Smallest 2-slot li-ion charger+powerbank for travel?

nquinn · November 19, 2017, 4:22pm

Hi guys,

What’s the lightest/smallest lithium ion charger + power bank combo that you’d recommend for travel?
Ideally I’d like it to be enclosed. Looking for 2-slot so I can get ~ 7000mAh for phone charging.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

- Nitecore F2 - don’t like that it isn’t enclosed. Also the model I tried had a horrible high pitched whine while charging. The F1 had mediocre reviews on this board

- Tomo M2 - trying out this one next. Had just OK reviews and is kind of big, but it’s at least enclosed

- The Xtar MC2 ant chargers can’t act as powerbanks and are open

- Soshine E4S - looks similar to the Tomo M2. Had trouble finding reviews on this one, but other Soshine chargers haven’t done so well in reviews.

- Liitokala 202 apparently is a good charger, but weak output as a powerbank. Also open.

Miller ML202 looks interesting - looking for reviews

Anything else you’d recommend looking into!

SIGShooter · November 19, 2017, 5:37pm

I picked up a LiitoKala 202 several months ago and it has 2 issues.

1- The left channel charges to 4.15v while the right channel charges to 4.20v. Both are in spec but I would prefer that both channels charge to the same voltage.
2- More importantly it will not charge at all with a weak power source. When connected to my pc’s usb 3 port it will show the batteries as fully charged after several minutes, even for batteries that are totally discharged. It does works when connected to a 5.0 usb charger that puts out > 1.0A as measured on my Kcx-017 power tester.

I have a number of the Tomo M2’s and I like them other than the fact that it takes a long time to charge fully discharged batteries. Protected batteries may or may not fit if that matters to you.

We’re going to Iceland in December when there’s not daylight and I’m taking a Tomo M2 and 2 LiitoKala 100’s for the lithium’s and a Sanyo Sanyo MDU01 for our Eneloop’s. The LiitoKala will of course charge the Eneloops but I figure they’ll be tied up charging my 18650’s.

nquinn · November 19, 2017, 6:18pm

SIGShooter:

I picked up a LiitoKala 202 several months ago and it has 2 issues.

1- The left channel charges to 4.15v while the right channel charges to 4.20v. Both are in spec but I would prefer that both channels charge to the same voltage.
2- More importantly it will not charge at all with a weak power source. When connected to my pc’s usb 3 port it will show the batteries as fully charged after several minutes, even for batteries that are totally discharged. It does works when connected to a 5.0 usb charger that puts out > 1.0A as measured on my Kcx-017 power tester.

I have a number of the Tomo M2’s and I like them other than the fact that it takes a long time to charge fully discharged batteries. Protected batteries may or may not fit if that matters to you.

We’re going to Iceland in December when there’s not daylight and I’m taking a Tomo M2 and 2 LiitoKala 100’s for the lithium’s and a Sanyo Sanyo MDU01 for our Eneloop’s. The LiitoKala will of course charge the Eneloops but I figure they’ll be tied up charging my 18650’s.

Thanks for this data point. My biggest dislike of the Tomo M2 is the size/weight compared to other power banks. The Miller ML-202 looks a bit smaller.

How difficult is it to slide the cover on/off to access the batteries? I saw one review that compared it to “a puzzle”

SIGShooter · November 19, 2017, 6:51pm

nquinn:

SIGShooter:

I picked up a LiitoKala 202 several months ago and it has 2 issues.

1- The left channel charges to 4.15v while the right channel charges to 4.20v. Both are in spec but I would prefer that both channels charge to the same voltage.
2- More importantly it will not charge at all with a weak power source. When connected to my pc’s usb 3 port it will show the batteries as fully charged after several minutes, even for batteries that are totally discharged. It does works when connected to a 5.0 usb charger that puts out > 1.0A as measured on my Kcx-017 power tester.

I have a number of the Tomo M2’s and I like them other than the fact that it takes a long time to charge fully discharged batteries. Protected batteries may or may not fit if that matters to you.

We’re going to Iceland in December when there’s not daylight and I’m taking a Tomo M2 and 2 LiitoKala 100’s for the lithium’s and a Sanyo Sanyo MDU01 for our Eneloop’s. The LiitoKala will of course charge the Eneloops but I figure they’ll be tied up charging my 18650’s.

Thanks for this data point. My biggest dislike of the Tomo M2 is the size/weight compared to other power banks. The Miller ML-202 looks a bit smaller.

How difficult is it to slide the cover on/off to access the batteries? I saw one review that compared it to “a puzzle”

The Tomo M2 cover slides off very easily as long as you press down lightly on the part above the display (diamond shaped symbol). I don’t have a ML-202 to compare but I would guess that they weight about the same with batteries in and since both are sized for 2 cells would be about the same size.

I assume you’ve read this review?