RCR123 Charger

[Sean Passanisi]

Hello. I purchased a 4.2V Nano Charger for my RCR123s from Lighthound a few months ago. Within a few weeks, the charger seemed faulty:

When the unit was plugged into a power source and there was no battery in the unit, the light was red (instead of green). I then left a battery in the unit overnight and the unit did not show a green light (only red). I also could not detect any temperature change (usually the battery gets a bit warm when charged).

Lighthound shipped out a new unit when I reported the problem.

Last week I found the same problem (light always red and no temperature change when battery left overnight). I reported the same to Lighthound. The company claims they don't hear about failures on these units.

Has anyone had a similar problem? I'd also love to hear recommendations on other chargers of similar size.

Thank you.

Edit:

FYI, I use AW RCR123a Protected 750 mAh batteries.

[Roger Caffin]

Who can tell with Chinese electronics???

> When the unit was plugged into a power source and there was no battery in the unit,
> the light was red (instead of green).
This would probably be correct operation. You only get green when the unit is actually charging. Otherwise it shows red.

> I then left a battery in the unit overnight and the unit did not show a green light
> (only red).
Do you mean the light never went green, or just was red in the morning. If the latter, that probably means the battery was fully charged.

> I also could not detect any temperature change (usually the battery gets a bit
> warm when charged).
It should cool down after a while. If the battery went in close to fully charged, not much heat would have been generated anyhow.

> Lighthound shipped out a new unit when I reported the problem.
Ethical of them.

It is not yet clear to me that you have a fault.

Cheers

[Bob Gross]

I've never had that charger brand. However, with most of my chargers, the indicators are fairly predictable. If you plug in the charger with no battery, its job is finished, so it lights green. If you then insert one or more batteries to be charged, its job is unfinished, so it lights red. Once the charging is done, it lights green.

One weird charger I had would light up red and green at the same time, and it was failed.

–B.G.–

[Simon Wurster]

Any chance those AWs were dropped or damaged? It sounds like the protection circuit isn't functioning. Also, if the protection circuit was damaged after the batteries were charged, and the device allows batteries to be discharged below ~3.7 V, then they could be toast.

Normally, when a li ion battery is discharged too much the circuit will trip, and recharging will reset it. Sounds like the circuit is not resetting itself.

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