Tough love for the industry's lithium addiction

[Russjstewart]

Not totally trustworthy, but better than the red/green light clone charger on the left. The Nitecore has an LCD panel display that indicates charging rate, charging progress and evaluates if the cell is a dud or has become one. It will refuse to charge dangerous cells. The white no-name charger will cheerfully try to charge anything.
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Hi Popgun Pete, can I please ask where you got the nitecore charger from.

Thanks

 

[Popgun Pete]

Hi Popgun Pete, can I please ask where you got the nitecore charger from.

Thanks

I purchased it from Gearbest:
https://www.gearbest.com/goods/pp_0..._campaign=GB_GB_orderShippedOut_190726_AI_0_0

 

[chris kippax]

Hi Russ

This is the one I bought after reading the conception threads. I threw my other chargers out.

XTAR VC4 4-Slot Smart LCD USB Charger Li-ion NiMH Revive 18650 26650 AA AAA C D | eBay

Here is the Nite core

Nitecore NEW I4 Smart Battery Charger Lithium NiMh 18650 26650 22650 AA 18350 6952506491391 | eBay

 

[Popgun Pete]

My understanding is that if they have to vent, they may vent fire, i.e. vents don't make them "safe".

FWIW half of my Ultrafires are now at the point where a fresh charge doesn't last long enough for a bike ride home in the evening, but they took a few years to get there. Using a nitecore charger with just the LEDs, no fancy display -- amazingly, no fires to date!

I am pretty sure all my "Ultrafire" batteries were fakes, at that time a year or so back when my first problems were appearing I read an article concerning this counterfeit situation and even an eBay site selling "Ultrafire" battery skins to rebirth cells reclaimed from laptop batteries and pass them off as the real thing. If you check the "Ultrafire" website then you will see a warning about fakes being about, a bit late bolting the door after the horse has gone. By the way these rechargeable batteries must have vents!

 

[dmaziuk]

It's amazing that someone would counterfeit a brand that nobody wanted to buy in the first place, not when there is Sanyo/Panasonic out there. (Mine were "free" with flashlights I bought.)

 

[Popgun Pete]

It's amazing that someone would counterfeit a brand that nobody wanted to buy in the first place, not when there is Sanyo/Panasonic out there. (Mine were "free" with flashlights I bought.)

All comes down to the dollars at their end that they are saving, items were purchased via eBay, Gearbest and CesDeals (previously NewFrog) who are front-enders for a bunch of Asian warehouses and stores, somewhat like Chinese versions of Amazon and rivals to AliExpress. You can get refunds and items replaced, but mainly for a faulty product and not things like batteries and usually you need to send a short video. Have had to do it twice, once for a busted watch, its second hand swung around like a pendulum, and for a faulty USB stick (64 GB) that failed to work as soon as it was plugged in. The "Ultrafire" flashlights were not too bad, they were good enough that they were cloned by other Chinese brands as "Probe Shiny" and "Skywolfeye" that get slapped on many look-alike clones.

 

[Russjstewart]

Thanks

 

[tarponchik]

So why not stick to Panasonic Eneloops, like decent people do?

 

[dmaziuk]

Eneloops are great for TV remotes and such: low self-discharge, low drain, low capacity. The ones that really blow up are Lipo: they use organic solvent for electrolyte (which someone decided to call a polymer, hence "po"). Consider a sealed canister full of organic solvent, that gets heated up past the solvent's boiling point.

Edit: I went looking and got distracted. Looks like what makes them better than eneloops is exactly what makes them blow up: you can pull many more volt-amps out much faster. Also they're lighter and smaller.

 

[tarponchik]

Eneloops are great for TV remotes and such: low self-discharge, low drain, low capacity. The ones that really blow up are Lipo: they use organic solvent for electrolyte (which someone decided to call a polymer, hence "po"). Consider a sealed canister full of organic solvent, that gets heated up past the solvent's boiling point.

I use Eneloops in my Untova flash. They have enough juice for 2 dives, maybe more. But I have to recharge my camera's battery after 2 dives anyway. I use 6xAAA in my torch. For most trips where I only do 1-2 night dives and maybe illuminate a grotto once or twice on a day dive one set of AAA's is enough. If I go to Bonaire or Curacao where I do night dives daily I replace the batteries once. So why bother with 18650's?