# Good 18650 Charger



## Dictatorsaurus (Sep 11, 2009)

I have this UltraFire charger for DX and I'm not impressed.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire-3-6-3-7v-battery-charger-1251

Whats a good 18650 charger where you can also charge batteries individually?


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## ryball (May 14, 2007)

Pila IBC charger.


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## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

Would you tell us what is wrong with it? I use 2 of these for the past couple years with no problems yet. What problems should a person look out for?


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## Jim311 (Feb 7, 2006)

What's wrong with it? I've a similar one and it works fine, although it takes several hours to charge the cells, and if I were running a pack with 4 cells or more I'd want something that would charge them all at the same time.


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## savagemann (Jan 14, 2008)

For charging my individual cells, I picked up a hobby charger,
http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html
couple different cell holders from digikey,
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=393250&k=18650
and some balance cables from all battery,
http://www.all-battery.com/jst-xhv25pinadaptersforany4cellpack.aspx
and
http://www.all-battery.com/jst-xhv24pinadaptersforany3cellpack.aspx

and made charging cradles to charge 3 or 4 cells at a time, by balance charging.
It's pretty easy, and with the hobby charger you can customize the rate at which the cells are charged.
I haven't even touched my DX chargers since I made this setup.
Maybe this belongs in the DIY section...... = )


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## Dictatorsaurus (Sep 11, 2009)

Jim311 said:


> What's wrong with it? I've a similar one and it works fine, although it takes several hours to charge the cells, and if I were running a pack with 4 cells or more I'd want something that would charge them all at the same time.


It takes way to long to charge and the 18650 battery fit is too tight. It will eventually damage the + battery terminals if I keep jamming them in there.

I pulled out the dremel and shaved some plastic from the - end of the charger. Ever since it hasn't been working right and makes hissing noise.

The IBC charger seems decent but have read some not very good reviews and not sure I like their pricing.


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## rearviewmirror (Jun 14, 2006)

I am building my own to charge 18650 cells in my flashlight. I don't trust the cheap chargers. I'll use a Hyperion EOS 610i Duo to do the actual charging. RC car chargers are the highest quality and have many failsafes on them, not foolproof, but failsafe. 

DIY I am using is here. http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/better-charging-your-18650s-56794.html


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## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

Dictatorsaurus said:


> It takes way to long to charge and the 18650 battery fit is too tight. It will eventually damage the + battery terminals if I keep jamming them in there.


Thanks. I am using unprotected cells and they fit nicely, I've heard they are a bit shorter than protected ones. Charge time is long but of no matter for me as I am not getting out so often that I would be waiting on the charger.


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

Dictatorsaurus said:


> It takes way to long to charge and the 18650 battery fit is too tight. It will eventually damage the + battery terminals if I keep jamming them in there.
> 
> I pulled out the dremel and shaved some plastic from the - end of the charger. Ever since it hasn't been working right and makes hissing noise.
> 
> The IBC charger seems decent but have read some not very good reviews and not sure I like their pricing.


Yes, I have the same charger. As far as "charge time" goes I never had a problem. *However I do have have the same complaint that the charging bays are too small and can damage the button top (+) on the cells. * As a charger though it works fine. Because no one wants their cells damaged I have since stopped recommending it. I haven't bought one yet but with my next order I will likely order a couple of these ( link ). It looks to have two leds ( one for each bay ). That should indicate that each bay has it's own circuit. Reviews look decent.

With the WF-139 charger you can try feeding positive part of the battery in first but this is still very, very hard to do. I have had two of the button tops on my red Ultrafire cells go off center. I found I could re-center by using a small screw driver but still... and yes the cells still work but Sheeeesh...an A-one total PITA.

Now as finding a faster Li-ion charger...uhh...that might not be a good idea. 500ma is usually the standard per cell although I suppose you could go to 750ma as max. In the long run though slower is better for the cells.


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## savagemann (Jan 14, 2008)

Cat-Man-Do, the charger that you linked to, sku 6105 is the one that I have.
It works good. Even with protected cells.
Takes a long time to charge, as most do.
Each bay is on it's own circuit, so you can charge 1 or 2 cells at a time. Pretty handy.
I still prefer to charge with my RC charger though.


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## betweenrides (Oct 19, 2010)

Cat-man-do, the charger you linked to is very similar to the one that came with my Baja Designs flashlight. I found the exact match on DX (except mine has U.S. Plug) here. Per the instructions, you can charge cells separately or together. I thought 5+ hours charge time was a bit inconvenient, good to hear there is a valid reason for it.


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

betweenrides said:


> Cat-man-do, the charger you linked to is very similar to the one that came with my Baja Designs flashlight. I found the exact match on DX (except mine has U.S. Plug) here. Per the instructions, you can charge cells separately or together. I thought 5+ hours charge time was a bit inconvenient, good to hear there is a valid reason for it.


...only pointing this out so others aren't confused...your link was to the one with the euro(?) plug. The one I linked to used the U.S. version.

Yes, slower is better but there are people who don't care or who just need a quicker charge for doing special events. If that is the case it might pay to have a faster charger for those "rush" days ( as option B ) and use the slower charger when you have more time.

I found this Soshine fast charger while doing a search. Chinagoods sells the same charger but this site has more product info. Looks like it will charge a 2600mAh 18650 cell in about 3hrs. Only down side is that it looks like it comes with a euro plug although it does include a car ( cigarette plug ) adapter. Ah, good news, the one on Chinagoods has the U.S. plug. Before buying you might want to check over on CPF first to see if there are any reviews.


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## rschultz101 (Oct 5, 2009)

what you guys use bare 18650 for ?

here is mine, it's still a pitta.
mostly use it for bare unprotected cells, to pre-charge balance, measure, discharge curves ,..









think it be nice, to have an alternative bare/empty pack, 
what can be loaded with 18650,...

but for fast charging, the 18650 are wrong choice, 
everything else, become more expensive, especially with chargers,...
with lipos or A123 , you can pump lot more juice in.

let me know, what you want / need . 
I'll take a look , what's possible
Rob
mtbl.robs-x


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## mattthemuppet (Jul 16, 2004)

savagemann said:


> Cat-Man-Do, the charger that you linked to, sku 6105 is the one that I have.
> It works good. Even with protected cells.
> Takes a long time to charge, as most do.
> Each bay is on it's own circuit, so you can charge 1 or 2 cells at a time. Pretty handy.
> I still prefer to charge with my RC charger though.


same here, I've bought several of them over the last 6mths (for each light I make + give away) and they all seem to be working fine. They take a while to charge, but that's no bad thing from a battery longevity point of view.

However, I'm now using the same charger as Savagemann and far prefer it, plus it can charge all my different packs (1s, 2s, 3s) with the same connector.


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