I have recently purchased a Luc V4 and like it better than my Nitecore and Xtar. My question, should I use the .5 or 1.0 to charge my 18650's? It charges so much faster than the others and it seems better built. Im cannot believe it is an EFEST product! The manual really doesn't help answer my question.
18*** size or smaller (18650 and smaller)
Trickle charge - Stay at default 0.5amp per channel (total amps the charger will use is 2amps from the wall outlet, remember most residential wiring per room is 15amps), this is the most gentle on batteries, trickle mode, as well as most reliable, it charges more accurately and fully
Rapid charge - 1amp per channel (4amps from outlet total), only use this mode when in an emergency, buy plenty of enough batteries to have a constant rotation, single mech mod for instance you should have minimum 4 batteries in rotation, dual battery mech the number would be 8, regulated you can get away with 2 for single battery, 4 for dual battery, 6 for triple battery
26*** (26650 and other larger high mah batteries)
Trickle charge these at 1amp
Rapid charge them at 2 amps (this shuts down channels 1 and 4, leaving 2 and 3 active only (4amp draw from the wall)
Remember this analogy when charging batteries, you are pressing air into a sealed soda can through a pin hole, which leads to a lot of pressure, heat, and other things, making things unstable, with a battery that air being pressurized is actual a shifting of the ions within the battery, making them unstable, grumpy, and irratable, don't poke the sleeping or tired bear. My methodology with batteries are as such, remove from mod after discharge when low, set aside next to my charger for 1 to 4 hours depending how hard I abused them, after that rest cycle put onto the charger to charge, after charge take them off the charger to rest again for an hour to 4 hours, after this rest cycle they are ready and stable for usage. I try not to go directly from mod to charger or charger directly to mod. This decreases stress on the batteries, with batteries stress = heat generated internally, heat and hard abuse (pushing a battery towards its highest current (CDR) damages and decreases its output and life expectancy, be gentle and kind to your batteries when you can, generally charging as with most batteries on the market, maximum charge current on certain cells can be up toward 4amps, others it is 2amps, 1amp or even 0.5amps, this shows an internal resistance of how hard a battery fights shifting ions from the negative to the positive where CDR shows an easier flow from positive to negative during discharge.
