I did have an issue with the two leads being the same length on my initial cottonpickers charger. The battery somehow rolled off the desk and let the leads clamp together while on charge! Got it nearly immediately but it inspired me to cut one lead down so they can’t easily do that again. Ever since then this charger tops off to 4.21V instead of 4.2V.
Then I found that some cells don’t have magnetic bases, like the RediLast or the Ultrafire. So I found a tube that fit up to 18mm cells (I think it held an Epi-Pen) and cut some location holes in the sides. I put the negative lead into the hole at the bottom of the tube, slip the battery in on top of it, then put the positive lead in the hole at the appropriate location for the top of the cell, drop another cell on top of that to hold it in place, plug in the charger. The leads are isolated inside the tube so they can’t come in contact with anything else!
Will be on the look-out for this charger though, wish it held bigger cells. I have 6 32650’s at 5500mAh capacity, sure would be nice to be able to charge them at 1A! Might have to make some magnetic leads for those…
Just brought this charger today new to 18650 always been a double aa man thanks very much for this review been very reluctant to buy a 18650 type torch so I first took the plunge with a nitecore p25 with built in USB charge and was so impressed this charger is very good for a newbie like myself once again thanks hkj for your very good and easy to understand review. Regards Tony
This is not the charger, this charger uses the correct algorithm and the battery voltage will drop slightly below 4.20 volt when the charge is stopped.
I bought one of these after reading this review.
Well worth the money and every bit as good as the Pila I had been using with the added bonus of 3 different charging rates.
Thanks HKJ.