Charging 1A vs. 0.5A

So, since I own an Xtar WP2 II and an SP2 and they both allow for 0.5A and 1A charging (SP2 allows for 2A but that rate is too high even for most 26650s) I was wondering if there’s any benefits to charging at 0.5A and opposed to 1A. Obviously 1A will be faster but generally I charge my batteries when I go to be or when I go to work, so they are done before I will even be looking at them again. I know 0.5A will make them last longer i.e. more charge-discharge cycles but will it give more charge in the battery and will the battery last longer per use. I don’t really care about amount of charge-discharge cycles as at $12 a single cell that lasts 2 years is well worth the price and by then cells with much better capacity will be out anyway. Hopefully someone can answer this.

You will get slightly higher capacity (maybe 10 mah) from the .5 amp setting since the termination current is lower. (100 mah vs 130 mah on 1 amp)

I thought most 26650s recommend charging at 1C. 2amps is no where close to 1C for 26650 like the 4000mAh King Kong. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I’ve been charging my 4sevens 26650 4000 mAh At 2.0amps with my SP2 and they are doing just fine.

Just charge at 1A, not much your are gaining by using .5 amps. Like they said, most batteries you can charge at least 1C, meaning 1 multiplied by the capacity. So if you have a 3100mah 18650 you can charge at 3100mah. And even most of the time you can charge at 1.5C and up, just look up your batteries spec sheet.

Go as high as you can, just don’t do .5amps, it’s so slow. I have such a slow charger, hate it. Charges at 400mah, shared between two cells…
When I get the cells down to 3.5v it takes around 24 hours to charge two cells up on the charger. It’s ridiculous!

Yup, will be doing 1A or 2A depending on cells etc. I don’t have great 26650s, just the Keygos ones and some Hi-Max ones that claimed to have a Samsung Core even though it turns out Samsung doesn’t even make a 26650 cell.

Use 0.5A setting for 16340 and 14500.

Oh yea, I only have 14500 and I never considered using anything more.

LOL. Hi-max is seriously losing some trust nowadays with this chinese-samsung core claim, not just 26650 but even on the 18650s.

Yea, I think if I do buy anymore 26650s I will be getting King Kong, MNKE or the Keeppower from Kuma Bear.

Let’s look at this from other side…
Inside laptop batteries are used the same 18650 cells… typically six (3+3) with capacity 2400-2600mAh.
Laptop battery usually charges 2 - 3 hours… looking at charging time can come to conclusion that one cell (18650) will charging with 1A or more power…
I think that the laptop manufacturers knows what they do, so we can no worry that 1A is too much for 18650 cells…

Except that the cheap chinese 18650 batteries do not have the quality and capacity of the average laptop battery. But 1A should still just be fine I suppose.

For over three years I have charged 18650’s at one amp … Also , AA Eneloops have always been charged with no problems at one amp.

I can see no advantage in charging 18650 Li-Ions at less than one amp … All my chargers are fixed at one amp … Eventually I might go up to 1.5A or even 2A on Li-Ions , but the time taken to charge my batteries is not important to me which is why I am happy with one amp (at the moment) with my Panasonic 3100mAh cells … If Li-Ion 18650 batteries eventually get up to 4000mAh , then I would definitely increase the charge rate to 0.5C which would then be two amps.
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Regarding charging the cells at 1C: aren’t the Panasonic 2900-3400 cells supposed to be charged at a max current of 800mA? 1A shouldn’t be any problem but 2900mA, isn’t that pushing it a bit?
What would the negative effects be of charging the cells at 1C?

Fun fact: I have some pink UltraFire 2600 which are about 3 years and still hold their charge quite fine and can deliver about 2200mAh at 1A. I’ve charged them at 1C on many, many occasions. No apparent ill effects there…