eVic batteries (Samsung ICR18650 2600mAh Battery - Flat Top) charging questions

[Knight Errant]

I have a "XTAR WP2 II" charger that I have been using for most of the last year to keep my Lavatube batteries charged. Never had any problems with it.

My new eVic arrived with the two extra batteries. I'm in the habit of carrying a spare charged battery or two and swapping batteries (rotating through the three, over and over) and want to keep doing this with my eVic.

I plugged in the eVic, updated the firmware, then replugged it in to charge. That went fine.

I popped out the two spares and since the charger said it would charge "18650" batteries, put the pink batteries in.

On this charger it has an LED above each bay. Green means charged. Red means charging.

The lights stayed green. I.E. not charging.

I popped them in and out: momentary red light on one... then green. Repeated... nada.



Never had any trouble with the dynamite red 18650 LT batteries. The pink 18650 just do not want to charge.

Question 1) Any idea why my eVic batteries are not charging on my charger?

Noticed there is a switch on my charger: 1A or 0.5A. Tried changing that. Still nada.

Question 2) What should the amp setting on my charger be for the red LT batteries?

Question 3) Assuming I can get the charger to work on the pink eVic batteries, should that setting be any different?

Looked all over the forums for two days looking for answers to these: found nothing definitive, so I'm asking here.

Thanks!

 

[Seruza]

Man, sorry to hear youre having probs. It still charges through the eVic though, yes? And what did you have to update the eVic too(firmware version)?

 

[Knight Errant]

It was v1.2 out of the box. Updated it to v1.3.

The eVic charges just fine. But I don't want to have to leave it sitting, charging, when I have two extra batteries I could be cycling through it, charging depleted ones while I vape on a fresh battery. ;-)

Need one of the battery/charger knowledgeable folks here to help me.

 

[AquaJoe]

While I am a newbie with vaping, I have been using 18650 for years in my flashlights.

1. Are these batteries new? because they come precharged. Does the evic check the battery volts? See if they are at 4.2v.

2. It should be on 1a for 18650, and .5a for 18350 or 14500 (basically any battery under 1000mah) Since at .5 it charges 500mah per hour.

3. All 18650 should be at 1a setting.

Im not sure what the red batteries are? but do they have a button top? The Samsung icr18650 are flat top, so you might need to play with them a little to find the "sweet spot" on the charger or use a magnetic spacer.

 

[Uhlbsorry]

I had that issue with a trustfire multifunctional. I noticed that if you spun the batteries while they were in the charging bays they would begin to charge. I to have an evic and am not a fan of the samsung ICR's but i am sticking it out. Hope that works for you.

 

[Knight Errant]

It was the fact that they are flat top. I put them in there ....-eyed so there was contact and they started charging. I'm looking to a spacer or something (I think it came with some, but I need to dig them out of my misc parts box...)

It was set to 1A, so I'm good there. Thanks all!

 

[Iusedtoanalog]

It was the fact that they are flat top. I put them in there ....-eyed so there was contact and they started charging. I'm looking to a spacer or something (I think it came with some, but I need to dig them out of my misc parts box...)

It was set to 1A, so I'm good there. Thanks all!

Hobby stores usually carry rare earth magnets that will work well in your situation as a spacer, I think walmart does too(but good luck finding them). A package of ten or more is usually like $3......

 

[Knight Errant]

I thought magnets on/near batteries was a big no-no???

I'm taking the spacer (screw in) used for smaller batteries to a hardware store to see if I can match the size and threads to a small short 'flat rounded button' head style steel screw/bolt. That won't shrink the space as much as the spacer so the 18650 batteries should still fit.

 

[Knight Errant]

Aquajoe: They come with a partial charge (most new batteries do) but not fully charged. Yes I checked them in the eVic. All three new batteries all showed about 60% charge out of the box.

Thanks for the amperage charging info.

The red batteries are the AW IMR 18650 3.7v 1600mAh that are standard for the Lavatube v2. Side note: these work just dandy in my eVic as well. Not as many 'vapes' per charge as the eVic pink batteries, but a good in-a-pinch option for me.

 

[JJAJ1988]

i also had this issue with flat tops ie the pink 2600 mah's and the 3400 mah evic battery like u said eye it until its connected and all will b fine some chargers just dont like the flat tops

 

[AquaJoe]

Yes, rare earth magnets are ok to use as spacers. I got some from harbor & freight for like 2bucks. I use them in my flashlights all the time, especially when im stacking flattops.