Looking for a 4 slot charger that can do minimum 1A on all 4 slots, and can take Li-ion and NiMh battery. Preferably that default charge at 1A for 4.2v Li-ion and I can manually select higher or lower current.
While searching, Miboxer C4-12 caught my attention as it can charge at 3amp and have ‘smart charging’. My question is if I have some low capacity 18650 cell at 1800mah, will the charger charge it at 3A if IR is low? That can be dangerous! Even a 3000mah cell charging at 3A will not be ideal either.
Do you end up using manual mode? That mean every time a battery is inserted, I will need to hold for 3 sec + multiple click to select current, sound annoying.
Now considering that for using in manual mode only, Folomov A4 can charge at 2amp per slot with default current is only 0.25A (correct me if I am wrong). So every time you insert the battery you still need to do a few clicks to up the current, but still feel more convenience than C4-12.
Nitecore SC4 default to 2A for 4.2 Li-ion, that’s big no for me.
Any other 4 slot charger that default 4.2 Li-ion at 1 amp?
Based on your requirements, it sounds like you will have to do some clicking/button pressing, regardless, if you want your cells charged at an exact rate that you desire. I am not aware of any charger that defaults to 1A for Li-Ion, but possibly SkyRC MC3000 can be programmed that way?
As for Miboxer, the only time it’s going to automatically charge at 3A is if you have a cell with extremely low IR, which basically means brand new unprotected high drain cells. It won’t even automatically charge my new Samsung 30Q button tops at 3A. The only ones where it does hit 3A on its own is Samsung 30Q flat tops.
MiBoxer C4-12
These LG HG2’s flat tops were purchased a year ago November and have been charged every single day for a vape device. These have approx 400 charge cycles on them, still register 30 to 35 IR, and auto charge at 3A. I’ve changed the wrappers on them.
You know what Robert, you have convinced me. I use 18650 for vaping too and I can’t be bother to set the current every day when I charge it.
At the moment with D2 I can’t start charging if it’s less than 4 hours before bed time as I don’t want to leave it overnight. With the C4-12 its probably shorten the charging time by half. 18650 is relatively cheap too so if it dies I just buy more.
My C4-12 arrived today. I’ve been charging some Nimhs that have been sitting for ages and it’s interesting seeing it adjusting the charging rate up and down as the batteries slowly come back to life. I’m no expert but I get this feeling this thing will err on the side of caution rather than fry your batteries. Mine arrived in 11 days from China to UK with Gearbest so I’m pleased with that too.
Thoughts on the Miboxer C4-12 vs. GyrFalcon All-44 vs. Nitecore i4?
Trying to find a good roundup of sub $30 or so 4 x li-ion and nimh chargers to see what weaknesses they have.
From HKK:
Miboxer c4-12: This charger can handle four 26650 LiIon cells at 3A, this is a very impressive charge current. It can either do automatic current selection based on internal resistance or current can be selected manually. For optimal charge speed manual selection must be used, automatic will use a high current for new cells and a low current for old cells.
The internal resistance measurement circuit works fairly well, especially on LiIon.
I wonder why the charger has a power bank function, the charger is too big to carry around and with only one cell feeding the power bank it cannot deliver that much output power. In fact it is a fairly weak power bank with a lot of noise.
Nitecore i4: The charger is simple to use with the automatic current selection and chemistry selection: just put batteries in and they are charged.
But it is not a fast charger, a single 18650 can be charged in about 3 hours (This is fairly standard), but with four cell it will take 9 hours.
Charging LiFePO4 or 4.35V batteries is a bit more tricky due to the not very user friendly user interface, but it is possible.
I will call it a good family charger, everybody can use it for NiMH and 4.2V LiIon batteries.
Gyrfalcon: In automatic mode the charger works like any other good charger and will charge 4.2V LiIon and NiMH cells with a default current of 1A (A press on a button will change the current). Switching to manual mode the charger can charge most round cells on the market, at the cost of some more button presses.
I do not like the slot extension, I doubt I can find them when I need them. A longer bar on the plus side would have been much better (This is only relevant if you need to charger 32xxx cells).
I will rated this charger as a very good charger, especially if you have many different types of cells.
C4-12 : That’s what I am getting, wishing the automatic charging is as good as what people said. Potential hazard when automatic function malfunction and trying to charge your small cells with 3A.
All-44: discontinued in gearbest. Still require button press when put in battery, max 1A per slot
i4: Way too slow for 4 slot charging, ok for 2 slot (I currently have D2 and it takes 4+ hours to charge 2 x 18650@2500mah batteries)
I got the miboxer finally and it does charge all my vaping 18650 at or close to 3amp. Not too concern about battery life as 18650 is not too expensive.
It is so damn fast! Took only 1 hour (+/-10mins) to fully charge my batteries. Which mean I can charge them anytime and not to worry about it leaving it to charge overnight.
Dont have any experience with the A4, but recently got a C4-12 off a friend Norb. So far i am really impressed, it will be working along side my opus which has been excellent for a couple of years now.
My 20700 cells, it chose 2.3a when inserted at 3.7v. My vtc4 cells it picked 1.55a(yes it uses more current options than the available(manual settings) .1/.2/.3/.5/.8/1/1.5/2/2.5/3a
My AA nimh loops terminated at 1.49v and rate was 1a initial. I like the readout, the IR and temp of each cell, just handy to keep an eye on.
Size wise compared to a few others, its not too big/bulky either.
Now i was going to get a Dragon, but Norb kind of talked me out of it as he has taken a good few returns(sold over 40 units). Bays not working etc etc, so recommended the C4 and i have no regrets. Yes early days, and was not too sure on the auto selecting tbh. I kind of prefer dialling in my own current and have also done this. Its not a slow process, long press the button, then short press to select your own current. But after testing out the auto select, i am pretty confident that it is accurate enough and i can basically just place a cell in any bay and allow it to pick the current. Of course i will keep an eye on it and make sure it stays accurate………
Voltage wise, with my MM the V of the cell and initial V when placed in a bay is spot on to 2 places. However termination V there is a 0.01v discrepancy…………no big deal. So i know the charger shows 4.20v, it is measured at 4.19v from a couple of tests.
Example with an 18350
MM
So far really happy with it, seems a nice upgrade to the opus and ability to use more than 1a per bay when more than 2 are used together. The 3a setting will be of use for my 26650 cells.
