Those 15 minute chargers are cell killers - they are throwing 8 amps through a poor cell.
But if you are lucky, it won't charge a lithium cell. If you are very unlucky it will, shortly followed by an explosion and fire. I suspect it'll reject a lithium cell but I'm not about to try it.
14500s charge up to 4.2V so are not going to be charged in a charger intended to charge to 1.4V. The C3SS gets very, very hot on high with a 14500. If you can hold it for 5 minutes on high you are either wearing gloves or have extremely heat-resistant hands. Or have a higher pain threshold than I do.
My one does about 130 lumens on an NiMH, and 250 on a 14500.
I don't seem to have numbers from the Sipik on a 14500.
Don't use 14500s in anything not designed for the higher voltage (3x as much as a freshly charged NiMH). You will kill the device.
Don't even use 14500 when DX (or other sellers) says "Battery Configurations: 1 x AA/1 x 14500 Ii-on battery". Always check comment before or you can kill your flashlight (one example is akoray K-106..) The C3SS works with AA and 14500 but with 14500 is almost impossible to handle without gloves!
Thanks for all the good info. I found 4-14500's 900ma w/universal charger on E-Bay for $11.99 W/free shipping. I am going to use the charger for my AA's and ditch the 15 min charger.
First of all buying batteries or chargers on ebay is a bad idea
Absolutely the worst place to buy important things like chargers or batteries ..Too many fakes , too much junk ,
that'ts a really good question ..Are you thinking about charging nimh with a lithium ion charger ??
And those 3 words are pure death anyway .. 15 minute charger ?? huh ?? on what planet is this ?? if a nimh charger doesn't take like 4 hours you can almost always trust it's junk.
I have a similar charger I use for my 18650's with no problems (also e-bay). Guess I got lucky with my 15 min charger I have not had to buy any batteries for my camera for the last 3 years.
Anyway, I know some of these questions seem dumb to some of you. I would rather ask it here rather than ask someone in china named Joe.
The charger will also charge my 18650's so that's bonus.
I guess another greenhorn question would be Universill means so onley for Li-ion batterys?
If the batteries are fakes I wonder if they will work in my fake Sipik flashlight?
For lithium-ion batteries you need a specific charger that can only charge that type of batterie because the voltage is much higher than that of Nimh-batteries.
Do not use the wrong charger, it can be dangerous.
I use a Ultrafire WF-139 for 14500 and 18650's, and a Maha Powerex MH-C9000 for AA and AAA.
Every type of battery needs the correct charger, for the 12V battery of your car, you also have to use the right charger...
Dave, don't worry about asking "dumb" questions. Like Don says, the dumb question is the one that never gets asked. It's worthwhile to be as informed as possible when dealing with Li-ion batteries especially.
The charger on the eBay link provided seems to indicate that in fact charge both NiMH and Li-ion. It has 2 different outputs. I wonder how it knows which battery type it's charging. If it ever makes a mistake...
Slightly off topic but I just stopped the wife putting 2 14500's in a tv remote. The batteries were dead so she thought she would change them and saw what she thought were aa batteries lying around. I wonder what would have happened?
The charger and batterys should show up any day or week now (china) I will let you guys know how they work out.
If on the news you see any clips of a house fire due to battery explosion in Michigan. That might cause a delay in me getting back to everyone on how they perform.
Hey all! i have been reading here quite a while and just registered and i saw this post had no ending (or did it LOL?) What happened Dave? Did the stuff work out? I just gotta know!!! BTW, My name is Keith and I am glad to be here. Let me know if i have broken any protocol with my first post.