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Charging an 18650 at 1A?

H4X0R46

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Is it safe to charge an 18650 at 1A? If so, does it drastically shorten the life of the cell? I always charge mine at 500mA but was wondering if I could have been charging them at 1A this whole time. Thanks!
 

H4X0R46

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Depends on the battery of course but GOOD vaping grade cells can be charged at 1 amp with no issues. You can charge at 2 amps, but it will shorten their life a bit more than charging at 1 amp.
Thanks! Yeah I only ever use Samsung 25Rs or LG HG2s. Are these considered good quality cells that can handle 1A charging? And does that shorten their life by a huge margin?
 

HondaDavidson

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Thanks! Yeah I only ever use Samsung 25Rs or LG HG2s. Are these considered good quality cells that can handle 1A charging? And does that shorten their life by a huge margin?


Not enough that most would notice....... Beside pulling high amps does more damage to the chemistry than a fast charge anyway..... If worried keep using the lower milliamp power charges
 

The Cromwell

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Thanks! Yeah I only ever use Samsung 25Rs or LG HG2s. Are these considered good quality cells that can handle 1A charging? And does that shorten their life by a huge margin?
The difference in the lifetime of one of those batteries being charged at 1 amp vs 1/2 amp would be hard to see.
 

H4X0R46

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The difference in the lifetime of one of those batteries being charged at 1 amp vs 1/2 amp would be hard to see.
Well shoot! I might just start using 1A for charging! So long as it won't blow up in my face, these 18650s are cheap enough lol
 

The Cromwell

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Well shoot! I might just start using 1A for charging! So long as it won't blow up in my face, these 18650s are cheap enough lol
Temperature is the key, if the battery just gets a bit warm while charging then good to go.
 

IMFire3605

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Well shoot! I might just start using 1A for charging! So long as it won't blow up in my face, these 18650s are cheap enough lol

As @The Cromwell stated, the biggest limiter is heat, I've seen a lot of batteries that we use that in their spec sheets the Manufacturer gives up to 4A as the max charging rate. Charging at 1A is not a big deal, nor is charging at 2A, if you monitor the temp by touching them while on the charger, get hot enough before blistering the skin it is time to take it off the charger to rest and cool a bit, but at 1A you might loose out on 10 maybe 20 full charge cycles on the life of the battery, 2A maybe 20 to 40 cycles killed off, but most batteries have a charge cycle life span of about 150 to 300 full cycles, real life time to us that could equate to a week maybe two weeks off the end of the battery lifespan if used regularly, infrequently maybe a month or two. As long as you don't pass that 80C temp threshold internal temperature most of these batteries can handle you are going to be fine. If you barely pull 10amp discharges on the batteries if they are 20amp CDR that is what extends the life of a battery the most, 100% discharges all the time you'll bury your batteries the fastest.

Being how long you've been vaping, think you have enough head sense to up your charge rate, it would be another story for me to give personal advice to a new or newish vaper to do so though. One of those is it safe? Yes. Is it suggested? No. Situations.
 

H4X0R46

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As @The Cromwell stated, the biggest limiter is heat, I've seen a lot of batteries that we use that in their spec sheets the Manufacturer gives up to 4A as the max charging rate. Charging at 1A is not a big deal, nor is charging at 2A, if you monitor the temp by touching them while on the charger, get hot enough before blistering the skin it is time to take it off the charger to rest and cool a bit, but at 1A you might loose out on 10 maybe 20 full charge cycles on the life of the battery, 2A maybe 20 to 40 cycles killed off, but most batteries have a charge cycle life span of about 150 to 300 full cycles, real life time to us that could equate to a week maybe two weeks off the end of the battery lifespan if used regularly, infrequently maybe a month or two. As long as you don't pass that 80C temp threshold internal temperature most of these batteries can handle you are going to be fine. If you barely pull 10amp discharges on the batteries if they are 20amp CDR that is what extends the life of a battery the most, 100% discharges all the time you'll bury your batteries the fastest.

Being how long you've been vaping, think you have enough head sense to up your charge rate, it would be another story for me to give personal advice to a new or newish vaper to do so though. One of those is it safe? Yes. Is it suggested? No. Situations.
Thanks so much for the post! Yeah I only pull about 10A from my cells at the most. I vape at 90w on a 3 cell device, so discharge is decently low for a 20A HG2. I might give it a shot at 1A charge next time and just stick around to check their heat. Just hate waiting over 3 hours to charge a battery that was at 3.7 or so volts.
 

The Cromwell

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Thanks so much for the post! Yeah I only pull about 10A from my cells at the most. I vape at 90w on a 3 cell device, so discharge is decently low for a 20A HG2. I might give it a shot at 1A charge next time and just stick around to check their heat. Just hate waiting over 3 hours to charge a battery that was at 3.7 or so volts.

Hg2's? Been charging mine at 1 amp for 2 + years. the same batteries :)
Yep getting a bit shorter in runtime per charge but otherwise fine after 2+ years.
I had one out of 10 fail in all that time, but it went bad and would not hold a charge pretty quick.
Defect was my assumption.
 

H4X0R46

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Hg2's? Been charging mine at 1 amp for 2 + years. the same batteries :)
Yep getting a bit shorter in runtime per charge but otherwise fine after 2+ years.
I had one out of 10 fail in all that time, but it went bad and would not hold a charge pretty quick.
Defect was my assumption.
GOD I love this forum lol Cool! Gives me more piece of mind with my cells. And thanks Carambrda for the link! I took the time and read the whole thing. Some really great pointers there! My new charger goes up to a 4A maximum, really nice charger. An E-SYB E4 if anyone was wondering. I decided to try out this new company, and the charger is really great! I always used Efest chargers, but they're so freaking faulty, it's laughable!
 

H4X0R46

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As @The Cromwell stated, the biggest limiter is heat, I've seen a lot of batteries that we use that in their spec sheets the Manufacturer gives up to 4A as the max charging rate. Charging at 1A is not a big deal, nor is charging at 2A, if you monitor the temp by touching them while on the charger, get hot enough before blistering the skin it is time to take it off the charger to rest and cool a bit, but at 1A you might loose out on 10 maybe 20 full charge cycles on the life of the battery, 2A maybe 20 to 40 cycles killed off, but most batteries have a charge cycle life span of about 150 to 300 full cycles, real life time to us that could equate to a week maybe two weeks off the end of the battery lifespan if used regularly, infrequently maybe a month or two. As long as you don't pass that 80C temp threshold internal temperature most of these batteries can handle you are going to be fine. If you barely pull 10amp discharges on the batteries if they are 20amp CDR that is what extends the life of a battery the most, 100% discharges all the time you'll bury your batteries the fastest.

Being how long you've been vaping, think you have enough head sense to up your charge rate, it would be another story for me to give personal advice to a new or newish vaper to do so though. One of those is it safe? Yes. Is it suggested? No. Situations.
So I'm charging my HG2s at 1A right now. The charger is a bit hot, the batteries are warm to the touch. Not burn my hand hot, but pretty warm. Is this alright?
 

IMFire3605

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Should be fine, they will get warmer as you are charging at twice the charge rate you normally do, so likely twice as warm. 60 to 80C in temp is 140 to 176F, which is enough to blister skin. The plastic of the charger would start melting before the battery reached 60C. Battery is maybe max about 35C internally, but still monitor by touch. If the battery casing gets to warm to touch it, then pull the plug on the charger and let things cool back down is all.

Personally in an emergency and needing a rapid charge, I'll bump an 18650 to 1A, for my 26650's I standard charge at 1A and rapid charge at 2A, but rarely do I need to step up to rapid charge on batteries as I have enough to cycle through, even in sets of 2 and 3 battery marriages that I don't require higher charge rates. Single battery mods I have about a dozen single 18650's I rotate through, dual battery pairs I have 3 pairs (6 batteries), my triple battery sets I have again 3 sets (9 batteries).
 

Pastorfuzz

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Is it safe to charge an 18650 at 1A? If so, does it drastically shorten the life of the cell? I always charge mine at 500mA but was wondering if I could have been charging them at 1A this whole time. Thanks!
I charge mine at 1 amp on a 4 bay Intellicharger. Started vaping Sept 2016 and the first Samsung and Sony 18650's I bought back then still take a charge.
 

conanthewarrior

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I always try to charge my 18650's at 1A. The cells I use are rated for a 1.3A standard charge, and even my oldest batteries still work well in respect to their age.

26650's I always charge at 2A. Check the datasheet for your specific battery to find out what is best for them.
 

Neunerball

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So I'm charging my HG2s at 1A right now. The charger is a bit hot, the batteries are warm to the touch. Not burn my hand hot, but pretty warm. Is this alright?
IMHO, the batteries are the lesser problem. The charger is getting hot, due to the transformer/power supply, build into the charger. A build in fan would help, in those chargers, in order to avoid damage to the charger.

For the same reason, at least in the R/C world, the better LiPo chargers have a separate power supply, which puts less stress on the electronics in the charger. Plus, you can get more power out of those chargers, thus being able to parallel charge several large LiPo packs, in a short period of time.
 

H4X0R46

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Member For 4 Years
Just following up here, I've been charging my HG2s at 1A and it's great! A battery with such a large mAh rating is such a pain to charge slow. I'm using an E-SYB E4 (not sure if I mentioned that, probably did.) And the charger and batteries are kicking ass! Thanks all! I'll see if they have a shorter lifespan from doing this, but even if they do, batteries luckily aren't expensive. Thanks!
 

Blargh23

Member For 1 Year
LG H2 datasheet lists the standard charge as 1500mA, fast charge as 4000mA, so 1A (1000ma) is well within its limits.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0674/3651/files/lg-hg2-spec-sheet.pdf

VTC5A has a recommended charge of 2.5A @4.25v, max limit is 6A

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0697/3395/files/US18650VTC5A_spec.pdf?3978652597953921962

Rule of thumb in the RC world was:
1C for fast
1/2C for longevity.
(where C is capacity/hour)

So, for longer life: 2500mAH I'd charge at a max of 1.25A, 3000mAh a max of 1.5A
 

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