The best battery charger?

[Vaslovik]

To get it to charge at .25 put both batteries in the center slots then use the button to change it to .25. I think anytime the outer ports are "occupied" it defaults to .5.

But I don't want it to charge at .25, I want it to charge at 1 amp, like my LUC did.

 

[Underwhelmed]

**********

 

[ReigntheGamer]

Nope, I just put both batteries in the two center slots and it will not do 1 amp.

Yeah I misread and edited it's only the outer slots.

 

[beckdg]

Love my xtar VP4, but I am going to have to get a smaller charger for travelling, maybe a single slot Xtar?

Vp2 is a nice option. It's what I use in my truck.

Tapatyped

 

[Vaslovik]

Yeah I misread and edited it's only the outer slots.

Well I'll have to check it out later, I now have 18 fully charged batteries, so I have to vape a while before I can try that out.

 

[MikeyConti]

on the VP4 only the 1st port and 4th port do 1A charge..

 

[ReigntheGamer]

Well I'll have to check it out later, I now have 18 fully charged batteries, so I have to vape a while before I can try that out.

No worries, I am where I can check mine now. The outer ports can charge up to 1.0 the middle are only up to .5, and if you have them all occupied it defaults to .5 or can be lowered to .25.

 

[Vaslovik]

Okay, now I'm concerned. I put another battery in it that was down to 3.8 volts, and nothing happens. No charging going on, nothing on the display, just a red light at the top. The button does nothing, no charging action is going on at all. I'm wondering if I got a lemon here...

I unplugged it and plugged it back in, then it started charging. I'm thinking that should not have happened.

 

[ReigntheGamer]

Okay, now I'm concerned. I put another battery in it that was down to 3.8 volts, and nothing happens. No charging going on, nothing on the display, just a red light at the top. The button does nothing, no charging action is going on at all. I'm wondering if I got a lemon here...

I unplugged it and plugged it back in, then it started charging. I'm thinking that should not have happened.

Not sure on that, I would wait and see if it does it again before getting worried though.

 

[Vaslovik]

Well, on the plus side, it's now charging at 1 amp

 

[Baditude]

Okay, now I'm concerned. I put another battery in it that was down to 3.8 volts, and nothing happens. No charging going on, nothing on the display, just a red light at the top. The button does nothing, no charging action is going on at all. I'm wondering if I got a lemon here...

I unplugged it and plugged it back in, then it started charging. I'm thinking that should not have happened.

Well, these do use processors and circuit boards like a computer. What you did is probably "reboot" the processor to recognize the battery charge status.

 

[denti]

been looking for a new charger as well and came across this nice little puppy

XTAR VC4 Charger | XTAR Direct

looks like i can shove just about any battery into it and it'd charge it.

The charger is compatible with:

10440/14500/14650/16340/17500/17670/18350/18490/18500/18650/18700/22650/25500/26650/32650 3.6V/3.7V Li-ion and AAAA/AAA/AA/A/SC/C/D. and Ni-MH/Ni-CD batteries so there's no need to buy a separate charger for each battery type.

 

[Vaslovik]

No worries, I am where I can check mine now. The outer ports can charge up to 1.0 the middle are only up to .5, and if you have them all occupied it defaults to .5 or can be lowered to .25.

Ah! Thank you for that! I was wondering. When I looked online before buying it the ads said it has 4 completely independent charging slots. I took that to mean they would all work the same if I put 4 batteries in it, and charge at 1 amp if I wanted. So that's not the case, and somehow I'm not at all surprised.

 

[ReigntheGamer]

Ah! Thank you for that! I was wondering. When I looked online before buying it the ads said it has 4 completely independent charging slots. I took that to mean they would all work the same if I put 4 batteries in it, and charge at 1 amp if I wanted. So that's not the case, and somehow I'm not at all surprised.

This is just a guess but it might be limiting 4 batteries charging to under 1.0 amp for safety reasons.

 

[Vaslovik]

This is just a guess but it might be limiting 4 batteries charging to under 1.0 amp for safety reasons.

That might well be true. I don't know enough about chargers to know, but one would think it could charge 2 batteries at 1 amp. My LUC V4 could charge 4 of them at 1 amp, and I never had any reason to think there was a safety issue.

 

[ReigntheGamer]

That might well be true. I don't know enough about chargers to know, but one would think it could charge 2 batteries at 1 amp. My LUC V4 could charge 4 of them at 1 amp, and I never had any reason to think there was a safety issue.

It could be something as simple as reducing the load on the charger to extend the life of it. I'm not a charger guru either so this is just speculation on my part.

 

[Boden]

It could be something as simple as reducing the load on the charger to extend the life of it. I'm not a charger guru either so this is just speculation on my part.

A 4A charger would need a built in fan to keep it cool.

 

[beckdg]

I'm rather undecided on the use of LiPo charging bags.

Theory is that battery chargers have an amount of heat generation as a byproduct of charging the batteries. If a charging bag is used while charging, that heat generated by a charger can build up inside of the unventilated bag and possibly defeat the purpose of preventing a fire.

Charging bags were invented for the use of charging LiPo batteries. LiPo batteries will vent fire and possibly explode when they go into thermal runaway, like ICR lithium batteries. LiPo batteries are not put in a box charger, but are connected to the charger by cords. The batteries go into the charging bag, but the charger itself remains outside of the bag.

My recommendation is to use an "intelligent charger", but don't depend upon it blindly. I recommend charging on a flame resistant surface: stovetop, marble counter top, baking pan, pyrex dish. Never charge batteries when not physically present to keep an eye on the charger progress.

Rest batteries after charging. One commonly-reported factor in almost all the incidents we hear of where batteries failed violently while in use is that they were taken directly off the charger and then used immediately, at which point they failed.

Because of this, we think it may be a good idea to rest batteries after charging them. This advice will not be found in the usual 'reference bibles' on batteries, but we see more and different reports than others. Therefore we now advise:

Do not use batteries directly after charging them. Use a battery or batteries you previously charged, and that have rested for several hours. This is especially important if using a stacked pair for higher voltage, as statistically the risk is far higher.

Scrap the Pyrex dish idea. It's a bad idea. The temperatures created by a battery vent are too high and localized. When Pyrex explodes from this treatment, it's violent and dangerous. Then the battery is still exposed to the surface beneath the pyrex.

Tapatyped

 

[beckdg]

I'm rather undecided on the use of LiPo charging bags.

Theory is that battery chargers have an amount of heat generation as a byproduct of charging the batteries. If a charging bag is used while charging, that heat generated by a charger can build up inside of the unventilated bag and possibly defeat the purpose of preventing a fire.

Charging bags were invented for the use of charging LiPo batteries. LiPo batteries will vent fire and possibly explode when they go into thermal runaway, like ICR lithium batteries. LiPo batteries are not put in a box charger, but are connected to the charger by cords. The batteries go into the charging bag, but the charger itself remains outside of the bag.

Not only that, but there are more useless charging bags readily available than good ones. And most of the people giving battery advice on this forum wouldn't know a bean from a hole in the ground to make a suggestion for a useful charging bag.

I've seen at least a dozen proven bad suggestions here. Haven't seen a good one I recall.

Tapatyped

 

[Vaslovik]

A 4A charger would need a built in fan to keep it cool.

What is a 4A charger?