LiitoKala lii-500S - New HIT or ...?

I picked up this charger a few months ago because there was a sale going on and it was cheap. I used it a couple times to successfully charge some 21700 and 18650 cells. When a cell completes charging the indicator for that bank turns green and the charger beeps. A couple of weeks ago I was using this charger to top up a 30Q and I felt like it was taking an unreasonable amount of time. I checked on the charger and the light was still red and the screen indicated that it was still charging, but the voltage reading was 4.20. I took the cell off the charger and measured it with a multimeter at 4.27v.

I thought it might have been a weird quirk but didn’t use the charger again for a couple of weeks because I didn’t really trust it. I decided to try it again today and put a Sanyo GA in the charger. I watched it closely and when it reached 4.20v it did not chime and the light remained red. I waited another 10 minutes and took the cell off the charger. When I measured it with a multimeter it was at 4.23v. I decided I didn’t want to keep a charger around that I can’t trust not to overcharge my cells if I don’t babysit it. I unplugged it and tossed it directly in the bin.

The 500S can’t do LiFePo anymore, can it?

No, the manual specifically states it is incompatible with LiFePO4. That was the first thing I checked.

Can't do LiFePO anymore? As far as I know the 500 can't do LiFePO either, at least not without a mod. ;-)

Oh, i didn’t even know that…
Are you sure?

Yes. The Lii-500 amd Lii-500S support only li-ion (4.2V) and NiMH (1.48V).

Well, so be it then.
I have 4 of those big 32650 / 32700 LiFePo cells coming my way, and i was hoping to be able to test the capacity with my lii-500.
I’ll have to think of another way to do that then.

Thanks for the report. I don’t know what’s wrong with your charger, but I agree that it’s utterly useless if it won’t shut off properly, as even $0.21 TP4056 modules will properly terminate.

Sounds like a bad unit, I’m not seeing this behavior with mine.

Get a proper testing device, there's an affordable electronic load / battery tester which can be had for little money:

Features PC software which plots discharge graphs. I have one right here still untested, waiting for my holder.

More information here: ZKE Tech EBD-M05 help

Indeed, my unit was defective. Strange that it worked fine a couple of times before it started acting up.

Failing to terminate charging is a pretty dangerous failure mode. It’s certainly something to watch out for if you use this charger.

Ah, I remember coming across that before and thinking that someone should let the store know that their name has a rather unfortunate connotation in the U.S. I didn’t :wink: .

Oh no… That’s sh*tty to hear that. Will be receiving mine in a day or 2. :person_facepalming:

This charger lacks any trustful review worth reading yet. Additionally, two out of the latest three LiitoKala chargers reviewed by HKJ (Lii-S2 and Lii-S1) have been found using nonsensical, harmful trickle charge on lithium ion cells. Now, without being explicitly judgmental with LiitoKala here, just tell me what you think, please. I'll judge from there on, just don't want to binge. O:)

Guys… I think some workers and their bosses in LiitoKala are really braindeads…

http://www.liitokala.com.cn/productView.asp?id=484

and look at this picture…:

Are they really puting a microSD card into USB slot… :person_facepalming:

omg LOL nice catch

I got reply from Henrik K. Jensen from LYGTE: “The 500S review is ready, but not published yet.”

Great to hear that. Just received mine and charging up some cells…

It might be one of them usb powered led boards

Yes, but these are the graphics people over in Marketing and this sort of junk is quite common among Chinese consumer brands. I have no faith in LiitoKala, but you’ll find similarly worthless graphics on 90% of the products at Banggood, AliExpress, eBay, etc. They seem to believe that filling the page with very-high-resolution graphics that make vague or inaccurate claims in poor English will help them sell more units and, to be honest, it might actually work. They certainly keep doing it :wink: .