Overcharging 3.7 v batteries?

[CKRobinson]

Hi,
Quick question about batteries and charging. I have 2 types of batteries for 2 different quads. Both batteries are 3.7 volts, but the amperage is different in each. One battery is 250 mah and the other is 4oo. If I put the 250 mah battery in the charger for the 400mah batteries, will it overcharge it or cause damage? Because the charger does say that it has over charge protection.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Jackson]

They should not overcharge, they should both terminate at the some voltage (get a cheap multimeter). Theoretically the 400 charger should charge the 250mAh battery a bit faster. But in a perfect world you want to charge at 1C (or less) for the best long term longevity of the battery, so for the 250mAh cell that's 250mA, for the 400mAh cell it's 400mA. That said it's hard to tell if in fact there is a difference in output between your 2 chargers. I guess you could do some rudimentary testing, time how long it takes to charge the 400mAh cell on it's charger, then do a few time tests charging it on the 250 charger.

 

[CKRobinson]

They should not overcharge, they should both terminate at the some voltage (get a cheap multimeter). Theoretically the 400 charger should charge the 250mAh battery a bit faster. But in a perfect world you want to charge at 1C (or less) for the best long term longevity of the battery, so for the 250mAh cell that's 250mA, for the 400mAh cell it's 400mA. That said it's hard to tell if in fact there is a difference in output between your 2 chargers. I guess you could do some rudimentary testing, time how long it takes to charge the 400mAh cell on it's charger, then do a few time tests charging it on the 250 charger.

Thanks. Since I build, and light, scale models, I have a multimeter. As well as a soldering iron, which hopefully I won't have to use for this.

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate what your saying is like charging at a higher amp rate it will not over charge but can over heat the battery if you push the charge in to fast
You can charge a high amp battery at a lower amp rate but not always charge a low amp rate battery at the higher amp

 

[CKRobinson]

Hi mate what your saying is like charging at a higher amp rate it will not over charge but can over heat the battery if you push the charge in to fast
You can charge a high amp battery at a lower amp rate but not always charge a low amp rate battery at the higher amp

I'm just hoping that the chargers have a standard rate that they charge at and won't over heat the lower amp batteries. The difference between the capacity is 150mah, so hopefully that's within the +/- of the charger.

 

[holtneil]

It should not affect the mah its the amps or c rate you need to watch , if its the USB type charger lead you should be good as these are not very powerful , you start to get bigger problems if its like a 50 watt 4 button lipo charger then you need to set charge rate and cell count

 

[Jackson]

I have a multimeter

Then you can quickly check to see if your chargers are overcharging, which BTW everyone should do, especially with the cheap chargers that come with toy quads.

 

[CKRobinson]

Then you can quickly check to see if your chargers are overcharging, which BTW everyone should do, especially with the cheap chargers that come with toy quads.

Is there information somewhere on how to do that?