intellicharger i4 problem?

Hey guys
after you all recommended me a pair of flashlights which i am absolutely over the moon with - exceptional performance (THANK YOU! )

i've gone all-out and bought myself a box of genuine surefire CR123A batteries and an intellicharger I4 as i wanted best performance for my lamps

however i've come across a strange "bug"
i find the intellicharger has taken a disliking to some random batteries, say the indicators are as such
1=1 light
2=2 lights
3 = charged

the flash pattern will show 1 1 1 1 1 1.....2 2 2 2 2... then at random, 1 1 1 1 1 1.... 2 2 2 2 2 < -- never reaches 3
now taking them out and putting them back in again results in returning to 1 flashing - soon turning to 2 again
thinking it was a connection issue - i've gently bent the tabs forward a few degrees to really make sure the batteries are in there good and snug - this seemed to help the issue a bit, however they seem to just be flashing at 2 2 2 2 2, i've actually fully charged several batteries while a dodgy one is just sat at 2, i removed them after i felt they were becoming significantly hotter than the other batteries which reach full charge

i set to and started changing channels with a single dodgy battery - after a while, hey presto it showed 3 lights stable - full charge

i'm not sure what that's all about - can anyone shed some light?
Are surefire CR123A subceptible to dodgy cells or is it the charger? or am i being impatient or something



just put 3 on charge, the 2 bar on far right is a known "dodgy cell", the three 1bars are showing 33c(93f) and the 2 bar (dodgy) is showing 54c (130f) - all on charge for the same ammount of time (about 15 minutes)

Thankyou all in advance

edit: 20 minutes later the dodgy cell reached 60c (140f) at which point i disconnected it, only charging the 3 good ones now :s
in spite of removing bay 4 battery very carefully, being careful not to move the unit at all, the battery in bay 2 stopped flashing (0 lights on) for a few seconds then resumed flashing 1

I dont have any surefire cells but i thought they where lifepo4 3.2volt? If thats the case u need a different charger, what v are they?

Is this a joke? Are you actually trying to charge primaries (non-rechargeable batteries)? If so...STOP IMMEDIATELY. Remove all attempted charged cells out of your house (before you burn it down) and put them in a place where, if they combust or explode (a very real possibility), they will do so in a safe place.

Aside from the fact you have probably destroyed (by attempted charging) all previously good primary CR123a batteries you may have harmed your charger as well! Don't do this...very dangerous!!!

Only charge RCR123/16340 batteries (as well as other size Li-ion and NiMh cells in your new charger) as these are all it was designed for.

I felt chills down my spine when I read your post; you appear to be talking about charging regular CR123A primaries. As cyclesport has already told you, you need to stop! You are risking serious personal injury or death.

Oh boy. :thinking:.......:wow::huh2:

RI Chevy said:

Oh boy. :thinking:.......:wow::huh2:

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My reaction exactly when I saw that picture. Wow. I'm speechless.

I sincerely hope that OP was able to read these responses before something catastrophic occurred.

Oh mercy! you are about to Shed your own lights out with that set up.

STOP What you are doing! WOW.

I had to do a triple take when I saw that pic. WOW.

JimTokle said:

I sincerely hope that OP was able to read these responses before something catastrophic occurred.

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I'm actually starting to worry, I hope he's not in the burn ward or something. It will be a relief if he replies to let us know he is alive and well.

Stream said:

I'm actually starting to worry, I hope he's not in the burn ward or something. It will be a relief if he replies to let us know he is alive and well.

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I'm actually pretty worried as well. It sent chills down my spine reading his post and then his edit about how warm the batteries were getting. I hope that, if this isn't a troll post, he was able to read this in time. That kind of thing is really nothing to joke about.

JimTokle said:

I'm actually pretty worried as well. It sent chills down my spine reading his post and then his edit about how warm the batteries were getting. I hope that, if this isn't a troll post, he was able to read this in time. That kind of thing is really nothing to joke about.

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I don't think he's a troll, I looked at his profile and he has one other thread where he got advice on which light to buy. He ended up buying two lights (Thrunite TN11s and TN12), and he seemed genuinely excited. He also mentioned in that thread that he bought a pack of Surefire cells and a Nitecore charger, but he never mentioned he was going to try to charge the Surefire cells in it. He talked about an old 18650 battery he had laying around, and I'm sure everyone assumed that was what he would use the charger for.

This poor guy was all excited about having "gone all-out" and bought himself a box of "genuine surefire CR123A batteries and an intellicharger I4" and was never heard from again . Makes me wonder if we should start being much clearer about what does and what doesn't go in a charger.

One needs to know about li-ions and chargers and the only way to 'know' is to read and understand what this stuff is. OP has a lack of understanding and this can present major problems.

OP, you need to go over to Batteries and Electronics and read up there.

Stop charging ANY cell/battery until you know what's what.

Chris

Stream said:

I don't think he's a troll, I looked at his profile and he has one other thread where he got advice on which light to buy. He ended up buying two lights (Thrunite TN11s and TN12), and he seemed genuinely excited. He also mentioned in that thread that he bought a pack of Surefire cells and a Nitecore charger, but he never mentioned he was going to try to charge the Surefire cells in it. He talked about an old 18650 battery he had laying around, and I'm sure everyone assumed that was what he would use the charger for.

This poor guy was all excited about having "gone all-out" and bought himself a box of "genuine surefire CR123A batteries and an intellicharger I4" and was never heard from again . Makes me wonder if we should start being much clearer about what does and what doesn't go in a charger.

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I'm really hoping that we hear back from him soon.

I'm also curious where his research failed him along the way. He did enough to pick good lights, a good charger, and good primary batteries... but he missed something along the way. No one deserves or expects to get hurt over something like this. While safe if used properly, the consequences of a simple mistake like this can be huge. So much so that I'll probably continue to worry until we hear back from him.

Yes, I feel like we may have let him down. Hopefully he is fine and is just enjoying dinner with his family.

Oh boy!
I hope no fire or explosion on his side. Fingers crossed all are well

The really scary part is how hot the batteries got according to his edit. It makes it a very real possibility that something could have happened, so I will continue to worry as well until we hear back from him. I'm also curious how he could have missed that these batteries are not rechargeable. At this point I'm starting to feel that we should shout in all caps DO NOT RECHARGE!! whenever primary cells are discussed.

I'm guessing by his vernacular he's in the UK...if so, it's approx 4am there as of this posting. If I'm correct, he probably won't see any of this for a few more hours at least.

You are right, so he could either be in bed or in the hospital. I really hope it's not the latter!

Hey OP, do hope your doing fine out there and nothing happened to you after charging those primaries! Lets keep this thread up always until he reads and responds.

Hope OP has good home insurance. :shakehead

On top of the act he has committed is basically a surefire way to make those into little bombs that charger will be trying to charge to 4.2v not 3.0v like those disposeable one time use expensive batterys.

I don't know which is scarier the fact he is trying to recharge them or that it sounds like he has been doing so for a while now and has thus far been really lucky.