experience.

This now brings me to another question ..... Can I get a good charger for about £20 delivered to the UK ? ... Maybe I could go up to £25 if neccessary.

I need one soon as I really want to try my 18650s out in my torches.

I'm annoyed about the failure of my Ultrafire WF-137 charger.

Many Thanks.
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[SilverFox]

Hello March.brown,

At 3.9 volts your cell have about 60% of a full charge. You can use them, just not as long as a fully charged cell.

Tom

 

[march.brown]

Hello March.brown,

At 3.9 volts your cell have about 60% of a full charge. You can use them, just not as long as a fully charged cell.

Tom

Hi Tom

The two protected cells are at just below 3.9 Volts and the unprotected are at 3.7 Volts when open circuited ... Unfortunately the charger only works for a few minutes at 0.38 Amps then switches the charging current off ... The reason that the protected cells are at a higher voltage is that I tried to charge them several times whilst monitoring the voltages and charging currents.

I will have to write off the faulty Ultrafire WF-137 charger as it wouldn't be worth the postage to send it back to Hong Kong from the UK.

I am now looking for a good charger but there don't seem to be any on sale in the UK from what I can see on the internet ... I didn't really want to spend a huge ammount of money on the Plia IBC as that would be about the same as my total flashlight spend up to now ... I do need a charger that would take the cells up close to the 4.2 Volt maximum without exceeding it and the Pila is the only one that I can see ... I know it gets rave reviews but it would be a bit of a struggle to justify that outlay ... Equally well, I don't want to waste money on another cheap charger.

Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

Many Thanks.
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[SilverFox]

Hello March.brown,

I am not sure I am the person to ask about that...

I go for value. I use a Schulze charger. While it is more expensive, the value comes from its ability to charge most battery chemistries, and do it very well. To me, the piece of mind while using it, and since it charges all the types of rechargeable batteries that I use, I only need one charger, and that is more valuable than the fact that it costs more than some of the other chargers.

With that said, I also have a Pila IBC charger, and highly recommend it for Li-Ion cells.

Tom

 

[march.brown]

Hello March.brown,

I am not sure I am the person to ask about that...

I go for value. I use a Schulze charger. While it is more expensive, the value comes from its ability to charge most battery chemistries, and do it very well. To me, the piece of mind while using it, and since it charges all the types of rechargeable batteries that I use, I only need one charger, and that is more valuable than the fact that it costs more than some of the other chargers.

With that said, I also have a Pila IBC charger, and highly recommend it for Li-Ion cells.

Tom

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Thanks for the quick reply Tom.

I have been looking for a Pila, but the price is nearly £50 in the UK and the one supplier that I found has none in stock.

We have to pay duty on any item that we import over £18 ... It can be between 30% and 50% extra plus VAT (tax) of 17.5% plus we have to pay the Post Office about £5 extra for collecting the money for the Inland Revenue ... This can double the price of an import quite easily.

We are allowed to receive bona-fide gifts to the value of £36 ... Above that, we pay the taxes.

So, it is not easy to get hold of these items at a sensible price.

I just had delivery of a Solarforce L2 and now need to quickly get another charger sorted out for 18650s ... There are several makes available from the Far East such as another (hopefully working) Ultrafire and similar sounding names ... There are also Soshine chargers available.

I just wish that there were a few dealers in the UK with a good selection of 18650 chargers, but I can't seem to find any.
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[Niconical]

Try this page

 

[digitor]

We have to pay duty on any item that we import over £18 ... It can be between 30% and 50% extra plus VAT (tax) of 17.5% plus we have to pay the Post Office about £5 extra for collecting the money for the Inland Revenue ... This can double the price of an import quite easily.

Ouch!

Why don't you give a WF139 from DX a go - only US$12.30 including delivery - not the best charger in the world, but seems to function OK. I bought one a while ago out of curiosity (along with a couple of other even cheaper DX chargers - I'll be using them as battery holders) I tried it on a few different cells and it didn't cause any fires!

I've got a couple of hobby chargers I normally use for my 18650 cells, so the WF139 is not in regular use, although it is for many people without too many issues.

Cheers

 

[march.brown]

I'm thinking of trying a Soshine S188 or 5188 (depending which advert you read) on Ebay ... It has four battery positions ... Two short and two long to cope with all 3.7V cells ... The longer cells are charged at a higher rate than the shorter (123 etc) size cells.

It seems to get good reviews for about £11-58 including postage from the usual Hong Kong region.

Only snag is, the time taken to deliver to the UK ... I will have to be careful not to use the !8650s too much, though the Ultrafire (grey protected) are about 60% full after trying several times to charge with the faulty Ultrafire WF-137 ... I charged several times (for a few minutes) at 0.38 Amps before the charger cut out ... I got fed up of removing the mains lead and refitting it every few minutes ... Still, it did put a bit more charge into the cells.

So, I will now order the Soshine and hope that this will arrive reasonably quickly.

Luckily three of my torches will work OK (with three AAAs in a cassette) till the new 18650 charger arrives.
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[march.brown]

Well, I have in fact now ordered the Soshine Charger at £11-58 including postage from the Far East ... So it is now just a matter of waiting for the charger to pop through the letter-box.

I also bought a Digital Multi Meter today from "Maplins" for about £7 and it seems to work very well for a cheapie ... I've always got the Avo Model 8 to fall back on if necessary ... The DVM (or DMM) is small enough to fit easily in the desk drawer whereas the Avo is almost like a suitcase by comparison.

I contacted the company that sold me the Ultrafire WF-137 and explained the problem ... Straight away they offered my two choices ... If I sent them $3 they would send another, or I could have a $5 refund instead ... Since the original price was only $8-99 including postage, and since I didn't trust the WF-137, I chose the $5 refund ... They didn't even ask me to send the faulty one back ... They are ipodaccessories09 on Ebay in case anyone needs to know ... Certainly their customer relations is first class.

I think that I have now got enough torches except perhaps for another single AA (3 or 5 mode) ... It would be a Nkoray K-106 or similar ... The price is right too.

I will let you know what the Soshine Charger is like when I eventually get it.

I just hope that it works.

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[Zeva]

you can get cheap DMMs from DX i bought one that includes temperature for like $21 or something like that ill post again when i receive it if youre itnrested?

 

[march.brown]

you can get cheap DMMs from DX i bought one that includes temperature for like $21 or something like that ill post again when i receive it if youre itnrested?

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Got the one from Maplins today for under £7, though it doesn't have temperature on it ... So that will be OK for measurements on 18650 batteries ... Still got my Avo Model 8 as a back-up ... We had to go to a shop next door to Maplins so I diverted there whilst she went to the original planned visit ... I think my meter works out about less than $11 ... Good value though ... I don't know how they can make them and sell them for that price ... All I need now is for my new charger to arrive from the Far East, so I can get some use from the meter.
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[digitor]

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All I need now is for my new charger to arrive from the Far East,

It's not so far now we have air transport - I often get deliveries from Hong Kong in a few days. With at least twice daily flights between HK and Heathrow, I'm sure you'd be in a similar position!

Cheers