Well, I suppose many of you folks will recall that I'm kind of a curmudgeon with regard to rechargeable batteries. For the most part I am a big fan of CR123a and gravitate towards devices that will use them. Short of that I like lithium AA & AAA devices.

But a year or two ago I got a Petzl lamp with a CORE battery pack. It's a compact replacement for the three AAA batteries that most of Petzl lamps use and charges via a micro-USB port. After using it quite a bit I have found it be pretty good quality and easy to use.

Recently I made a big step and bought a Cloud Defensive OWL weapon light. This required a bit of soul searching as it requires an 18650 battery; indeed, using CR123A will void the warranty! eek The new breed of uber-WMLs have gone this route and the future seems to be rechargeable. As with so many things in our modern age, it's a replay of the various arms races and horsepower wars of the past.

An IT instructor of mine always used to tell me you gotta go with the new meaning you need to be familiar with current tech and keep up to insure compatibility. So I have kind of tried to go in for a crash course in battery tech. The OWL ships with 2 batteries (a Samsung 30Q and a 3500 mAH Sanyo) as well as a solid basic charger. If I'm going to rely on these cells I want to get a more advanced charger that can do more diagnostics on the internals of the batteries to ascertain their health. So far I picked up another pair of 30Qs and have a Murata VTC6 on the way as well as a Samsung 25R and another of the NCRs that shipped with the light.

I guess in for a penny, in for a pound! While I will likely always have a large stash of lithium primaries for the things they do uniquely well I want to dive into rechargeables to a greater extent. In the long run they save some money and more importantly will be a greener option that using a lot of disposables that work once and then head to a landfill.

My WLM needs 18650s with flat tops, and I will likely stick to known cells since reliability is my top priority. But I have a high powered JETBeam that uses button top 18650s and will prioritize 18650 and maybe 21700 use for future purchases. Also I will probably delve into AA & AAA, and was thinking LADDA and Eneloops but I'm not really very up to date on what's the best.

That said, I am looking for advice! Can anyone suggest a good charger for 18650 that is versatile and with good testing and diagnostics? I prefer something as simple and intuitive as possible although I'm realistic re Chinese chargers. And any advice for good quality batteries would also be appreciated! smile
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“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman