How Much Do You Know About The Positive Side Of An 18650 Battery?

The prominent 18650 cell is a lithium-ion battery that has found its use in diverse fields like:

· Portable electronics such as torch lights

· Electric cars or vehicles like Tesla, and so much more.

The major reason for the success of this battery is because of its properties when compared to those of its competitors. The properties of the 18650 lithium-ion battery consist of:

· Current carrying abilities

· Battery life cycle

· Storage life

· Battery voltage

· Safety of the battery, and;

· Operating temperature, etc.

Which Side Of The Battery Is Positive Or Negative· 

The positive cathode is usually coated with aluminum cobalt oxide and diverse extra components that are on the foil of the aluminum. Also, lithium cobaltite is a major part of the chemical reaction that is used to produce both discharge and charge.

Some elements are also added to enhance the performance of the 18650 battery. These elements can:

· Decreasing the internal resistance

· Increasing the capacity, and;

· Enhance performance against issues of collision, fire, and explosion.

Basically, a very important element that has been added is the flame-retardant material. As for the negative electrode, i.e., anode, it is graphite meaning nano-sized carbon powder, and it is coated on a copper foil.

Nonetheless, there are positive and negative methods of judging these batteries. Some methods include:

· Judging from the logo· 

When you want to judge from the logo of the 18650 battery, the left side is generally regarded as the positive side while the right side is known to be the negative side.

· Judging from the shape of the bottom

When you want to judge the 18650-battery using the shape of its bottom, the raised end is often the positive side, and the flat bottom has been known to be the negative side.

· Judging from multimeter measurement

When trying to Judge the 18650 battery to know its positive from the negative side, the measuring pen is used to show a positive number.

Here, the red line actually depicts a positive sign with the “+” symbol while the black which has the negative “-“ is taken as the negative. Nonetheless, when the negative number is displayed, the red test actually corresponds to the “-“ sign while the black corresponds to “+.”

· Judging from the modified model battery

Generally, the modified model battery is actually original. Here, the one that has a concave ring positioned at one end is the positive pole while the other end is dubbed as the negative pole.

What Happens If You Connect A Negative Battery Terminal To A Positive Terminal· 

When you are charging your battery, the life of your battery is extended, and it prospectively saves you some money. During the charging process, you may accidentally mix up the cables and place the wrong one on the info terminal

This implies that you may place the negative battery terminal on the positive battery terminal. When such a thing happens, it can possibly damage the battery and all other electrical components linked to the battery

Also, when you are charging your battery, it is vital that you link the cables to the exact and proper terminal.

What you have to do is to connect the red cable to the positive terminal of your battery while the black cable should be connected to the negative terminal.

If you encounter a mix-up and connect the red cable to the negative terminal and the black cable to the terminal that is positive, lots of problems may arise from this mistake.

Also, if you should reverse the polarity of your charger to the battery, the battery will have no choice than to explode. This may also result in the battery not charging anymore.

When such happens, you will have no choice than to purchase a replacement battery. Once your 18650-lithium battery is damaged completely, you will need to dispose of it adequately as it has the tendency to leak acid.

If you own a battery charger and you connect the wrong cable to the terminal mistakenly, it would lead to the charger being permanently damaged with no hopes of repair.

The charger will be totally unable to charge batteries ever again. Sometimes, such an error can damage the charger only partially, and the charger will work in a way that it only charges at a very slow rate.

Additionally, to effectively analyze the error people make when they connect the negative terminal to a positive one, when you connect the wrong cable, it can also damage the electrical components as well.

This is so bad that anything that the battery is connected to actually gets damaged as well.

In the same vein, if you should leave an electrical device connected or plugged into the battery while you further connect the battery to the charger, the connection may likely short out every electrical component of that device.

If all these should take place, both wiring and all other components will need to be replaced as soon as possible before the device can ever function again.

How To Tell Which Battery Cable Is Positive

You can always check and discover the batteries and their diverse terminals. Note that each battery has two metal terminals. One of such metal terminals is marked with the symbol “+” to signify positive.

For the other metal terminal, it is marked with the symbol “-“ to signify negative. Also, there are some positive and negative cables that are in the set of jumper cables.

When you make use of jumper cables, the red one is positive while the black one is negative. Do not forget that you should never connect the red cable to the negative battery terminal or even a vehicle that has a battery that is dead.

To Sum It Up

With this article, you will be able to have an idea on the grave damage a connection error can cause when you connect the negative battery terminal to the positive terminal. However, never forget to be cautious when dealing with 18650 batteries.