What should the voltage be for a rechargeable 18650 battery after its been charged ? ( its a Nitecore 2600 )
Any info would be appreciated.
My Nitecore 18650’s 2600mah voltage is 4.2-4.3 right after charging.
make sure your using a suitable charger, if you use one that terminates based on voltage only, charging to 4.2V won’t give you a fully charged battery, you need one with the correct li ion charging algorhithm
how long do you charge it?
is the battery protected against overcharge ?
All of mine (including some Nitecore) usually read 4.20 hot off the charger.
Depends on how much they are discharged. All charging done with an iMax B6 by the way. I have deep roots in the RC world so I have a few hobby grade chargers (Triton, MRC). If you don’t want to go the hobby charger route, a dedicated Li-ion charger is a must.
With 110 posts, you've been around for a while, but in case you haven't seen them, here are a couple of links:
For a good inexpensive charger that will look after your battery for you, try an ML-102. See review here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/10640
And for good advice on charging LiIon batteries, see here: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
Agreed about the Battery University. It’s a must read.
Fully charged should be 4.2v right off the charger with that cell. The voltage may fall slightly when measured at rest a hour or so later. Should measure around 4.19v to 4.17v for a health cell at rest. The cell doesn’t necessarily have to be charged to full capacity ever time its charged. The cell will last longer and perform better over time if its slightly under charged. Like most here, we buy new batteries so often cell life is not all that important. Reducing the % of charge can greatly increase cell life.
Here’s a chart for estimating capacity vs cell voltage when measured at rest.
Hope HKJ doesn’t mind me using his chart. :bigsmile:
Charging to only 4.15v measured at rest a hour or so after charging can increase cell life but you would be loosing maybe 4 to 5 % capacity (130mah loss). Might be worth it to you for better cell performance over time or you may want all the capacity you can get. It’s up to you, but 4.2v on that cell is considered full capacity.
Li-ion cells, as you are likely learning, are quite different than Ni-cad or NiMh. Go to youtube and search for "lithium ion battery explode" or something similar to get an idea what can happen when they are mistreated.
Here is another good post from Scaru: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/14267
You don't need to become an expert, but you owe it to yourself to learn the do's and don'ts for the care and feeding of li-ion cells, whether "protected" or not.
HKJ has lots of very good information and reviews of batteries and chargers (there are lots of dangerous ones on the market) on his website: http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK.html
Have fun, and be safe!
thanks 007 for that chart and info, thats a keeper.
The reason I started this thread was to find out if the new battery I just got was performing as good as it should and was looking for input from other users of the same battery. I dont trust any charging battery and I stare them all down when they are charging. Also thanks to other posters.
@moderator007,
as shown in the chart, the CGR18650 2250 mAH shows much remaining capacity below 3.6v, almost keep up it with PN 3400 mAH cell and definitely higher than the Sanyo. how to interpret the chart correctly? 