Is Pila charger worth it ?

[Nightflight]

Getting ready to order Provari Mini and was wondering if the Pila Charger is worth the extra money or would the standard charger be good enough ? I am going to buy 3 batteries (2 18350 and 1 18490 ) and the extension cap. Posted a WTB ad and was wondering what a good price would be if I receive a response. Any help or feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[niczgreat]

Charger is very important.
The two chargers that are considered best
are the Pila and the Xtar WP II

I bought the xtar WP II for about $20.00 delivered.
Pila is around $45.00 and I didn't think that the Pila was worth the extra money.

Lithium batteries are not safe, your risk is reduced if you are using a quality charger.

The Nice Feature about the XTAR is that they have two settings 500ma and 1 amp. Smaller batteries you charge at the 500ma and bigger batteries at 1amp. This gives you huge flexibility in what you can charge.

 

[juicejunky]

Haven't tried an Xtar WP II, but Pilas are worth it for the safety and the batteries are so much easier to put in than something like the Ultrafires. UFs drove me nuts with the spring load.

 

[niczgreat]

The Pila is a very respected charger and considered to be the best. So if you have $45.00 to blow, I don't think you could go wrong buying one.

I'm on a budget and I've had very good experience with Orbtronic Products. I bought a SoShine Charger from them and it was excellent and the batteries lasted forever, the 18650 batteries I bought from them left Trustfire in the dust. The problem with my old Soshine is that it only charges at 1Amp and my new batteries are 18350 700ah, it's not recommended to charge batteries at more than the Mah rating and you could end up with an explosion or damaging the battery by charging at that level.

I like that the Xtar has a manual switch that allows me to charge my smaller batteries at 500mah, it just makes me feel more secure that I can manually control it.

The Pila, I believe autosenses the lower mah but I'm not sure.

 

[niczgreat]

One other comment, both Pila and Xtar are both Phase Chargers, they go through a charging algorithm that usually ends up with the charging current being very low at the end of the charge. They do it differently but either is considered a superior charging method to the cheapies like the Trustfire which charges at 1 voltage the whole time and than shuts down.

 

[Nightflight]

Would like to thank you both for the replies given, I don't have $45 to blow so I think I may just go with the Xtar. I think I would be better off getting that one as to get the standard charger that is offered for the Provari.

 

[niczgreat]

Whether you choose the Xtar or the Pila. You are going the right route by buying a Phase Charger.

My batteries have lasted much much longer using the phase charger than when I was using the cheapo. You'll end up making your money back with your batteries lasting longer. In addition what price can you put on safety. I've never heard of a Pila or a xtar blowing up or blowing up a battery. But there are stories about the trustfire.

I bought my Xtar from Batteries/Chargers sb Flashlights.

Everyone else was out and they are selling for $16.99 with $3.50 Shipping, Orbtronic is $23.99 and they are out of stock.
I called sb flashlight and they stock the products they sell (Some companies drop ship and when there is a shortage, they don't have Website Updated and your product is delayed) and had in stock. They shipped the next day.

Also the revision was the latest. I know because on the forums they showed pictures complaining that the 500ma and the 1amp weren't clearly marked. On this version of the charger they are marked

 

[Riverboat]

Getting ready to order Provari Mini and was wondering if the Pila Charger is worth the extra money or would the standard charger be good enough ? I am going to buy 3 batteries (2 18350 and 1 18490 ) and the extension cap. Posted a WTB ad and was wondering what a good price would be if I receive a response. Any help or feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

Pilas are worth every penny... Mine is 2 years old, batteries come off the charger at 4.2..... Perfect

 

[tsk138]

I just picked up a Pila charger when I ordered my Provari and it's been rock solid so far.
My reasoning for spending the extra money was mainly for safety and all the great comments I heard about it.
One less thing I have to worry about if worth the cost to me.

 

[Crack3dOne]

From what I've read the Pila puts a charge on a 18650 in about 20 minutes. My Ultrafire takes several hours. Not sure on XTAR time.

 

[niczgreat]

This is a link on the charger. It may take longer than the Pila because it has an algorithm that when the battery is very low it charges at lower MA. But the advantage is that the way it does it is low enough to reset a overcharged battery.

Link to a review: The review is older so there is a possibility that the charger has changed as you can see by the change in labeling on the Charging Voltage Review of / Measurement on Xtar WP2 II charger
Salient part is
Below 2 volt the charger charges with about 0.5 mA, this is enough to reset a protection pcb (Note: The led is green).
Between 2 volt and 3 volt the charger charges with about 80 mA.
Between 3 and 4.15 volt the charger is applying regular charge current (See curve below).
When the charge stops the current is between 60 and 75 mA in my test, when the charger is finishes the current goes down below 100uA (This is a insignificant current).
The charger will restart charging when the cell drops to 4.0 volt or after a power loss.
When charger is disconnected from power, but with a battery in, it will draw about 550 uA from the battery.
Two batteries will not change the charge current.
Because each channel is independent, the different voltages vary between the channels with a small amount.

 

[tsk138]

Mine doesn't do a full charge in 20 minutes but I was definitely surprised at how fast it did charge.

From what I've read the Pila puts a charge on a 18650 in about 20 minutes. My Ultrafire takes several hours. Not sure on XTAR time.

 

[niczgreat]

The Pila Charger charges at 625ma per channel. The XTAR charges at 1amp each channel or 500ma. Theoretically the Xtar is capable of charging faster than the Pila.

 

[Nightflight]

Ended up getting my xtar from ebay 17.95 shipped free. Would like to thank everyone for their input on the subject. Now if I can just make up my mind between the provari or the provari mini I would be all set. lol

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

A side question about the Xtar. One of my devices uses 16350s, would I need spacers to use the WP2 II? My primary device uses 18650s, so no worries there of course.

 

[niczgreat]

You can find spacers at Lamplighter for $1.00 a pair they are specially for the Xtar and screw in. They also screw together if you need more extension. Click here 2 Additional Xtar Charger Spacers

 

[Nightflight]

You can get them on ebay for 3.45 and free shipping, the other place was 1.00 for the pair and 3.50 to ship them to me.

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

Yeah, SB has them as an add on when you buy the charger, was more curious if they're needed with the 16350 or not.

 

[Nightflight]

Can't remember where I saw it, I've looked at so much stuff the last couple days but I saw that you will need 2 spacers for each 18350 battery and not sure of the size difference between 16350 and 18350....so basically I'm no help. lol

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

Can't remember where I saw it, I've looked at so much stuff the last couple days but I saw that you will need 2 spacers for each 18350 battery and not sure of the size difference between 16350 and 18350....so basically I'm no help. lol

Don't mind my typo. I did mean 18650s. So to charge 2 at a time, I'm looking at 4 spacers total yeah? Not bad. Still under 20 bux before shipping. Probably not this payday since I need to do a juice resupply, but next week. Granted, I have no issues per say with the chargers my kits came with ... but a quality charger is always a good thing. That I learned from photography and all my nimh AA rechargeable batts.