I have a practically new joyetech eGo C Twist 1000 and a joyetech USB rapid charger running through an iPhone USB wall charger. It has been taking 4-5 hrs. to charge. The eGo works fine and the battery life is consistent with the size. It seems to take 4-5 hrs. to charge. All I can find about the iPhone charger is that it's output is 5 watts. In a nutshell, whassup with that?
Apple 5w wall charger.
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It has the ability to push 5 Amps...the charger will only needs 500ma, of which it regulates it down to the CC/CV charge pattern for Li Ion at 420mA...
I use a 10w iPhone wall charger that outputs 5.1v. It does take about 4 to 5 hours to charge my wife's eGo twist 1100mah. It's not a matter of 5 watts output when it comes to dc charging. Think of it in the sense of a car battery charger, you can fast charge at 10amps, or it can trickle charge at 2 amps. If you wanted you could get the eGo batt to charge in 15 minutes. The battery life would be severely diminished. High drain batteries need a slower charge.
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As mentioned above, it says nothing except that the wall wart can supply five watts maximum (before the voltage sags, the transformer maxes out and won't supply any more, or the system fails catastrophically and breaks--which one depends on how it's built and the quality of the build itself). That's why it's important to choose a wall wart (USB port) with at least the same minimum amp rating as your device's charger. In most cases, 500 ma USB supplies (2.5 watts) is just fine--but there are exceptions. Your e-cig isn't one of them.
If the device plugged into the USB is only asking for 500 ma (half an amp, or 2.5 watts), that's all that will flow into it. Most chargers are 420 ma or below, although there are exceptions--my Volt X2 draws 200 ma maximum, down to 0 on stand-by.
It's the same as your house power. Essentially, the supply is effectively infinite (15 to 20 amps depending), but the lamp you plug in doesn't explode and spew flaming tungsten around the room. It'll only draw an amp or so because that's how it's designed (there's a complex answer involving V=IR, but I won't go into it). Even if you replace your breakers with 100 amp ones (not recommended for several reasons), the lamp will continue to draw 1 amp even though the potential supply is much greater.
If the device plugged into the USB is only asking for 500 ma (half an amp, or 2.5 watts), that's all that will flow into it. Most chargers are 420 ma or below, although there are exceptions--my Volt X2 draws 200 ma maximum, down to 0 on stand-by.
It's the same as your house power. Essentially, the supply is effectively infinite (15 to 20 amps depending), but the lamp you plug in doesn't explode and spew flaming tungsten around the room. It'll only draw an amp or so because that's how it's designed (there's a complex answer involving V=IR, but I won't go into it). Even if you replace your breakers with 100 amp ones (not recommended for several reasons), the lamp will continue to draw 1 amp even though the potential supply is much greater.
I couldn't find anything outside of the iPhone charger being a 5w output. No one seems to share the voltage info, except of course the ECF. I shall now return to my blessed Tesla world of a/c. Thanks guys.
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5 volts, 1 amp, 5 watts for that charger.
All standard USB outputs will be 5 volts. Watts = Volts * Amps, so 5 watts = 5 volts * 1 amp (yes, a watt is just a volt-amp).
That's pretty "standard" (there is no real standard except that almost all will be 500 ma or above) for a stand-alone, plug-in USB port. One charger I have has 2.1 amps output (10.5 watts maximum), and you can find them higher if you poke around, I'm sure.
No matter how high the amp rating (and wattage) get, they won't charge your battery any faster, though.
I kept reading about eGo 1000 mah batts charging in "2-3 hours". Wondered if the wall wart was killing the current. MorpheusPA, you get a gold star on the board and a smiley face sticker on the fridge for that comprehensible dissertation on eGo charging. May your ADV be cheap and plentiful.
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Here's a good run-down on lithium battery charging: Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries
As noted, 0.5C to 1C, or the capacity of the battery supplied as charge (so a 1,000 mah battery would get 1,000 ma of charge at 1C, or 500 ma of charge at 0.5C) is what's generally used. Once the voltage of the cell rises, the charge amperage gets cut back to gently top off the battery without overheating it (which is dangerous for lithium cells).
So although a 1C charge sounds like it could charge a battery in 1 hour, it isn't sustained. Hence the 2 to 3 hour reporting time on relatively aggressive chargers.
Aggressive charging is fine, that's not a problem. The 2 to 3 hour charge is safe, and well within the manufacturer's specifications in most cases.
Slower charging takes longer, but does tend to extend the life of your battery very well (plus I rarely run the cells under 3.5 volts, which also vastly extends lifespan). "Extreme" discharge on my cells means I pushed them to 3.2 or 3.1 and I feel guilty when I do that.
For my 18650 cells, I actually use a 0.25C charge and it takes six to seven hours. The battery stays room temperature through the entire process, my oldest battery is 14 months old, and I haven't noticed much degradation in capacity even after all that time.
Charging is a real stress on the battery. For best performance, you'd always keep your battery around 3.7 volts, never charge much over that, and never use it too far under that.
That's an optimal condition, however--I treat batteries like they're made of glass. Which they definitely aren't, and I beat up my Volt X2's like nobody's business and they just keep going. Batteries are built for it because that's how people use them.
In your case, the charger is charging the battery at about 0.4C (assuming 420 ma charger and 1,000 mah battery). That's a nice, reasonable (and very safe) range, but does take some time.
It's always a trade-off between speed of charge, battery lifespan, and user annoyance. Most of us solve it by having plenty of backups so even if you discharge several batteries there's always one more. Multiple chargers also help as lithium batteries are perfectly happy being partially charged and used at that point.
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