Charge new li-ion to 4.2V?

For new li-ion batteries, Liion Wholesale recommends to “Charge fully (to 4.2V) before first use” (listed in tips section on battery product pages)… anyone know why this is beneficial? Thanks!!!

Wouldn’t you fill up the tank in a new car?

Resting voltage of li-ion is 4.2v. So charging to 4.2v is fully charged.

Are you getting mixed up that batteries often say 3.6 or 3.7v on them? This is their nominal voltage under load.

They ship only partially charged in order to maximize shelf-life and comply with rules to minimize risk in case they get air shipped.

So the advice is to charge them up before use.

I remember reading an article regarding legal requirement of shipping Li-ion batteries - they should be at 40% charge level.

In practice, the best voltage level for storage is 50% ~ 3.7V.

Batteries I’ve received tend to be various states of charge from 3.5V to 3.7V.

If I intend on using the battery within the next week I fully charge to 4.2V otherwise I put all new batteries onto charge up to 3.7V, check the internal resistance then pop them into a battery storage container until I think I will be needing them. Then they are onto the charger to 4.2V.

There is no advantage of charging initially to 4.2v rather than 4.0v other than longer run time. I do not charge above 4.0v the first time and for subsequent charges to increase battery life. The value of this is arguable, but I want my batteries to last. If you cannot change batteries often, charge to max. But do not store batteries at high voltages because it will reduce their life.
The point is that you do not have to charge all the way to 4.2v initially.

I agree with partial charges, and storage level charging, but the same recommendation for a full, or even a few, full charges when brand new seems to be a common recommendation.
It would be excellent to have some corroboration from a manufacturer level expert, rather than a marketing recommendation.

Minimally, I always do a full charge, then a capacity discharge, to make sure the battery I’m getting is not a dud/fake/old or have a problem.
Once seen as OK, I then charge it to suit my purposes.

I just returned 4x HuaHui Li-on/1.5v/AA batteries for not even hitting 80% of claimed capacity when brand new, nor holding 1.5v even under a modest load (0.5A). Cycling a few times did bump capacity up a tad, but not a meaningful amount.

I think the recommendation is there to deal with uninformed people who will use the battery as it comes and then immediately complain about poor runtime.

[quote=flydiver]
I agree with partial charges, and storage level charging, but the same recommendation for a full, or even a few, full charges when brand new seems to be a common recommendation.

I hadn’t seen that recommendation before (fully charge when brand new), only for partial charges & storage level charging to maximize battery life… thank you!

[quote=flydiver]
It would be excellent to have some corroboration from a manufacturer level expert, rather than a marketing recommendation.

+1

Thank you very very much everyone for sharing your very helpful info!

I think worrying about making lithium ion last the maximum amount of years is very questionable as to whether it has any value at all .

IMHO the technology is moving so fast on batteries that by the time you see the last 40 charges you gain by babying a cell it is already a stone age battery ..like eeeking another 30 cycles out of a 1600mah lithium cobalt .Gone are the days of nursing cells . Just don't over discharge them .

I agree. Just be safe with the batteries. But don’t worry otherwise.

Sure, whatever is your style. But I have found some lights that really do what I need. The future lights might be better, still the old ones are good enough. So when the old batteries are no longer produced and you toss your spent batteries and lights into the landfill, mine will hopefully keep going for a while. Less than 5% of batteries are actually recycled today. So some minimal care might reduce the toxins in the water supply of the country we ship spent batteries to, like Mexico. And with time, recycling should increase with better technologies.
However, I plan to pick up some new lights…. a LT1 mini, etc. But hope to make those last too. Do not mean to be preaching here, just explaining my approach. Everyone is free to do their own thing.

I still use my ancient laptop pulls in low-stress lights, but also try to take care of my 30Qs and whatnot, too. Point being, even though I don’t have as many cells as some people here, I do have enough to probably last most of my lights for their useful lives.

And even if capacity drops, it’s usually not an issue with me. Just mentioned those 1.5V Li cells with converter, that for what I’m using them (remotes, etc.) even if they have only half their rated capacity, it’s still months or more before I’d have to recharge them.

My only concern would be higher internal resistance for high-strung lights that could cause cell overheating at higher currents. For those lights I’ll use primo cells.