So I got my trustfire 14500 protected flames in today and tested their voltage (as I do when I get new batts). One cell was delivered to me with a charge of 3.86V and the other tested at 0.00V. Upon being curious to see if the protection circuit had possibly kicked in, I put it on the charger (i4) for 15 seconds while touching it the whole time to see if it would get warm/hot. I tested it again after this and it was already at 2.64V… that was fast! I thought it would be a good idea to hold the test leads of my DMM on the cell and like clockwork every second, the cell would lose 0.01V counting down all the way until it again reached 0.00V…
I submitted a claim through DX (hopefully I can get the one cell replaced), but as somewhat of a newbie I am curious as to how/why this happened? Or what causes new cells to go bad?
I put it back on the charger for a little bit longer (i4 for 30 seconds while holding it) it never got warm at all.
This time due to the longer charge duration, after testing the battery, it was at 2.81V. After this it only dropped by 0.01V once and then held steady at 2.8V. So I put it back on the charger (this time for 5 minutes) and instead of the lights blinking 1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,constant, it is still only blinking the first light as if it is a really empty cell and it is charging it like normal.
Now it is holding rock solid at 3.4V.
Is it safe to charge normally?
Was this because the protection circuit kicked in at low voltage? (this is what I am led to believe)
EDIT I charged it again for about 10 minutes and it is at 3.53V