# Charging 18650 Batteries



## Rob Fisher

Normally I just pop the batteries onto the Intellicharger I2 over night but because I'm heading out for the weekend fishing I wanted to charge batteries just before I head on out... I'm really surprised that the batteries only take about 20 minutes to charge? Is this right? So quick? All three lights had stopped flashing.


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## johan

Yes it all depends how much they were discharged before you put them in the charger - the Intelli charger charge them at a 1A rate not like some cheapies that only charge at less than 450mA

Reactions: Informative 2


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## Rob Fisher

johanct said:


> Yes it all depends how much they were discharged before you put them in the charger - the Intelli charger charge them at a 1A rate not like some cheapies that only charge at less than 450mA



Awesome! Thanks Johan!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Andre

If you press and hold the minus (or plus, but not both together) little button on the SVD it will show you the charge on your battery - never let it go below 3.2 V, I have been advised.

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 1


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## Rob Fisher

Thanks Matthee. 


Sent from my Nautilus filled with VM Menthol Ice.


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## Riaz

Matthee said:


> If you press and hold the minus (or plus, but not both together) little button on the SVD it will show you the charge on your battery - never let it go below 3.2 V, I have been advised.



i always check mine once the button turns orange, always recharge when it reaches around 3.5V

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Gazzacpt

Matthee said:


> If you press and hold the minus (or plus, but not both together) little button on the SVD it will show you the charge on your battery - never let it go below 3.2 V, I have been advised.


Yip lower than that and you risk killing the battery. But the SVD will shut down preventing that? Thats the info I read. Mostly its us mech guys that need to be very carefull. I usually charge at 3.5v like @Riaz does.

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk


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## BhavZ

Does anyone know about the quality of the batteries sold by VapeMOB?

They have trustfire and another brand which the have not named, image is a blue battery


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## Gazzacpt

BhavZ said:


> Does anyone know about the quality of the batteries sold by VapeMOB?
> 
> They have trustfire and another brand which the have not named, image is a blue battery


I did check those out a while ago when I was looking for batteries. If I'm not mistaken the blue one was an icr and so was the trust fire. I was advised to go with imr's so got some from Mr CVS. Also the vape guru Mr @Matthee advised to stay away from anything with the name fire in it 

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk

Reactions: Agree 1


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## BhavZ

Gazzacpt said:


> I did check those out a while ago when I was looking for batteries. If I'm not mistaken the blue one was an icr and so was the trust fire. I was advised to go with imr's so got some from Mr CVS. Also the vape guru Mr @Matthee advised to stay away from anything with the name fire in it
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk



Yeah I ordered my batteries from CVS so just need to wait now.

Ok more 18650 questions,

Using the nitecore i2 can one charge an ICR 18650 together with an IMR 18350?


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## johan

Yes, on Nitecore the charging sections operate independantly from each other - in effect you can charge a 18350 and a 18650 at the same time.


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## BhavZ

johanct said:


> Yes, on Nitecore the charging sections operate independantly from each other - in effect you can charge a 18350 and a 18650 at the same time.



That is awesome news.. thanks @johanct


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## ET

is this nitecore charger thingy really so good? still using a cheapo little charger to do my bats


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## Riaz

i think i will never risk buying these cheap batteries.

after doing some heavy research on this issue, i will not purchase any battery unless its IMR.

regardless if its for use in my svd.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## johan

denizenx said:


> is this nitecore charger thingy really so good? still using a cheapo little charger to do my bats



Chargers like the new generation Nitecore and Efest are made in the same factory, just different branding. Ive opened quite alot of them for another non-vape related project, and they are as good as they state on their spec-sheet. Some cheapies are also good - take yours to a techie and ask him to test, the most important are independant charging bays (if it's a dual type), charging voltage (4.2 up to max 4.25V) and charging current (max 1A).


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## Derick

denizenx said:


> is this nitecore charger thingy really so good? still using a cheapo little charger to do my bats



Just check your battery voltages every time you charge - if they are in the 4.2v range, then your charger is perfectly fine


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## Gazzacpt

johanct said:


> Chargers like the new generation Nitecore and Efest are made in the same factory, just different branding. Ive opened quite alot of them for another non-vape related project, and they are as good as they state on their spec-sheet. Some cheapies are also good - take yours to a techie and ask him to test, the most important are independant charging bays (if it's a dual type), charging voltage (4.2 up to max 4.25V) and charging current (max 1A).



You saying they use the same circuitry and chipsets?

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## shabbar

nitecore is really good there are better more expensive chargers out there tho , but vapers tend to use nitecore alot


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## johan

Gazzacpt said:


> You saying they use the same circuitry and chipsets?
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk



Yes exactly


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## Gazzacpt

johanct said:


> Yes exactly


Thanks thats good to know.

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## Silver

@johanct , so great to have someone like you on the forum with such a good practical electronics knowledge. Thanks for all your contributions!

On the issue of 18650 used in my SVD, I also charge them when they get to about 3.6 or 3.5V. 

Something i cant understand and maybe @johanct , you can shed some light here. When my battery drops to say 3.7V, the vape on the SVD feels slightly less intense, even though I am using it on power mode at the same power of 12.5 Watts. I would have thought the job of the device is to feed the same power the whole time. I can understand if the battery was flat, but at 3.7V, its far from flat. Am i missing something? 

PS - my dripper has a 1.7 ohm coil


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## johan

A lot of factors can play a roll here @Silver1 - the efficiency of step-up circuitry (more correctly: topology) the SVD uses to keep output power to coil constant and the battery *capacity* are the main contributing factors. At a battery voltage of 3.7V in your setup, you draw +/- 2.2Amps. Although your electronic mod display 3.7V it is when you don't draw current from the battery, but as soon as you draw current that battery voltage drops much lower and hence the output can not keep up and in reality you don't have 12.5W anymore. I've even experienced the same effect in a mechanical mech with no brand batteries (_cheap-and-nasty-made-in-a-hell-of-a-hurry-in-china_) round 4.1V. Here is a graph to show the top end of a good quality battery's capacity at different voltages. I'm bad when it comes to explaining, but hope it does answer your question somehow.

Reactions: Winner 1


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## Silver

Thanks Johan, so despite step up circuitry, there's no such thing then as a perfectly stable power output. At least this is what i understand from your reply.


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## drew

johanct said:


> A lot of factors can play a roll here @Silver1 - the efficiency of step-up circuitry (more correctly: topology) the SVD uses to keep output power to coil constant and the battery *capacity* are the main contributing factors. At a battery voltage of 3.7V in your setup, you draw +/- 2.2Amps. Although your electronic mod display 3.7V it is when you don't draw current from the battery, but as soon as you draw current that battery voltage drops much lower and hence the output can not keep up and in reality you don't have 12.5W anymore. I've even experienced the same effect in a mechanical mech with no brand batteries (_cheap-and-nasty-made-in-a-hell-of-a-hurry-in-china_) round 4.1V. Here is a graph to show the top end of a good quality battery's capacity at different voltages. I'm bad when it comes to explaining, but hope it does answer your question somehow.
> 
> View attachment 1641


Hi @johanct. Even though stacking batteries is dangerous and not recommended, I would think this could eliminate the issue as the step up circuitry never comes into play. Correct?


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## johan

In essence yes @Silver1 you will have some "perfect" stable output power for a limited time. The higher the output power the shorter the "perfect" stable output power.?? You will get much longer "perfect" stable output power with higher *mAh* batteries. I did play with an eVic (not comparable to a better device like SVD) and went straight to mech mod (zero electronics) - had to play with different coil resistance until I got my personal perfect vape. Long story short; I get a longer "perfect" stable output power on a mech mod with 1.3Ohm coil than with the eVic using good quality IMR Li-Mn batteries.

Reactions: Like 1 | Winner 1


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## johan

drew said:


> Hi @johanct. Even though stacking batteries dangerous and not recommended, I would think this could eliminate the issue as the step up circuitry never comes into play. Correct?



No it will worsen what you want to achieve - you have to try and see Ohms law in 3 dimensions. Whether you step-up or step-down you have losses in the circuitry, which you don't have in a simple mechanical mod. You need constant power for the maximum time. Your solution is a higher mAh rated battery e.g 2600mAh and higher, don't look at 30 or 35A discharge current as a good battery for your setup, you don't need it as you are using an electronic mod.


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## Silver

Ok many thanks for all the replies. Most interesting.


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## Andre

johanct said:


> In essence yes @Silver1 you will have some "perfect" stable output power for a limited time. The higher the output power the shorter the "perfect" stable output power.?? You will get much longer "perfect" stable output power with higher *mAh* batteries. I did play with an eVic (not comparable to a better device like SVD) and went straight to mech mod (zero electronics) - had to play with different coil resistance until I got my personal perfect vape. Long story short; I get a longer "perfect" stable output power on a mech mod with 1.3Ohm coil than with the eVic using good quality IMR Li-Mn batteries.


Great to hear us mech guys have some logic going for us!

Reactions: Like 2


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## Oom Cheez

Rob Fisher said:


> Normally I just pop the batteries onto the Intellicharger I2 over night but because I'm heading out for the weekend fishing I wanted to charge batteries just before I head on out... I'm really surprised that the batteries only take about 20 minutes to charge? Is this right? So quick? All three lights had stopped flashing.


Hi, what batteries are you using because i want them?


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