I purchased this charger. (sorry if it's a little large (that's what she said ) lol)
But there is a switch on it that says. 0.5A/1A
0.5A being on the left side. and 1A on the right.
I am using the 2 pin power supply that connects to the left side port. UK plug.
What should the switch be set to? 0.5A or 1A ?
Thanks.
.5 and 1.0 is the charge rate going to the batteries. .5 will take a bit longer to charge the batteries but wont make them warm, while the 1.0 will do a quicker charge, it also has a tendancy to make the batteries a bit warm. I run my charger at .5.
Look at it this way, all batteries accept a rapid charge and a trickle charge, trickle charging generally puts lets stress on the battery and get the battery charged more accurately than a rapid charge.
General everyday recharging - trickle charge your batteries (0.25 or 0.5amp setting if your charger is capable of manually setting this rate of current), your batteries will last longer this way
Emergency or you do not have enough batteries to keep a proper rotation going to match your vaping habit - rapid charge works (setting a charger to 1amp or 2amp if it has these settings), and that is if your battery will accept that rapid charge current without being damaged, check the spec sheet of the battery you have to see what the maximum charging current is of your batteries to set your rapid charge accordingly
I personally rarely rapid charge a battery, and in the occasion I do, it is generally my 26650 batteries, not my 18650 or smaller, and only due to the fact of it takes so long to charge my 26650's, and in that instance it is only at 1amp, not 2amp like my LUC4 can do.
Though I have a ritual with my batteries (sorry I super OCD with my batteries)
1) Purchase of battery, when received I label the date of opening and first time charging
2) First charge is always a trickle charge on my Nitecore Charger which does a 0.25amp charge with all 4 channel slots filled
3) After charge set my batteries aside for 4 to 8 hours before being put into service (being used), this lets the battery and its ions to settle down and become stable
4) Battery is used in service until about 50% on my regulated mods or when my vapor diminishes, generally about 3.5 to 3.8volts left in the charge by this time
5) Battery set aside again for about 4 to 8 hours again to let the battery and battery ions to become stable again
6) Battery is then charged up one my LUC4 set at 1amp for a 26650, 0.5amp for 18650, 18500, 18490, and 18350 batteries repeating steps 3 through 6 until the battery no longer holds charge as it used to, begins to show voltage or amperage sag, or the milliamp hours decrease compared to when they were new
I repeat steps 3 through 6, retesting batteries with a digital volt meter every 10 to 20 charge cycles, any "YIKES" (hot coil leg or loose atomizer post screw, a vape hotter than it should be) but not an "UH OH, D&*( &*()^" (mod gets hot rapidly for no reason, any time my mod gets excessively hot, these are an automatic retest before a recharge) incidents, or every 5 to 10 high current cycles (aka super subohm cycles, generally testing a new build or stress testing a new battery model I am wishing to purchase more of and use often). A little excessive, but I've dealt with RC Cars for years and seen batteries react violently for no reason at all, being close to myself and person, trying to reduce the number of incidents to minimal as much as I can. But slow trickle charges do not stress a battery, battery goes into stress, it heats up, it heats up life of the battery is drastically reduced or the potential is massively reduced, which the cooler they stay, the longer they last. A little long in explanation, but I hope it gives you some more food for thought.
