I had a Nitecore I2 that died on me early this year after at least three years of pretty heavy use. Those sleds were awful but yeah, it worked well until it didn't.
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I have a nitecore 4 bay used every other day for the last 2 years. Still works great. Bought on a sale for 13.00 from some cig place in NY can't remember the site. I would buy another tomorrow for that price.
my vote for the Efest LUC4
It is in the instructions but it just says to hold the button to turn the display off.Not turn the device off.It maybe just lost in translation but I would be curious to see if it draws power when "off".
I really don't understand why they don't just add a rocker switch to them but it may have something to do with the wall wart leaching power if left plugged in.Which leads me to my next question.Why not put a regular plug on them(I know some do have them) and an on off switch?xtar are you listening?
I have the Luc 4, Luc 6, and Luc c4 and they are all great. I gave away my Nitecore and put the Xtar in the closet. Efest rules, but not their batteries.
It is in the instructions but it just says to hold the button to turn the display off.Not turn the device off.It maybe just lost in translation but I would be curious to see if it draws power when "off".
I really don't understand why they don't just add a rocker switch to them but it may have something to do with the wall wart leaching power if left plugged in.Which leads me to my next question.Why not put a regular plug on them(I know some do have them) and an on off switch?Xtar are you listening?
i just stuck a almost full battery on there with it off, i'll let you know if it charges
edit to add...
i'll let you know either way... duh.. not like i'm gonna leave you hanging on that.. my wordage sometimes...
I just picked up one of these compliments of eNook and the only drawback is this one is a USB device but can use a 2A power supply!
I currently use a xtar vp2.
I really need 4 bay charger. Heck an 8 bay might not be a bad idea
is efest a decent battery charger??
was looking at the lush Q4
but then efest luc 4...
like i really don't know what the heck the difference is.
Any of the four leading charger manufacturers would be a good choice from a functional point of view, all do what they are designed to do, safely charge batteries. When searching for a "budget" four bay charger what matters most is where you buy it from. You can spend $25 for an Efest LUSH Q4 -or- $18 for the exact same unit depending on -where- you buy it from. Don't forget to compare shipping costs, some vendors charge twice as much as others. I'd recommend comparison shopping Earth's #1 source for IMR 18650 Batteries, Chargers, Cases & Wraps | IMRbatteries.com and Illumn.com - Flashlights, Batteries, Carry Gear, Intelligent LED Lighting, and More! both are reputable vendors and have competitive prices. To save $$ forget the bells, whistles and large, fancy multi-color displays, focus on the charging features that are important and you can save $$. On a tight budget I'd look at the Nitecore i4 for $17 or the Efest LUSH Q4 for $18. I like the specs on the LUSH Q4 better. For $24 the Efest Luc4 is a great charger. It's faster than the LUSH Q4 when charging multiple batteries at the same time and has a basic digital display. Whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck!
It is in the instructions but it just says to hold the button to turn the display off.Not turn the device off.It maybe just lost in translation but I would be curious to see if it draws power when "off".
I really don't understand why they don't just add a rocker switch to them but it may have something to do with the wall wart leaching power if left plugged in.Which leads me to my next question.Why not put a regular plug on them(I know some do have them) and an on off switch?Xtar are you listening?
They don't draw any appreciable amount of power when off, I'll plug chargers in my kill a watt tomorrow to find out. There's a number of reasons why they don't put the power supply in the charger. Primary reason is cost of course, when you use an external psu you don't have to worry about separating the high voltage from the low voltage and the micro controllers. Heat is another problem (especially 2 amp chargers) with built in power supplies.
TLDR; external power supplies are cheaper for the manufacturer.
It is in the instructions but it just says to hold the button to turn the display off.Not turn the device off.It maybe just lost in translation but I would be curious to see if it draws power when "off".
I really don't understand why they don't just add a rocker switch to them but it may have something to do with the wall wart leaching power if left plugged in.Which leads me to my next question.Why not put a regular plug on them(I know some do have them) and an on off switch?Xtar are you listening?
you are very correct. it did in fact charge my battery
Any of the four leading charger manufacturers would be a good choice from a functional point of view, all do what they are designed to do, safely charge batteries. When searching for a "budget" four bay charger what matters most is where you buy it from. You can spend $25 for an Efest LUSH Q4 -or- $18 for the exact same unit depending on -where- you buy it from. Don't forget to compare shipping costs, some vendors charge twice as much as others. I'd recommend comparison shopping Earth's #1 source for IMR 18650 Batteries, Chargers, Cases & Wraps | IMRbatteries.com and Illumn.com - Flashlights, Batteries, Carry Gear, Intelligent LED Lighting, and More! both are reputable vendors and have competitive prices. To save $$ forget the bells, whistles and large, fancy multi-color displays, focus on the charging features that are important and you can save $$. On a tight budget I'd look at the Nitecore i4 for $17 or the Efest LUSH Q4 for $18. I like the specs on the LUSH Q4 better. For $24 the Efest Luc4 is a great charger. It's faster than the LUSH Q4 when charging multiple batteries at the same time and has a basic digital display. Whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck!
thanks for this. good info. i usually order from imr or rtd, but eciggity had a sale so i grabbed one there. i went with the LUC 4.
i had learned not to get the efest batteries, i wasn't so sure about the chargers. i've been learning a lot on this thread!!
This a deal and a half. The vp4(older) is far better than the vc4(newer)
Xtar VP4 Li-ion Charger
Xtar VP4 Li-ion Charger
So my Nitecore SC4 arrived today. It has an internal power supply which is a bit different.
Not sure it's any better than having an external PSU, just mentioning it because it's different.
I haven't used it yet, but read through the manual and spotted one extra feature of note that my Luc v4 doesn't have.
Apparently it provides battery monitoring and will give a 'Poor' battery warning when the cells internal resistance goes over 250mOhms.
Seems this 250mOhms is the same no matter what type of battery you are charging, 18650, 20700, etc..
I don't know enough about batteries to appreciate if 250mOhms is a universal internal resistance of importance, hopefully the manufacture does (unless this is a gimmick), but it should be handy for letting me know when my batteries have passed their safe usage point.
Not sure it's any better than having an external PSU, just mentioning it because it's different.
I haven't used it yet, but read through the manual and spotted one extra feature of note that my Luc v4 doesn't have.
Apparently it provides battery monitoring and will give a 'Poor' battery warning when the cells internal resistance goes over 250mOhms.
Seems this 250mOhms is the same no matter what type of battery you are charging, 18650, 20700, etc..
I don't know enough about batteries to appreciate if 250mOhms is a universal internal resistance of importance, hopefully the manufacture does (unless this is a gimmick), but it should be handy for letting me know when my batteries have passed their safe usage point.
my luc 4 came.
i can say a nice thing about the xtar... it is not crunchy!
that's the only negative so far. it's kinda crunchy. but works fine. i'm happy.
i can say a nice thing about the xtar... it is not crunchy!
that's the only negative so far. it's kinda crunchy. but works fine. i'm happy.
Boy, did I just screw up!
I went to recharge a couple of LG HG2s and a Panny PD on my i4 intellecharger.
Toward the end of the day I saw 3 lights all blinking on/off at the same time on the bay with the Panny. The top light seemed to have a more of an amber color; found I had the Panny in there backwards.
Did I just screw my battery and charger?
Thanks for the thread, coinkydinkly, I've been casually eyeing it until now.
I went to recharge a couple of LG HG2s and a Panny PD on my i4 intellecharger.
Toward the end of the day I saw 3 lights all blinking on/off at the same time on the bay with the Panny. The top light seemed to have a more of an amber color; found I had the Panny in there backwards.
Did I just screw my battery and charger?
Thanks for the thread, coinkydinkly, I've been casually eyeing it until now.
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Boy, did I just screw up!
I went to recharge a couple of LG HG2s and a Panny PD on my i4 intellecharger.
Toward the end of the day I saw 3 lights all blinking on/off at the same time on the bay with the Panny. The top light seemed to have a more of an amber color; found I had the Panny in there backwards.
Did I just screw my battery and charger?
Thanks for the thread, coinkydinkly, I've been casually eyeing it until now.
Both should be fine, the blinking should have been the reverse polarity circuitary in action. My guess is no harm done.
just a warning light......ive done itBoy, did I just screw up!
I went to recharge a couple of LG HG2s and a Panny PD on my i4 intellecharger.
Toward the end of the day I saw 3 lights all blinking on/off at the same time on the bay with the Panny. The top light seemed to have a more of an amber color; found I had the Panny in there backwards.
Did I just screw my battery and charger?
Thanks for the thread, coinkydinkly, I've been casually eyeing it until now.
Thanks Caterpiller!
just a warning light......ive done it
Thanks BackDoc!
That's great news. As a public service, I'm setting the offending battery right side up in said bay. Though, I went ahead and put metal cake pans above and below the charger.
I was worried about the top light being more amber than the usual yellow ones. So, I tested all bays and saw that same amber light was also the middle light in the last bay. So I'm chalking it up to be a QC issue.
On another note, I find the i4 gets really warm when all bays are in use. With most decent chargers costing less that $30, it might be time to look into the Luc 4.
i would recommend the LUC4 SMA, i had allot of trouble with the nitecores getting too hot......did not sit well with me.........i have a bunch of Xtars VC2s,4s, and i always go to the LUC4....great at 1ampThanks Caterpiller!
Thanks BackDoc!
That's great news. As a public service, I'm setting the offending battery right side up in said bay. Though, I went ahead and put metal cake pans above and below the charger.
I was worried about the top light being more amber than the usual yellow ones. So, I tested all bays and saw that same amber light was also the middle light in the last bay. So I'm chalking it up to be a QC issue.
On another note, I find the i4 gets really warm when all bays are in use. With most decent chargers costing less that $30, it might be time to look into the Luc 4.
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