Hello,
I got several battery packs from work and recovered NCR18650PF cells from them. I am using LittoKala 500 charger. Many of them charge up to 4.16V but many stop at 3.6-3.7V.
Should I discard the ones that are only charging up to 3.7V? From reading some of the threads, I think the answer is yes but wanted to confirm.
Thx
They’re supposed to be charged to 4.2V. Although there’s always a slight drop when the charger finishes charging, it should only be hundredths of a volt.
4.16V is a reasonable result, but recycle the 3.6V - 3.7V cells.
Note: you should always monitor the behaviour of Li-Ion cells. I normally check the voltage just before and just after charging, and I keep an eye on the charging time to make sure it’s reasonably sensible.
Salvaged cells with an unknown history should be monitored extra-carefully for at least the first few cycles. Keep checking those 4.16V cells, just in case they start to misbehave after a while.
For the technically-minded, there’s a summary datasheet: