Is it possible my charger is overcharging batteries? Voltage changes when moved.

[conanthewarrior]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all OK.

I have noticed with my Efest LUC4 that lately it has been hit and miss if a battery gets detected when put in the charger in bay 1 and 3. It sometimes takes a little bit of wiggling for it to recognise a battery.

I didn't think much of this, until I noticed today a battery was reading at 3.7V- I moved it slightly, and this jumped up to 4.1V! I am now worried it is possible the charger has been doing this regularly without me realising.

I have a Nitecore D4 which I am now using instead of the Efest, as I am worried.

Am I worrying too much, or do you think my worry is justified and it is time to replace the LUC4?

 

[Rickajho]

Sounds like a case of dirty contacts to me - either the charger or the batteries. Give your contacts a clean with isopropyl alcohol - or deoxit if you have it - on a piece of rough cloth and see if that clears it.

 

[KingPin!]

Are the contacts sitting straight on the charger Conan? Noticed on my D4 they can bend quite easily had to bend one of them straight again once although must admit wasn't affecting voltage reading in anyway...not sure if it's the same on the luc4

 

[conanthewarrior]

Are the contacts sitting straight on the charger Conan? Noticed on my D4 they can bend quite easily had to bend one of them straight again once although must admit wasn't affecting voltage reading in anyway...not sure if it's the same on the luc4

They do seem to be sitting straight. There isn't any visible dirt on the contacts,I have always just wiped them with a cloth every now and then.

I will give them a proper clean with something and see if this helps.

I can't find my multimeter which is annoying, I was just worried the charger could of possibly been reading batteries at say 3.9V and still charging them, when they was really at 4.2V already and overcharging them.

 

[Rickajho]

Poor contact could cause the battery voltage to not display properly, even though the charge function is working ok. I have seen one of my chargers do that and cleaning contacts was all that was needed. You know it's a really becoming a problem if you need to rotate a battery installed in the charger to even get things off the ground.

Battery and charger contacts may look shiny but all it takes is a small amount of dirt, corrosion or pitting in the right place to create a contact to contact problem.