18650 rechargeable batteries

I just purchased these batteries with charger.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004AWE2L2/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?qid=1394503156&sr=8-7&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70
My issue is there is 3 settings on the charger and I am not sure which to charge the batteries on. Any help would be appreciated.

For a large battery like the 18650 it doesnt matter what charging speed it is set at. With small er batteries it would be better to use lower settings.

BTW the charger only has two modes, 1A and 500ma. Either is fine....

:beer:
-Matt

0.5A for an 18650 will take forever. Set it to 1A instead. For smaller cells use 0.5A. You can also charge IMR 18350 and IMR 16430 cells at 1A

KRNAZNBOY said:

BTW the charger only has two modes, 1A and 500ma. Either is fine....

:beer:
-Matt

Click to expand...

I know in description is says it has 2 modes but it has 3. 0.5A, 1A and 2A. Thank you for your reply.

You can charge your 18650 at any setting. 2A will yield the fastest charge time out of the 3 settings

amazon said:

Click to expand...

On my WP2 (first version, I think), the switch has 3 positions, labeled 2, 1, 0. The instructions state that position 2 charges at 1A, position 1 charges at 0.5A, and position 0 uses a cell in the left cradle to power the USB output port @ 5V.

Yours appears to have updated the switch markings.

Slow charging a battery, especially one that has been fairly well drained, is always a better option for battery longevity if you have the time. Fast charges cause them to heat up more and can shorten their life, so if you have time to leave it on a slow charge overnight you'll be doing the battery good in the long term. You may also find you get more mileage out of it than if you only ever do fast charges.

Lithium batteries are also supposed to not suffer memory effects, but I have found with a variety of devices that keeping them continually topped up is not the path to best possible runtimes - instead draining them to a fairly discharged (but not dead!!) state before fully charging, which gives me better results. I do this with my phones and my laptop and I get great battery life - up to three days out of my iPhone - where I found that many people's recommendation of charging every night (whether drained or not) actually saw my battery meter draining much quicker.

My general observation with lithium batteries is that they don't like too much of one thing - don't keep them on the charger (in the case of laptops) continually, but neither should you constantly drain them to death. They're not like lead acid (car batteries) which pretty much have to remain constantly fully charged to have a healthy life.