Well this newbie charged all his cells

[dougndena]

So I decided to get back into better flashlights...
Years ago I had a TK10 i used with surefire CR123's, stupid me gifted it to a kind neighbor
I still have a AA ZEBRA lamp unknown model I still have him

But to subject at hand:
I bought some protected and unprotected 18650's from 18650batterystore
got 2 fenix protecteds and 4 more unprotecteds

Got a new Fenix 26R, a new Zebralight that takes 18650's and a Wurkkos fc11

Anyway, I charged em all on my Xtar VP4plus
( 4 of the unprotecteds I did on the Refresh cycle)
In all cases I tried to not exceed .7c but I think I used 2A setting)

i also charged 8 ea AA and AAA standard eneloops I think all of those art 1A
( I have a few cheapie lights that take the eneloops

What's my best course of action after I begin to use the cells in my small collection?
( I'm not really a hardcore flashlight USER per se. Primarily bought this for rv'ing and. Dog walking.
But I guess I should use em all to get them to how discharged for max usable life?
I do want to hv a few charged for power outages and such. I am anticipating buying
a latern or two for that purpose as well.

thx for any advice. I will take it and try to sin no more,

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

Eneloops are fine being stored at max charge, so charge them up whenever you want, and leave them fully-charged and ready-to-go.

Lithium-ion don't really like to be stored at fully charge (4.2v). They're fine like that for awhile, but if you plan to not use them for months, then a lower charge is best for their lifespan. I like to charge to 4.1v for most cells, which gives me 90% charge. If I know I'm going to use them on a long walk or bike ride within the next few days, I'll charge to 4.2v. Leaving your cells at full charge for a few weeks won't hurt them much. But if you charge to 4.1v instead, you might get up to double the number of cycles out of them (but at only 90% capacity).

If you don't plan to use them for months, then charge to 3.7v, which is about 50%, and store them that way.

 

[dougndena]

Thank you for the quick reply.
I am learning slowly but surely.
Great advice, I will make that happen!
Doug

 

[Burgess]

BTW --

I myself would charge
Eneloop AAA's at 500mA rate

< just sayin' >

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I say you have to balance convenience and preparedness and finances in your decision on how to treat the batteries.
Discharging them for storage and charging them less than full will most likely increase their lifetime but chances are if you are using them heavily unless you have a lot of spares you may cycle several through a device and keep extras charged in case an emergency sneaks up on you having extra batteries is worthless if they aren't charged and you suddenly have no power to easily charge them. I would say if you don't know how things are going to work out in usage then just use the batteries for awhile and see how many of them aren't needed and consider the advice of discharging and storage. It is nice to be able to swap in a fresh full battery quickly instead of waiting for a battery to be charged and if you are using a light heavily it may be more practical to have a second extra so you can cycle 3 batteries through the light while 1-2 of them are recharging at a lower current rate. If you find yourself going all day on a charge having 1 extra battery ready may be good enough. The eneloops don't mind being charged and left alone but if you do expect a possible need to use them you may want to check them every 6 months to a year and charge them. I have a dozen AA duraloops that I never use and I used to charge them about once every year and a half or so whenever I checked on them but last time I charged them was 5 years ago and I don't plan to charge them till I need them.

 

[dougndena]

Burgess, will assure I do AAA's at .5 not 1A, I should have caught that

Lynx Yes I agree. I am just regretting doing all the 18620's when I KNEW I would not be using the 3 lights I have THAT heavily short term. We do RV'ing so on trips they'll get more use! For now I need to use Some of these to to get some downto a good storage voltage I think I can use the xtar as well to monitor a discharge & check voltage. I AM now seeing why the experts lament the xtar not showing voltage on the display .... but I can discharge em down monitoring the % & then remove & ck voltage.

Great Advice It is much appreciated!

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Keep reading here on the forum there is a lot of people plenty smarter and more knowledgeable than me here that I've learned from. I'm still learning all the time about stuff. There is so much to know now that I doubt any one person can digest it all.
If you don't have a 12v or USB based charging solution I would suggest you look into getting one as they would be very handy in an RV especially when main power systems are out. I lived 5 days using 12 nimh AAs and a car charger. I recharged 32 cells on my charger in my car and didn't need to bother with my alkaleak stash.

 

[dougndena]

Good point. the main/only charger I have is the xtar which came with a 12v adapter. It will be packed on trips. And I have a meter ( the xtar has probes that tell resistance & volts as well... good charger in general
Yep it's a lot to digest. I have too many hobbies but I love lurking in several forums, be they gun,rv, green egging etc.
I'm going to learn more before I drop any more $$ so any new batteries will be well loved from the start.
You guys are great, thanks, Doug J

 

[Lynx_Arc]

If you have a 4 cell charger I would consider getting a second smaller charger even a 1 or 2 cell charger as some of them even have 5vdc inputs so you can use USB to power them. I'm not sure of your charger but my little one has a powerbank feature which could come in handy to charge my phone perhaps although I have they majorly covered by a bunch of regular power banks I picked up but having a way to charge devices IMO is a must these days if you are planning on emergency outages a smart phone even without cell service can be a very useful tool or great source of entertainment.