Problem charging 3.7V Li-ion cells at 3.6V?

[Tommygunn]

I have an Imax B6 to charge all my different battery chemistries for my various hobbies but my charger only has the option of 3.6V to charge Li-ions.
Will it cause problems when charging my Trustfire, 14500, 3.7V, Li-ion cells?

Tom.

[WWW]

I can't really help you, but maybe the guys at cpfitalia can.

[gregozedobe]

IIRC you need 4.2v to fully charge 3.7v li-ion batteries (that's what my charger does, anyway).  It might be that it uses a nominal "3.6v" description to distinguish between 3.0 and 3.6 (3.7) volt li-ion rechargeables. 

It is quite possible that is what your existing charger does anyway, so test the voltage when the battery is getting near fully charged to see what it is actually delivering.

I have a vague recollection that there were some special high capacity 18650 li-ion batteries that needed slightly higher than 4.2V to charge fully, but I can't remember the exact details.

[dks]

I have a few chargers but no imax.

As mentioned previously, most LiIons are fully charged at 4.2V.
3.6V must be just for general recognition of the battery type.

There are some made that can go to a lower or higher Voltage (like 4.35V), but it is not a function you expect to find on a standard charger.

What is the final voltage of your battery, after it is charged? If it is 4.2V or a bit under, then it is fine.

Charging your batteries at a lower voltage does not mean that they will not work, but you will have less charge in them, less running time. For directly driven lights it will also affect the maximum brightness.

[comis]

Imax B6 has been around for a long time, and it does depend on whether your version has the mode to charge a li-ion battery and whether it has intelligent overcharage or over-discharged protection.

If you are using Nimh mode to charge li-ion batteries(which is a bad idea to begin with), the 3.6v will not fully charge the li-ion and 4.8v is too much and will cause serious problem for not knowing when to cutoff.