I had that problem with a charger, the batteries would rest 4.14-4.17 after being pulled off, I bought a liitokala charger and love it, they usually rest 4.19-4.2v I wish it would overcharge them so I could get 4.23-4.25 like the cheap ones do. somebody else might care about manufacturers specs but to me in everything I do they're more like guidelines saying don't overdo it too much more. They always recommend the maximum safe working load limit, but really you can go above and beyond what they recommend 99% of the time.
If you look at a discharge test I did in the link below, the resting voltage when the tests were done was 4.14/4.15V, yet the cells got just a wee bit more than its stated capacity. In other words, I personally would not worry about not attaining the proverbial 4.20V at all.
You cant beat the deal + it has “a” internal resistance measure, Theycall it mR not iR but it will still give you a reference number that you can use to compare cells with.
Over 5000 posts, Bort you should be the charger master. I’ll bet you could write the Book Of Chargers. There was some other guy who also had a lot of posts and he was looking for a single 18650 flashlight. Really? If people are having difficulties finding flashlights and chargers in a very active flashlight forum, they’re doing it wrong. My ¢2.
The only thing that happen, as far as i know is you lose half the rated cycles.
I like to charge my batteries to 4.25v sometimes, it makes them SO much stronger the first 10 or so seconds in a DD build.
I just wish i could find a charger that would do it reliably & a bit quicker, now i use a bugged miller v7 to do it, but it takes 6 hours to get from 4.20 to 4.25v.
This charger charges at 20mA from 4.20 to 4.25v, and the battery usually rest at 4.23v. The problem is the crappy miller charger doesn’t stop there so if you don’t check it often, it will just continue to charge forever.
Out of all of my chargers the only one to give me a battery fully charged exactly at 4.20V is the miller 102 V7.1, many times I’ve left an unprotected battery charge overnight by accident but it does not go past 4.21V. Both of my V7.1 sends tricke charge at 4.215V. I stopped using them when a old NCR-A got really hot towards the end of the charge, and the led was red still.
If your cells are not in their optimal health it is dangerous to push them to 4.2V. My older batteries terminate at ~4.15V in my VP2, I have no problem with that.
Yes of course it is dangerous to charge a cell to 4.25v if they are not of optimal health, BUT i would say the same thing about charging a bad cell to 4.20v also.
And i don’t use bad cells, only high quality IMR or INR’s, from good quality manufacturers like Samsung, LG & Panasonic, otherwise you are just asking for trouble if you want to push the envelope
Yeah that do sounds like a good idea, but they are expensive though.
What is the termination current on the iCharger? Because as HKJ’s testing showed, if it is to high, the voltage will just drop a lot as soon as it has stopped charging.