18650 advice

[PhotonWrangler]

I dug up an old light recently that hadn't been touched in several years. It has a no-name 18650 cell in it. The light was looking a little dimmer than I remembered, so I put it on my charger.

The cell went from 2.8 volts to 4.0 volts in about 10 minutes. This is much faster than other 18650s I've placed in this charger. It didn't get warm while charging.

Due to the rapid recharge time, I'm wondering if this is actually a smaller cell inside an 18650 housing. Has anyone else run into this?

 

[PaladinNO]

If a battery charge way faster than expected, I'd say it's on its way out. Haven't had it happen with an 18650, but I have seen it with phone batteries and a pair of cheap rechargeable AA NiMH. The phone battery didn't hold the charge either, and began to swell shortly after.

EDIT:
I'd say get a new battery, just to be safe and sure. Samsung 35E (capacity), Molicel P30B (discharge rate), Keeppower P1840C (protected), depending on flashlight and emitter.

 

[orbital]

+

That no-name 18650 isn't really worth anything,, if it was mine & gave me pause, I'd *recycle* it.

*light attempt on correctness

 

[Strintguy]

Agreed. Good quality 18650’s are pretty affordable for how much and how long you get.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Thanks guys. I wasn't considering it to be a reliable source of energy after seeing that odd charging behavior. It's just the first time I've experienced this. I will be recycling it responsibly.

 

[ThomasH]

Thanks guys. I wasn't considering it to be a reliable source of energy after seeing that odd charging behavior. It's just the first time I've experienced this. I will be recycling it responsibly.

If your charger offers the feature, you might try doing a full discharge and re-charge a couple of times. I read the batteries develop ‘micro-shorts’ internally if left discharged for a long while, but some times they can recover with “therapy”.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

If your charger offers the feature, you might try doing a full discharge and re-charge a couple of times. I read the batteries develop ‘micro-shorts’ internally if left discharged for a long while, but some times they can recover with “therapy”.

That's a good suggestion. I have an Opus BT-C3100 that has some battery analysis modes. I will give this a try.

 

[aznsx]

I dug up an old light recently that hadn't been touched in several years. It has a no-name 18650 cell in it. The light was looking a little dimmer than I remembered, so I put it on my charger.

The cell went from 2.8 volts to 4.0 volts in about 10 minutes. This is much faster than other 18650s I've placed in this charger. It didn't get warm while charging.

Due to the rapid recharge time, I'm wondering if this is actually a smaller cell inside an 18650 housing. Has anyone else run into this?

That does sound strange. Just out of curiosity: With clean contacts, what DCIR does the Opus measure on the 'quick test'?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

That does sound strange. Just out of curiosity: With clean contacts, what DCIR does the Opus measure on the 'quick test'?

Well it gets stranger. When I put this cell on the Opus, it locked up. All of the buttons stopped responding. When I removed the cell, everything went back to normal. I tried this three times with the same results.

This is a very weird battery.

 

[aznsx]

Well it gets stranger. When I put this cell on the Opus, it locked up. All of the buttons stopped responding. When I removed the cell, everything went back to normal. I tried this three times with the same results.

This is a very weird battery.

'It's dead Jim'

 

[PhotonWrangler]

'It's dead Jim'

It's the DiLithium crystals! I just can't push them any farther!