Greetings to the forum, as this is my first official post since joining a few months ago.
My introduction to LED lights was an Olight S1R, and up until very recently I’ve almost exclusively used lights with built in charging.
However, upon discovering BLF and learning more about what kind of lights are available, I’ve begun to expand my collection to include lights that require a separate charger. I’ve picked up a couple Astrolux lights, a BLF A6, I was able to get on the interest list and pick up 2 FW3As, and I have a couple Emisars enroute.
All that said, I’m in the market for a charger with at least 4 bays, charging primarily 18650s, but capable of charging a variety of sizes (26650 will be my largest cell currently, smallest 10440)
I’d like to stay in the $30-$50 range, but I’d pay a little more for something highly recommended.
As far as features, I don’t know enough about chargers to know what I do or don’t need. So I’m hoping someone will point out the most important features I should look for.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Each one has its pluses and minuses. No one has it all. Yeah, read that again, let it sink in. You’ll go crazy trying to find The One™, so don’t bother.
Hence, I have an almighty Miboxer (hey, it says so right on the box), a regular mighty Opus, a Zanflare, and a Nitecore. All 4-bay chargers, not even counting the 1- and 2-bay LKs.
Most of the time I use my mighty Opus, but I have it on a cellphone/tablet stand oriented vertically to let hot air naturally waft its way up’n’out, as it gets heat-stroke pretty easily. And I don’t want the fan buzzing like an angry bumblebee all night long.
It seems to be the most flexible, so if you want to start with one, I’d go with the Opus (BC-3100 or whatever).
What Lightbringer said.
I’d add the Lii-500 and Zanflare C4, the C4 being my go to charger for most things, but the Opus has more features and power.
Internal resistance is useless on the Lii, and seems better than the Opus on the C4.
I’vce been using the Miboxer C8 for about a month now, so far so good. It’s idiotproof, its got only 2 buttons, it does everything for you out of the box, you can easilly configure current if you want, it seems to work like it should whetehr its 10180 or 26650 or Eneloop AA’s. I had tons of chargers over the years, this one seems fine.
Nothing under $50 is going to have adjustable termination voltage. A few chargers will do multiple chemistries so you can charge under and over 4.2v by setting that.
There is a hidden switch on the underside of the Opus you can access if you cut a hole in the case bottom. That will allow you to change that one.
Based on your recommendations, and further reviews of the chargers you’ve recommended, I’ve decided to go with the MiBOXER C4 or some variation thereof.