Any recommendations for a good 4 slot 18650 battery charger?
- Thread starter Md_Hybrid
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RustyOldNail
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Below is link for a MOOCH REVIEW of the Molicel P28A 18650 lithium battery.
EXCERPT: “The 2021-dated P28A is one of the best all-around 18650’s you can buy and is a great choice for almost any use from 5A-25A.”
I only have one and I’m running my own tests, but as I explained in a post above, I don’t have the equipment for heat testing the AMPERAGE LIMITS, but I TRUST THE MOOCH!
www.e-cigarette-forum.com
EXCERPT: “The 2021-dated P28A is one of the best all-around 18650’s you can buy and is a great choice for almost any use from 5A-25A.”
I only have one and I’m running my own tests, but as I explained in a post above, I don’t have the equipment for heat testing the AMPERAGE LIMITS, but I TRUST THE MOOCH!
Bench Test Results: Molicel P28A (2021-dated) - 35A 2800mAh 18650
These tests below only note my personal ESTIMATED ratings for the batteries I tested at the time I tested them. Any battery that is not a genuine Samsung, Sony, Murata, LG, Panasonic, Molicel, or Sanyo can change at any time! This is one of the...
www.e-cigarette-forum.com
Md_Hybrid
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I ran 3 P26A's through the grading mode last night and this was the result.Below is link for a MOOCH REVIEW of the Molicel P28A 18650 lithium battery.
EXCERPT: “The 2021-dated P28A is one of the best all-around 18650’s you can buy and is a great choice for almost any use from 5A-25A.”
I only have one and I’m running my own tests, but as I explained in a post above, I don’t have the equipment for heat testing the AMPERAGE LIMITS, but I TRUST THE MOOCH!
Bench Test Results: Molicel P28A (2021-dated) - 35A 2800mAh 18650
These tests below only note my personal ESTIMATED ratings for the batteries I tested at the time I tested them. Any battery that is not a genuine Samsung, Sony, Murata, LG, Panasonic, Molicel, or Sanyo can change at any time! This is one of the...
They all charged within 1% of the rated mAh, I'm guessing that's good?
Edit: I just checked Mooch's tests on these and they tested over 2600mAH, so I guess these aren't THAT good
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RustyOldNail
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I ran 3 P26A's through the grading mode last night and this was the result.
They all charged within 1% of the rated mAh, I'm guessing that's good?
Edit: I just checked Mooch's tests on these and they tested over 2600mAH, so I guess these aren't THAT good
Bench Test Results: Molicel P26A (2021-dated) - 35A 2600mAh 18650
These tests below only note my personal ESTIMATED ratings for the batteries I tested at the time I tested them. Any battery that is not a genuine Samsung, Sony, Murata, LG, Panasonic, Molicel, or Sanyo can change at any time! This is one of the...
www.e-cigarette-forum.com
Your results seem fine for your equipment. I’m not sure what CHARGE & DISCHARGE parameters your charger is using in your tests.
If you can’t manually set the CUT-OFF voltage to 2.5 volts, you’ll always be missing some mAh’s. There are a few other manual settings that more expensive charger/analyzers have as well, like “termination”, “discharge reduce”, etc.
As long as you use the same parameters each time you run your tests, you can compare to these first tests you logged. Also LOG the DC RESISTANCE, that’s one of the main ways to see battery health.
Md_Hybrid
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Thanks for all of your helpBench Test Results: Molicel P26A (2021-dated) - 35A 2600mAh 18650
These tests below only note my personal ESTIMATED ratings for the batteries I tested at the time I tested them. Any battery that is not a genuine Samsung, Sony, Murata, LG, Panasonic, Molicel, or Sanyo can change at any time! This is one of the...
Your results seem fine for your equipment. I’m not sure what CHARGE & DISCHARGE parameters your charger is using in your tests.
If you can’t manually set the CUT-OFF voltage to 2.5 volts, you’ll always be missing some mAh’s. There are a few other manual settings that more expensive charger/analyzers have as well, like “termination”, “discharge reduce”, etc.
As long as you use the same parameters each time you run your tests, you can compare to these first tests you logged. Also LOG the DC RESISTANCE, that’s one of the main ways to see battery health.
I just checked the IR and they seemed to vary quite a bit. I checked them 3 times and #1 varied from 5-10, # 2 from 13-19, and #3 from 6-9. It was charging though when all of these reading were being taken. I graded them last night so they should have had a full charge but they still started charging when I put them in. Should I let them continue charging to top them off and then see what the readings are?Edit: I checked and there is no way to set the cut-off voltage so it sounds like the mAh's are probably good.
Edit 2: I'm not really sure what happened but those 3 batteries were not charged correctly this morning. I don't know for sure but it seems like I may have selected storage mode by mistake after the grading was done. I'm going to recharge everything and go from there.
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RustyOldNail
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Thanks for all of your help
Edit: I checked and there is no way to set the cut-off voltage so it sounds like the mAh's are probably good.
DC IR readings are taken when the batteries are COOL, log the IR when you first put them in the charger. You can always check them a few hours later if you already charged them. On my charger, I can test IR, without starting a charge cycle. The DC IR on inexpensive chargers is not all that accurate, even on my charger. The problem with any multi-bay chargers are all the connections to the sliding rails. I clean both ends of the batteries and contact points on the sliders with 99% ISO, BEFORE taking IR readings. I rotate the battery a bunch of times when in the slot slider, and continue to check the reading, until it doesn’t go much lower. That’s the best you can do with these types of chargers.
No reason to take readings and topping off. Voltage will sag a bit on every battery as soon as it’s done charging, that’s why they will begin charging again based on the algorithm the charger is using or settings one may have entered.
In the end, batteries are a fairly inexpensive CONSUMABLE, lithiums depending on size, brand, etc., have a 300-500 charge cycle.
So try and enjoy them, and avoid going too deep into the rabbit hole.
GoldenBud
Well-Known Member
the VC4SL is great, thanks @RustyOldNail the springs are so fresh, my old LiitoKala springs are barely move, to the trash
CleanHippie
Well-Known Member
Is there a way for the XTAR VC4SL to show you the current capacity left in the battery as you put it on the charger?
All I could find out is when you put it on the charger then it starts at 0 mAh and will stop when its done, but no way to see that its at for example 623mAh left when you first put it on the charger.
All I could find out is when you put it on the charger then it starts at 0 mAh and will stop when its done, but no way to see that its at for example 623mAh left when you first put it on the charger.
RustyOldNail
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Most chargers with the ability to measure milliamp hours, do so in both the charge and discharge programs, that’s when they begin to count, up or down. The most accurate rating you will get is to start with a fully charged battery, then run the discharge program, ideally down to 2.5 cutoff volts, if your charger can manually select when the discharge ends. Those milliamps at the end would be the actual total. Also use a slow discharge of .50 amp rate.
Most chargers give you a volt reading when you put a battery in a slot, and that can give you a clue to its state of discharge, but not it’s capacity.
CleanHippie
Well-Known Member
That somewhat answers my question, from my understanding you are describing more of an ability to see the health of the battery.
I want to know how many mAh are currently in the battery when I first put in on the charger. For example I use my TM2 until the light turns purple, I put it on the charger I want to know if thats 711 mAh left or 439 mAh. Just out of curiosity.
Don't buy batteries on Amazon. They are often counterfeit rewraps.
Just order from one of the trusted soruces:
18650batterystore.com
illumn.com
imrbatteries.com
liionwholesale.com
I would suggest sticking with the Molicel P28A, like the one you got with your TM.
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Yeah I’m usually like that with Amazon but it says it’s their official US site…. I’ll get some Milicel P28A thanks
Thanks again!
Edit I added the wall plug, yay all done…
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RustyOldNail
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Well then…. Short answer is NO.
When inserted in a charger, it shows the NO LOAD voltage.
Think of it this way, you bought a car, but don’t know how much the gas tank can hold. The only way to find out the capacity, would be to run the engine till you almost run out of gas. Then when you fill it up, you would know how many gallons the tanks CAPACITY is.
Without discharging a battery, and filling it, by recharging, the charger has no way to know the capacity at any given time. You can get a rough idea by the voltage reading.
CleanHippie
Well-Known Member
Thank you, makes sense.
If you get crazy enough about battery life, having many charged spares to rotate also helps if you don't vape until the unit turns itself off (dead battery) and you can just switch them when having used 25-50% of the rated capacity, if your vape has a battery meter or you count your sessions, and just doing that will extend the battery life cycles for a good amount.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll always just make sure to charge my TM2 when it starts blinking purple. I did do a full drain in case its needed for the tinymight to get the correct charge level, not sure if needed but S&B recommended this for the Mighty
RustyOldNail
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You could use an inline ON/OFF switch like this:
D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that
666Honeybadger
Unknown member
I've got a 4-slot nitecore charger for my molicels and i have a noob question 
When i insert the batteries for charging everything should go automatic so no setting the device is required. But... i noticed the charger takes the batteries standard to 2.000mA...
So does this mean he's only charging them partly? Am i missing out on power/run-time like this?
Should i up the mA manually to 2.600mA for the molicel p26a?
When i insert the batteries for charging everything should go automatic so no setting the device is required. But... i noticed the charger takes the batteries standard to 2.000mA...
So does this mean he's only charging them partly? Am i missing out on power/run-time like this?
Should i up the mA manually to 2.600mA for the molicel p26a?
GoldenBud
Well-Known Member
no. charge at 1000mAh if you want your batteries to last more, charge at 2000mAh if you need them quickly. 2600mAh doesn't matter here.. you don't have to charge them in 1 hour exactly