Nitecore SC4 - Superb Charger

This isn’t a review as I don’t have all the gear to properly test this but mine arrived yesterday and first impressions are it’s great.

It’s a chunky beast compared to the OPUS chargers I’ve got but the bonus is that it is nearly silent. There is a good amount of mass to dissipate heat and the only noise you can hear if the room is really quiet is the occasional charging circuitry changing.

I was charging 4 x 18650’s last night and noticed that they were all charging at 2000 (1997)mAh each. The product description shows its 3A max per channel OR 6A total output. What is going on here? Is it jumping slot to slot?

I’m tempted to get 8 cells all the same, drain them down to the same voltage then charge them all at “full speed” on the Opus and the SC4 and see which one is the fastest.

A couple of comments about the charger though are that the display is very easy to read. I was wary about the lack of information for each cell but it’s okay as you just press to jump cell to cell for more information.

The resistance check seems like a nice addition. It showed me that one of my “rescued” cells was actually knackered as I first expected.

I’ve not tried restoring dead cells but I’m hoping to find where I placed those cells in the next few days.

I did charge a 26650 cell at 3A and was pleased to see the cell didn’t get warm and over half an hour the display told me that it had charged it by 1482mA which makes sense.

All in all its a nice charger from my very limited time with it, I’m just confused about the 4 x 2000mAh being displayed yet a max output of 6A

does it measure or test the capacity of the cells? that’s the reason I’m resisting to buy it

Hi,

The manual can be found here: http://charger.nitecore.com/pdf/SC4_UM_EN.pdf

It doesn’t look like it’ll discharge and recharge the cells. I purchased this because of the faster charge rate and the fact it is silent. Sometimes I want to charge my cells in a quiet environment and the pair of Opus chargers I’ve got are simply too noisy for that.

The charger only counts the mAh charged to the cell, there is no discharge capacity test

Yeah, that’s odd. The manual clearly states 4 x 1500mAh. You might want to shoot Nitecore an email and ask about it. They’re usually pretty good about responding in a timely fashion.

mAh is the capacity mA is charging current

Of course. I goofed. Thanks for the correction.

It was my bad. I was lazy when I was typing it earlier :smiley:

the video will flip round a bit later

Any update?

How does it compare to your Opus chargers?

I love it. Best bit about it is the silence. I use it all the time now.

Thanks. What did you have before and how does it compare?

So I’m still not sure…this is a 4 channel 2A (per channel) charger, so 8A over 4 channels?

But if you have 2 26650’s in the 2 outside slots it’s 2 bays at 3A each?

Has HKJ done a review on this yet ??

Not that I have found, and I was looking for an HKJ review too. Someone probably has to send him a unit so he can do what he does.

It’s either in HKJ’s queue, or it’s on the shortlist to be added to the queue. See here:

I’m looking forward to a Nitecore F2 review myself :slight_smile:

I’m excited for HKJ’s review of both this and the Miboxer C4-12 (3A over 4 channels)

The C4-12 is not on my schedule or in my queue yet , the SC4 review will be published in about two weeks.

The heavy discount is today only if I understand it right.
Is there a reason to avoid it?

Regular charging of LiIon works very well, but not everything is perfect, you will have to wait for the review to see what the problematic areas are.

Thanks for the preview!