A battery of the cars has metal rods inside them in an electrolyte. Both of these take up chemical reactions to produce electricity for various devices. Two types of power transmission take place in the devices, one is from the charger and other from its battery itself to the electrical components of the devices for their working. You can not charge your battery by providing the same potential difference voltage with your charger as much voltage potential difference your battery produces.
The current produced by potential difference created by the battery should be high enough to cross the internal resistance of the electrical devices craving for electricity. Similarly, the current provided by the charger’s potential difference should also be higher than the internal resistance of the battery’s internal resistance.
According to the above last sentence, you must be thinking that we can charge a 3.7 V battery with a 5 V charger. But, is this true?
Can we use a 5 V charger with a 3.7 V battery?
The answer to this question is a bit contradictory to the above statement. No, it’s not safe and reliable to charge the 3.7 V battery from a 5 V battery charger. Although we have said that the battery needs more current from the charger’s potential difference to cross the internal resistance of the battery but this current should not be so much that it heats the car battery and also lead to an explosion in some cases.
The higher volt charger that we can use for a 3.7 V battery should be at max. 4.2 V potential difference. The current generated by 4.2 V battery charger will be enough to exceed the internal resistance of the car’s battery and does not even heat it and does not lead any type of accident, which a 5 V potential voltage charger can easily face due to production of high Ampere current and heat.
So instead of harming yourself and your battery by charging your 3.7 V battery by 5 V charger use a right volt potential difference charger for charging.
Still a chance?
Some of you must have come to know the solution to what is the procedure for charging the 3.7 V with 5 V charger since you might have heard somewhere that this task is possible.
Yes, we have told you that it’s not safe to charge the battery with this much high voltage charger. But because of your desire, we must tell you the stepwise process of charging the 3.7 V battery in such a way that there will be some chance of not facing any explosion of the car’s battery. Here is the process:
- Get a LiPo charger for charging the single LiPo battery which will have a small board with pins. We can rearrange these pins to get the right amount of current and support the battery from not getting heated up.
- Rearrange the pins on the board correctly for proper charging. Pin one is for STAT, Pin two is for Vss, Pin three is for Vbat, Pin four is for Vdd, Pin five for PROG. This helps the charger to charge the battery by creating the potential difference of 4.2 V for the charger.
- Now connect the board to battery and power socket.
- Connect the one point of the charger to the USB charger and other to the battery.
Make sure all the connections are correct and tight enough for good electricity flow.
This above process will charge your 3.7 v battery with a 5 V battery charger.
The maximum amount of voltage chargers that we should use for different lithium-ion batteries are
| Battery Voltage | Maximum Voltage |
|---|---|
| 3.6 V | 4.2 V |
| 3.7 V | 4.2 V |
| 3.8 V | 4.35 V |
| 3.85 V | 4.4 V |
Conclusion
It’s not safe for your battery to charge it with 5 V chargers as it produces such a high current which can lead to malfunctioning of your battery in the future if not blasting. Even now if you want to charge your battery with a 5V charger here above we have the process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How long does it take to charge the lithium-ion battery?
With using 0.5c to 1.0 c battery rate the charging takes 2-3 hours completely.
Q2. Can we use any charger to charge the lithium-ion charger?
No, as lithium-ion batteries take higher current in comparison to the old lead-acid batteries it needs specific chargers like USB chargers which can have high voltage potential difference to charge the high current requiring a lithium-ion battery.
Q3. How long does the battery last without charging?
If we talk about non-rechargeable batteries it can have an expiry life of 2 to 3 years. On another hand, a recharge requiring battery does lose their charge after some hours.
Q4. How to keep your battery healthy?
The methods to keep your battery healthy for a long time are:-
1. Use the correct voltage charger to charge it which does not produce a very less or large amount of current for the battery.
2. Connect the charger to a correct power socket.
3. Do not let the charger “ON” for a long period.
4. Do not disturb and wear or tear the cable of the charger.