MiBoxer C4-12 ~ Bay 3 quit charging. ~Now with more pictures~

ADDED

More pictures in this post

I purchased this item on December 13, 2017 through Amazon.

Delivered Dec 22, 2017

The charger has been used to charge two 35E/18650 (BLF-GT) battery sets, and several other 30Q singles.

Bay 3 is no longer working. "Err" I tried several "known good" 18650 batteries in the slot with the same message.

Amazon allows a 30-day return replacement. This time is almost up.




Hello ARsee

Thank you for your feedback

Please can you try other batteries in the bay 3? if the other batteries is show ERR again, we will sent you a new C4-12

Thanks

Hello.

This has been done, as I mentioned.

Leo, is the Man! Great customer service

Amazon gave me a return shipping label.

The option to have another one sent was not available. They want to refund. Oh well.

I plan to buy another C4-12. Maybe two since my charging needs have grown.

Please try other batteries in the bay 3. if other batteries still show "ERR" again, we will sent a new C4-14 free.

Thanks

I tried, Leo. It still gave the err on the display.

Batteries I tried were several brands/models of Samsung & Panasonic (different mah) of 18650 and 700/750mah Klarus and Olight 16340's.

I also tried "AA" lith-ions of several brands. The bay appears to be dead.

BTW, sending the charger back costs me nothing. Just the fact I'll be minus a charger during that time.

As requested, Leo.

Here are pictures with different batteries in slot three.

ok, we admit that. we wil send a new charger for replace it, please send this problem one to Amazon.

and please let me know the new one if you receive it

thanks

Leo, I’ll get the charger sent back to Amazon tomorrow.

Edit
10/26/2018 - Amazon has received the charger, refund in progress
The replacement charger was ordered. Not yet shipped.

Excellent after-sales service, I should say. Hat’s off, Leo! :beer:

Hi , I have same problem as above and again Slot 3. It is bought from Aliexpress, I already contacted the seller and wait for his answer.

I like that the display cover points to slot 3. :smiley:

Good luck in getting a true solution from MiBoxer particularly if your Amazon return window has expired.

My C4-12 developed the same slot 3 issues as experienced by others after a few months use. Initial emails to Leo went unanswered, but I finally did get a response saying he wanted videos of the charger not working, just before he went back to China for the New Year festivities.

The problem is erratic and appears to be highly dependent on battery type & charge state. Fully discharged crap batteries are much more likely to work OK, but premium cells like 30Qs and VTC6s that just need topping up seem more likely to not want to charge at reasonable rates in slot 3. Figuring all this out caused me to waste way to much time trying too capture things that seemed much more likely to occur when the camera was put away.

I got fed up and bought two more MiBoxer C4s when they were on sale at Amazon recently as my old C4 (two rates, 350/800 mAh) has been one of the more reliable and easiest to use 4 slot chargers I have. The “New C4s” from Amazon are the recently redesigned ones, which provide charging rates from 100 to 800 mAh, which should be better right? WRONG, they seem to have managed to incorporate the C4-12 slot 3 problem into the new C4 design. About the only thing I can say for the new C4s is that when it displays a ridiculous resistance (200-999 mOhm internal resistance for ~30 mOhm 30Qs) and selects a low charge rate for for a cell in slot 3, your can override the rate and force it to charge at the maximum rate (and the manual setting holds), which you usually can’t do with the C4-12 when the problem happens. As usual, removing and reinserting a cell multiple times in slot 3 may or may not yield a correct internal resistance and resultant charge rate, BUT moving the cell to another slot will always produce a proper charge rate, while the cell that was charging properly in another slot then won’t work right in slot 3.

Fortunately (sarcasm) one of the new C4s started having the same type of slot 3 problem within a week, so it was returned to Amazon without having to make videos, and I could get my money back instead of a replacement that it seems is likely to do the same thing… The other new C4 lasted a month before it started doing the same thing so it’s now beyond Amazons return window. Now I have two MiBoxer chargers to make videos of, but to be honest I don’t think I want replacements, as they obviously haven’t really identified or fixed the very real problem with these things and I’m just tired of screwing around with them.

I just bought two ENOVA Gyrfalcon ALL-44s (I already have an ALL-80 and All-88), and will just have to deal with their clunky slot loading, as their charge rate selection is predictable, sometimes too high but very easy to force down with a couple of button pushes, and the new rate sticks (however, this is NOT a good scenario for people who don’t care/know about optimum Li-ion charge rates).

I must note however that one of the MiBoxer C4(x) chargers would probably be fine for someone who only has four 18650 Li-ion batteries and doesn’t care how long it takes to charge them, as it will eventually get the job done, with virtually no chance of harming a battery, and that’s all well and good. On the other hand, I have 50+ chargers (plenty of properly working things to compare these to) and 200+ cylindrical Li-ion cells to maintain, so I don’t need or appreciate something that introduces erratic problems and frustration to the task at hand.