Looking for a charger for 18650's and NiMH AA's/AAA's. $50 budget

[Default_Username]

Hi. I’m looking for a charger to charge both 18650’s and NiMH AA’s/AAA’s for me and a buddy. Budget is $50. I’d like a charger that can handle 3-4 cells at once if possible, but I can deal with just a single bay charger if it means I’d be getting a higher quality product. I also wouldn’t be opposed to having two chargers (one for the Li-Ion’s and one for the NiMH’s) if needed.

The Nitecore i4 V2 has so far caught my eye, coming in at ~$30 and being able to charge both Li-Ions and NiMH cells to some extent.

Thanks in advance for the help, and apologies if I’m not supposed to post links at my post count.

[Yellowhorse]

I’ve seen mixed reviews on the i4 charger. $50 will get you a hobby charger that does almost all types of batteries. Just a thought.

[veer (vēer)]

Not everyone wants to take the hassle using hobby chargers, they are not for non-tech savvy persons

As for Sysmax i4 V2, Ive got two of them couple of days ago, so cant comment much on them other than this:

@vēer

Received both of mine today, first impressions:
+no problems with rails sticking or eating into plastic, they are smooth
+thus, no problems inserting/removing batteries without too much of worries to destroy the whole charging setup while during so
+like the bright led lights
+charged my fake Eneloops and Turnigy LSD’s just fine, didnt test their voltages with DMM tho

+/- it has some rubber smell to it, not as terrible as plastic smell on my MAHA C9000 tho, but still its there, hope it will wear off with time

-the power cord doesnt seem to be too reliable and sturdy, frequent use of plugging it in and out of the charger and also bending it and wrapping it, might cause premature failure of said cable
-plastic feels cheap on the front panel where the LED’s are located, its thin and bents with not much force applied, it might be less prone to cracks tho, but it flexes easily

Overall nice charger given that it comes from reputable company that stands behind their products, will use these to complement my two-slot Sanyo travel charger and MAHA C9000 and some older BTY GN-96 4slot charger.

Taken from this thread:

19.79$ shipped - Sysmax Nitecore Intellicharge i4 V2

This charger costs only 13.98$ on wholesale websites. Keep this in mind! Dino's original price was 28.xxUS$ afaik and standard inet price is 24.99US$ shipped, see for example HKE. With some luck and more dinopoints you could get this charger even cheaper from DD (maybe around Black Friday or Xmas 2012, good luck!) but the below "19.79$ (after 10% OFF)" are already a good entry point imho. Let's see how fast DD ships the item! Intellicharge, Intellicharger, Intelligent Charger, sorry for be…

[HKJ]

@Yellowhorse

I’ve seen mixed reviews on the i4 charger.

The i4 v1 has a couple of problems, they where fixed in the i4 v2. When reading reviews you must check if it is for the v1 or v2 charger. It is very difficult to see, because there is no markings on the charger.

@Yellowhorse

$50 will get you a hobby charger that does almost all types of batteries. Just a thought.

A hobby charger has much better settings LiIon, but is not always very good for NiMH batteries and it does not take four NiMH at a time. There is also all the problems with making your own battery tray and remember to set the correct settings each time.

Personally I often use a hobby charger for LiIon, but nearly never for NiMH.

[Yellowhorse]

I have one of these I got a couple of months ago: http://www.revolectrix.com/pl8_specs_tab.htm
Not a $50 charger but it does just about everything! It even has the opto isolated USB computer interface. Still saving up for all the accessories of which there are many.

[NightCrawl]

I suggest a BC700 (or clone) for NiMH and an XTAR WP2. BC700 and WP2 should each be around 20$, so that works with your budget.

[raccoon]

Make yourself at home, Default Username!

[hank]

Not difficult to see — someone has a comparison here with photos. Short answer: yellow label on front and back — v2, get that one.
I just got one a few days ago, charged a couple of LiIons that came off just slightly high 4.21v .
Doing a handful of NiMHs with no problem, of varied ages and qualities. So far I like it ok

[Default_Username]

Thanks for the replies!

@Yellowhorse: To be honest, I haven’t really considered using a hobby charger. If you don’t mind me asking, what would be a good hobby charger that’s within my budget? I see that the Turnigy Accucel-6 gets a lot of acclaim as being a good budget-oriented charger, but I’m wondering if there’s anything I should be wary about or if there’s a better hobby charger that fits in my ~$50 budget.

@vēer: Thanks for the review. Did you have any trouble with hot/overheating cells when charging your NiMH cells on the i4?

@HKJ: Sorry for not clarifying; the 3-4 cell capacity requirement is for my Li-Ions, not the NiMH cells. My buddy has a couple of small single-cell AA and AAA lights which he’d like to use with some NiMH cells, so there’s not much of a concern about charging multiple NiMH cells at the same time.

And thanks for pointing out the differences between the i4 v.1 vs i4 v.2.

@NightCrawl: That’s definitely an idea! I’ll give them a look.

[veer (vēer)]

I charged original Eneloops, 2nd gen AA, two pieces, both charged just fine and didnt become hot at all.
Fake DinoDirect Eneloops and HobbyKing’s Turnigy AA batteries did get really hot while charging them.