Want new 18650 charger, what has these features?

[VapingBad]

300 makes very good points, I would add that most 4 bay chargers (the only exception I'm aware of is the eFest LUC V4, must be revised version and I don't know how to tell the differenced b4 u buy) will be substantially slower that the equivalent 2 bay model for lithium batteries as they only have two charging circuits. Using a 2 bay twice when you are not in a hurry will take at least an hour longer to charge 4 18650s, but when you are in a hurry it will be much faster for the first two (depending on capacity) and given that you should not leave lithium batteries charging unattended an 11 hour time slot (Nitecore i4 V2 4 x 18650 31000 mAh) to baby sit your charger may not be practical. Then in a year get another 2 bay if you feel the need, IMO more batteries is probably the most effective as you will use them until they ware out you are not spend any more in the long term.

Good lithium charger reviews. I want to upgrade my xTar WP II, but am a bit disappointed with what's on offer the xTar VP1 is over priced and the Efest LUC first version is a no go and how long to wait b4 u can be sure u get the revised version? The Nitecore (I'm gonna get blasted here) is a jack of all trades and master of none there is nothing wrong with it as long as you follow the manual, but there is nothing great about it either. Yes its good value, safe and well made but I want more.

IMO it's better to get separate chargers for lithium & NiMH, NiMH charging and battery conditioning is more complex than for lithium. I use a xTar for lithium's and have 8 NiMH chargers, because 7 were not great and got fed up with having to recycle NiMHs when they should have had much longer life (some of them better than a Nitecore i4), the one I use now is a Voltcraft Charge Manager 420, Anasmann are also top notch.

Just my opinion, not having a go at Nitecore or Efest chargers but in my experience getting a fairly good charger is only putting off getting a really good one YMMV.

[Perpetua]

Feb 16, 2014 2:13:17 GMT VapingBad said:

Just my opinion, not having a go at Nitecore or Efest chargers but in my experience getting a fairly good charger is only putting off getting a really good one YMMV.

I tend to agree . . . there's the ' tight wad ' element for many of us ( myself included ) when it comes to lashing out on a pucker charger, yet we'll happily spend alot of money on other equipment without hesistation.

My Xtar and Nitecore are adequate, but not spectacular . . . the sliders on the Nitecore for example, are quite scratchy and don't loosen up with use, but it charges perfectly ok.

So, for those of you techie people who know such stuff, what would you rate as an above average charger? Pila used to be considered ' the best ' when I started vaping:

www.cloud9vaping.co.uk/epages/yxve46fvrnud.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/yxve46fvrnud/Products/B56-09

[300]

Pila was considered the best when i started vaping too but i was too much of a tight wad to buy one. The Xtar SP2 was available for less money but gave similar performance & got good reviews so that's what i bought, it's not without it's shortcomings though....

Only 2 bays, not enough for most people these days.

Lowest setting is 0.5, 0.25 would be better.

Spacers needed for 18350, none provided & no way of securing Xtar's own brand spacers. In fact, 18350 isn't even on the list of batteries that the SP2 was designed for.

Would i recommend the SP2 to everyone? No, but it suits my charging needs & most importantly it looks after my batteries better than some & as good as the best. I've just bought another 2 for £15 each delivered, a bargain for me 'cos i was going to buy a backup anyway.

I recommend people check out the link in vapingbad's post above & make up their own mind.

[VapingBad]

Feb 16, 2014 12:18:45 GMT 300 said:

Would i recommend the SP2 to everyone? No, but it suits my charging needs & most importantly it looks after my batteries better than some & as good as the best. I've just bought another 2 for £15 each delivered, a bargain for me 'cos i was going to buy a backup anyway.

I was very tempted to do the same, it's definitely a bargain, but I think I wait for a while and have spent enough on bits to build a DNA30 recently. BTW c9v: Pair of AW 15mm Charging Spacers £2.95 + p&p should allow you to put 18350s in the SP2, or you could use spacer magnets.

[300]

Feb 16, 2014 12:35:34 GMT VapingBad said:

Feb 16, 2014 12:18:45 GMT 300 said:

Would i recommend the SP2 to everyone? No, but it suits my charging needs & most importantly it looks after my batteries better than some & as good as the best. I've just bought another 2 for £15 each delivered, a bargain for me 'cos i was going to buy a backup anyway.

I was very tempted to do the same, it's definitely a bargain, but I think I wait for a while and have spent enough on bits to build a DNA30 recently. BTW c9v: Pair of AW 15mm Charging Spacers £2.95 + p&p should allow you to put 18350s in the SP2, or you could use spacer magnets.

Thanks vapingbad, i do use spacers for 18350 charging, was just pointing out the fact that Xtar missed a trick in not providing their own spacers or any way of securing them.

[boyofford]

Well this thread is confusing me more and more lol.

Charging circuits?! what? lol
So most of 4 bay chargers charge slower when have 4 batteries in compared to when they have two.

I'm using 3 batteries at the moment, all 18650, in my mod.
I tend to swap early as voltage drops, assuming after initial drop, so no where near flat.
I use sub ohm coils so use all three batteries in a day and am constantly chargeing it seems at work and home lol.

[300]

Feb 16, 2014 13:10:30 GMT boyofford said:

Well this thread is confusing me more and more lol.

Charging circuits?! what? lol
So most of 4 bay chargers charge slower when have 4 batteries in compared to when they have two.

I'm using 3 batteries at the moment, all 18650, in my mod.
I tend to swap early as voltage drops, assuming after initial drop, so no where near flat.
I use sub ohm coils so use all three batteries in a day and am constantly chargeing it seems at work and home lol.

There's 2 of us going through batteries at a pretty decent rate which is why i've just bought more chargers to keep up, i switch my batteries out at around 3.5v/3.6v

[VapingBad]

Feb 16, 2014 13:10:30 GMT boyofford said:

So most of 4 bay chargers charge slower when have 4 batteries in compared to when they have two.

That's correct, EG Nitecore i4 bays 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 share charging circuits so if you put a battery in bay 1 & 3 they would share the 750 mA (IIRC it alternates between them rather than 375 mA each). These chargers work by providing a constant current until the battery gets up to voltage (about 4 V) then switch to constant voltage for the final saturation stage which takes about a third of the time of a full charge. During the final saturation stage the channel sharing shouldn't be a problem as the charger is outputting far fewer Amps. So they are not twice as slow as chargers that don't have shared circuits. If like you say you charge your batteries while they still have quite a bit of power left the shared phase will be shorter and the difference won't be so great.

There are probably 2 bay chargers that share a single charging circuit, I don't know, but it's worth checking before you buy.

[boyofford]

Feb 16, 2014 18:43:38 GMT VapingBad said:

Feb 16, 2014 13:10:30 GMT boyofford said:

So most of 4 bay chargers charge slower when have 4 batteries in compared to when they have two.

That's correct, EG Nitecore i4 bays 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 share charging circuits so if you put a battery in bay 1 & 3 they would share the 750 mA (IIRC it alternates between them rather than 375 mA each). These chargers work by providing a constant current until the battery gets up to voltage (about 4 V) then switch to constant voltage for the final saturation stage which takes about a third of the time of a full charge. During the final saturation stage the channel sharing shouldn't be a problem as the charger is outputting far fewer Amps. So they are not twice as slow as chargers that don't have shared circuits. If like you say you charge your batteries while they still have quite a bit of power left the shared phase will be shorter and the difference won't be so great.

There are probably 2 bay chargers that share a single charging circuit, I don't know, but it's worth checking before you buy.

Think my naff charger shares power, takes couple of hours or more to charge one battery but takes forever for two batteries! Pretty sure I am being far to over cautious with my batteries, when I got new ones as a pair they took 4hrs each for first charge and guess they wouldn't of been fully flat when I got them.

Waiting for pay day to make purchase.
As is usually my problem I've read so much that I end up more confused!

[boyofford]

Little update.
I've decided to go for the efest luc v4.
Won't charge AA/AAA but I'll get another charger for that.
Torchy is getting more in stock next week, and he sells the new version.

[lynwlt]

Battery chargers are the bane of my life...

I think the first one I purchased was a Trust fire one.

This was back in 2010.

Since then I have learnt much! (not!)

I have Nitecore and Xtar chargers that have failed me miserably.
By that I mean that they show no signs of receiving any power input and therefore charge nothing...
I also have another highly recommended charger, whose name I can't recall, but that only charges on one cell now.

The one that has consistently worked for me has been my Trustfire.
It sits in my bathroom sink, protected from water, and works every time.

I must have spent at least £60 on 'safer' chargers....

I assume they are considered safe because they do 'f-ck all' after the first couple of charges!

[Karma]

some things you can try lynwlt

wipe the connectors on your batteries and charger with alcohol

Have the slidy connectors perhaps got bent a bit by putting large batteries in it? You could just try bending them up again. That worked for me a few weeks aga

[boyofford]

Feb 24, 2014 12:03:51 GMT lynwlt said:

Battery chargers are the bane of my life...

I think the first one I purchased was a Trust fire one.

This was back in 2010.

Since then I have learnt much! (not!)

I have Nitecore and Xtar chargers that have failed me miserably.
By that I mean that they show no signs of receiving any power input and therefore charge nothing...
I also have another highly recommended charger, whose name I can't recall, but that only charges on one cell now.

The one that has consistently worked for me has been my Trustfire.
It sits in my bathroom sink, protected from water, and works every time.

I must have spent at least £60 on 'safer' chargers....

I assume they are considered safe because they do 'f-ck all' after the first couple of charges!

The efest is gona be my quality charger... fingers crossed it lasts a year at least then, don't sound like you've had much look with chargers in general.

Got a cheap no name charger which don't feel comfortable using for too long and another 18650 charger on its was as part of a cycle light set, not sure what that'll be like... but at least I'll have backups!