Slim Charger Issue?

[Tennovan]

So I got my black slim charger last week and after realizing it wasn't speeding up charge times, I decided to clock the charge time on my fairly new XL batt. The result was that it took 243 minutes to charge. In fact, it took more than an hour for the battery to get from 4.14-4.17v. Overall, I'm experiencing LONGER charge times over my traditional old-style charger with all my batteries. Compared to Morandir's test info, I'm averaging 100 minutes over his times.

I've got it in a socket by itself and have thoroughly cleaned the batteries so I'm pretty sure its making a clean connection. The worst part is that my XL battery will now barely last half the day when it was good for at least 2 when I first received it last month. I measured it at 4.17v coming off the charger and after 5 quick pulls, it measured at 4.11v. At that rate, it'll barely last an hour or two before needing another charge.

Is the battery degradation normal or is it the result of a bad charger? Any suggestions on fixing the charger itself or does it need to be switched out? Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Morandir835]

Tennovan sir this could be a result of one of two things- bad batt or bad charger. Is this an xl manual or auto? Regular version or king diamond or stealth series? The regular version of batts do come off at 4.18 or so from the slim charger, and they drop voltage faster than the kd and stealth batts. Once they get to 3.7v range they hover around there for a good amount of their life...

Have you tried another batt on the charger sir? Could determine which is the culprit......

 

[Tennovan]

Its a standard XL manual, about 30 days old. I have tried my regular manuals on the Slim but will have to check charge times later today. From what I remember though, they took about 3 hours on the Slim while usually only 2 hours on the traditional charger.

Ever since I started using the Slim, my batteries have definitely started acting wonky though. As an example, I stuck a regular manual (purchased with the XL) on the Slim this afternoon for about 90 minutes which should have just about charged it up. When I took it off, it measured at 3.85v... not even close to the 4.18v I was expecting. I stuck it on my old charger here at work and its been charging for almost 2 hours now.

 

[Morandir835]

Sounds like a bad charger Tennovan sir. Would fill out a cs ticket.

 

[EleanorR]

Sounds like a bad charger that's killing your batteries!!

 

[Iowa Gal]

I agree...bad charger as I have found the opposite with my slim chargers (have 4 going every night

 

[Tennovan]

That's my luck haha. Hopefully I didn't mess my batteries up too much by continuing to use the Slim. And wouldn't you know it, I just loaned out my Fat charger to my sister (dog ate through hers). I guess it's up to my USB charger now.

 

[cryx]

Please followup with what you find/found to be the problem! I'm having the same issue with battery life and it seemed to start with the slim chargers. I was -shredded- a month ago when I asked if anybody else was noticing a problem with the slim chargers. Since I gave my original chargers to some financially strapped friends, and my wife and I rotate 6 batteries on 4 slims, it's going to be a bit harder to find the problem. Esp. since most batteries last 1/2 day so the chargers are always in use...

 

[Tennovan]

Well I got in touch with CS and after a couple rounds of testing, we decided that the Slim I received was defective. I just received the replacement yesterday so I haven't had much time to test it, but I can tell you that charge times are vastly improved over the defective Slim (meaning back within normal range).

Whether its faster than the Phat chargers is still unknown. I had an XL manual charge about 30 minutes faster than normal (and 90 mins faster than my first Slim) but a regular manual charged right afterwards took the full 2 hours it normally does on the older chargers. Neither were completely drained, so for now I'm chalking this up to me simply charging with different amounts of battery life remaining. I'll do a deep cycle next and report back.

One slight thing I noticed was that both the batteries came off the charger at 4.15v when I believe its supposed to be 4.18v. Not a huge deal but I'll keep an eye on this. It may have just been a variance in my meter or something.

In regards to battery life, I've only gone through a single charge cycle so its hard for me to tell. What I can tell you is that while using the defective Slim, my batteries weren't working well at all. But after charging them on the Phat, they worked just fine. If you've got 4 slims, I'm wondering if you've got a bad one in there and its killing the battery life. You might try rotating a Slim out every couple of days to see if your batteries improve. If it does, then the one not in use is probably bad in some way. If it wasn't for the fact that my defective Slim was causing longer charge times, I probably would have just thought my batteries were dying by themselves.

My other theory was that the Slim just doesn't like some batteries. In any case, I'll keep you posted on my findings.

 

[dohsma]

Well I got in touch with CS and after a couple rounds of testing, we decided that the Slim I received was defective. I just received the replacement yesterday so I haven't had much time to test it, but I can tell you that charge times are vastly improved over the defective Slim (meaning back within normal range).

Whether its faster than the Phat chargers is still unknown. I had an XL manual charge about 30 minutes faster than normal (and 90 mins faster than my first Slim) but a regular manual charged right afterwards took the full 2 hours it normally does on the older chargers. Neither were completely drained, so for now I'm chalking this up to me simply charging with different amounts of battery life remaining. I'll do a deep cycle next and report back.

One slight thing I noticed was that both the batteries came off the charger at 4.15v when I believe its supposed to be 4.18v. Not a huge deal but I'll keep an eye on this. It may have just been a variance in my meter or something.

In regards to battery life, I've only gone through a single charge cycle so its hard for me to tell. What I can tell you is that while using the defective Slim, my batteries weren't working well at all. But after charging them on the Phat, they worked just fine. If you've got 4 slims, I'm wondering if you've got a bad one in there and its killing the battery life. You might try rotating a Slim out every couple of days to see if your batteries improve. If it does, then the one not in use is probably bad in some way. If it wasn't for the fact that my defective Slim was causing longer charge times, I probably would have just thought my batteries were dying by themselves.

My other theory was that the Slim just doesn't like some batteries. In any case, I'll keep you posted on my findings.

Definitely keep us posted. The fact that it charges slightly less is in line with spec for that charger. We have been told that it charges to the optimum voltage for the battery. Phat charger... lol, I like that. Maybe we'll have to change the product description for the old one

 

[cryx]

I'll have to dig out my volt meter and suffer the out-of-rotation technique. I ordered my chargers on Jun 20, so hopefully V4L will offer me the same great level of CS if I find I have a bad one...

Edit: I should add that I've often noticed that batteries with a firm contact that read green will go red if unscrewed and rescrewed. It's not that they were loosely screwed, and I don't think it's been specific to any one battery. Unfortunately the chargers are plugged into an octopus so I don't know which charger it might be. Maybe I wouldn't have a problem if I could convince my wife to do more of the screwing.

 

[Morandir835]

Cyrx sir the king diamond and stealth series do very well on these chargers in all my tests, it's the vapor king (old school batts) that vary in performance on them.

 

[cryx]

Interesting. My wife noticed the problem first. She uses vapor titans, while I use the vapor king because I don't care for the crystals and want a manual with a light (ie. no stealth for me). We have/originally chalked it up to lower quality batteries since there's a marked difference in battery quality from the beginning of the year vs. < mid-year. At a family get-together this past weekend, my sister & aunt in laws were both griping that their recent batteries don't seem to have the life their original ones did. Ditto. After I was berated, it had honestly affirmed that it wasn't a charger issue until I saw Tennovan's post.

At any rate, if what you say is true, V4L should not be selling a product that only works well with some of their batteries -- at least w/o a description that it's only recommended for certain batteries. If it's not a defective charger, that's really sad, because the issue has already led me to reluctantly purchase batteries elsewhere even though I didn't want to due to a darn feeling of loyalty to V4L...

 

[Morandir835]

I've had no real issues Cryx sir, on my non kd/ss batts see anywhere between 4.157-4.189 off the slim charger. A slight variance, but nothing so bad as to say it's a problem with the charger.

 

[EleanorR]

Well, just to make this collection of evidence even weirder . . . I have mostly been using my Vapor King XL Manuals lately, and I always use my Slim Charger for them . . . they charge faster, last just as long as ever, evince no problems at all . . . My best guess would be that the problem does lie in manufacturing variances on the Slim Charger, some of which are clearly just old-fashioned defective.

EDIT: Cross-posted with Pablo!

 

[cryx]

Well, I only see that as good for you, and hopefully good for me!

 

[Lisa66]

I do have one slim charger the acts differently than the other two. I can't say if it's charging differently because since the initial use of them, I've pretty much ignored how fast they charge. However, the one in question stays lit (green) after I've turned off the switch to my power strip, and it often won't come on at all when I turn the power strip on. I'll mess with it for a little bit and it eventually turns on. So far it hasn't been an issue and seems to be charging...