I have been using a cheap $3 charger from fasttech with my efest 18650 batteries and it has been working great! These batteries are only two weeks old and I have never disharged them excessively or dropped them. I left them on the charger overnight and woke up to them having a green light which means fully charged. I put them in my wismec 200 and they wont even register / or turn the device on. I then bought a new i4 charger and the charger wont read the batteries or charge them. What is wrong with them?! Does anyone have a similar experience?
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Help with new but broken batteries?
- Thread starter pastorwinegardner
- Start date
Almost sounds like your $ 3.00 charger may have drained the batteries in which case there toast. Do you have a meter to check them? I charge over night a lot but I have a good name brand charger. Batteries are the most dangers part of any Kit so don't cheap out on them or a charger.
Is the nitecore i4 not any good? Thanks everyone for responding. So I should just throw the batteries away?
Thanks so much to all of you! So these cheap chargers can actually drain a battery rather than charge it? Sorry for all these newb questions but the search engine and google aren't working out.
Depends. Some of us have good luck with them, others like me, won't buy another after 3 NiteCore chargers died in a year on me. Me, I prefer Xstar chargers.
You have learned one important lesson, (and without a disaster I might add) about NEVER cheaping out on batteries and chargers.
I leave batteries in my charger all the time.
But then, I don't buy cheap chargers either.
Over discharged batteries (below 2V) get damaged in the process, trying to charge them again above 2V may cause an internal short that may cause them to vent or explode.
It is best to throw away batteries that have been overcharged or over discharged, to be on the safe side.
Don't be cheap on either batteries or charger.
You should only buy LG/Samsung/Sony batteries with the appropriate amp rating for your requirements.
Nitecore and Xtar chargers are nice.
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I do leave batteries unattended because well you can't expect me to sit all day and watch my batteries charge.
I do however place my chargers on a flame retardant mat and away from flammable objects.
Wait wait, lets see a picture of those Efest cells. It's true the cheap 2 dollar charger needs to be trashed, and never should have been purchased in the first place. But maybe you have protected Efest cells? If so, that junk charger may have tripped the protection circuit in which case the cells will appear to be dead, but they may just need the protection circuit reset. It's more likely that cheap charger tried to over-charge those cells and the protection circuit tripped.
If your cells are 3400mAh, most likely they are the protected version of a Sanyo NCR18650B. Those cells are great for a low amp draw flashlights, but not good for a vape device. So the advice to buy some higher amp batteries is definitely good advice, but doesn't mean the cells you have are dead, if they are what I think they are.
If your cells are 3400mAh, most likely they are the protected version of a Sanyo NCR18650B. Those cells are great for a low amp draw flashlights, but not good for a vape device. So the advice to buy some higher amp batteries is definitely good advice, but doesn't mean the cells you have are dead, if they are what I think they are.