# Charging 18650 @ 0.5A or 1A?



## moldyoldy (Nov 11, 2011)

an old thread about charging 18650s with a lab power supply provided a lot of info. However I have two copies of the 4Sevens single-bay charger (V3) which has a switch to set the charging current at 0.5A or 1.0A The 4Sevens charger cuts off the charge when "complete", so there is no trickle charging - leading to lithium plating - which is bad for the usual 18650 cells. 

My questions: Other than the time to charge the cell, should I care which charge rate is set? Is there any cell life improvement with the 0.5A rate vs the 1.0A rate?


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## jasonck08 (Nov 11, 2011)

Probably very little difference in cycle life when comparing 0.5A vs 1A charge rates. Most 18650's have recommended charge rate of 0.3C - 0.8C. Most laptop packs will charge cells at 1-1.5A or so.

So if you have plenty of time, i guess .5A is fine, if you want it to charge a little faster then 1A is fine.


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## Mr Happy (Nov 11, 2011)

You might get a slightly fuller charge using 0.5 A vs 1.0 A, depending on the terminating current of the charger. For instance if the charger stops at I/10 it would be 50 mA in the one case and 100 mA in the other. Stopping at 50 mA instead of 100 mA would put slightly more charge into the battery.


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## HKJ (Nov 12, 2011)

Mr Happy said:


> You might get a slightly fuller charge using 0.5 A vs 1.0 A, depending on the terminating current of the charger. For instance if the charger stops at I/10 it would be 50 mA in the one case and 100 mA in the other. Stopping at 50 mA instead of 100 mA would put slightly more charge into the battery.



That is not the case with the 4Sevens charger, it always stops at the same current (At least V1 and V2 does, I have not tested V3).


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## Bolek (Nov 12, 2011)

If you want to increase the cycle life you can get a charger which stop at 4.1V (instead of 4.2V). In summer if the charge is at 4.1V I stop charging, in winter I need a full charge so I let the charger goes to 4.2V


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