I left my new charger at the cabin for my new group-buy Li Batt. Can I safely use the old style low-amp charger for this battery?
I have had it on for about two hours and it hasnt topped off yet so I got nervous and unplugged it. Thanks.
A standard charger should only be able to under charge the dakota, so you should be fairly worry free. good luck!
As long as its aproved for use with lithium batteries. Never charge lithium batteries with a charger made for anything else. Most times when you hear stories of lithium batteries catching fire its because they didnt use the proper charger. Lithium batteries should never be charged to more than 4.2 volts per cell which is only 50 to 80 percent of capacity. Going over can cause the cell to break down and vent gas and can casuse fire. A standard charger will just keep putting in juice and hasnt been made to stop at 4.2 per cell.
Anyone have issues with their Vexilar chargers still showing green after a day of use with the a Dakota Battery? Mine seems to do that half the time and I have no clue if its actually charging my battery or not.
My Marcum charger seems to charge it perfectly. The battery website even says that you can use a SLA battery charger.
I saw on the website that it says they are compatible with “most” sla chargers. Thats the first lithium battery ive seen say that. We use alot of these batteries in the remote controll hobbies and charging these batteries on a sla system thats not meant for lithium is a disater waiting to happen. Ive charged a lithium battery on a sla charger to see what happens if they are over charged and although this isnt my video results were the same. https://youtu.be/UbnjEt8msjI
Ive used lithium batteries for years and will never use anything but an aproved lithium charger. Theres a reason why they make special chargers for these batteries.
Green either means its fully charged or doesnt recognize the battery. Since lithium batteries dont peak charge like sla the battery wont drop in voltage like a sla at peak charge. Anything over 4 to 4.2 volts per cell will shorten and or damage the battery. I believe these batteries are 3 cell so the voltage should not go above 12 to 12.6. Sla batts will drop voltage once peak is reached this usualy around 14 volts then the voltage will start to drop. this is the signal for the charger to stop. Lithium batts do not peak they just keep charging and thats the danger. Test your battery with a volt meter do not let it go over 12 to 12.6. Most of thes sla wall chargers are designed to go up to 15 volts before shutting down. That is way to high for a lithium 12v battery.
The Dakota uses 4 sets of 3 26650 3.2volt 3300 mAH batteries. Max charge is 3.7 per set, so 14.8volts.
my bad. Every thing i said applies to lithium polymer (lipo batteries) i just realized these are lithium Ion batteries (life batteries). To much fishing in sub zero temps. With life batteries you should be fine. the biggest danger with these is running them completely dead. it wont catch fire but can kill a cell and your battery.
If I change the alligator clips on the lithium charger to match the plugin on my Marcum I should be fine correct? My Marcum has the in line fuse
Yes you should be fine
I topped it off with the old charger this one time. Probably didnt even need to. I will have the correct charger in my hands next weekend and will keep them together going forward.
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
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