The best battery charger?

I want buy a hobby charger. I read always that this is the final solution, for an safe and "all in one" charger.(For my Li-ion 16340-18650-etc, and Ni-Mh AAA, AA)

I have a couple questions......

Two days ago i read the posts in different forums.
But, not all thing clear to me:
When i buy a hobby charger, i have two choices, i build a battery holder, or i use wires with magnets.
The thing that not clear the me:

On this chargers are several sockets for the balancing. For example 2-3-4-5-6-8 cells socket I build a battery holder like here, that use the "8 cell" socket. Could i charging e.g. 3 battery despite i use the 8 cell socket on the charger? The charger will not say error, for that reason, that i use the "8 cell" socket, but i use only 3 from 8? Or i can charging 3 cells only when i use the 3 cell socket? (That means i must build batteryholder for every combination. )

I know this chargers are for serial charging, because this are designed for battery packs.
So, i buy a hobby charger, i build a battery holder for 8 battery (with correct wiring), and of course a power supply. I plugged the battery holder connector in the "8 cell" socket on the charger, Then i put "some" (3 piece) battery in the holder, i plug the - charging wire the 1. battery -, and the + wire to the 3. battery +, after that, i select the charging method on the charger and all will be good? It is so simply? Or, i understand totally badly....

My two idea:

Turnigy Accucel-8 150W 7A Balancer/Charger 42.44$ + an old 200W PC PSU, with self built battery holder for 8 cells

Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger 22.99$ + This PSU 15.30$, with self built battery holder for 6 cells

You can. But notice where the power (The main charging leads) leads from the charger are connected - they are at the first and last cells on charge.

You've got it

Unless you need to charge 8 cells at the same time, the second one is cheaper. Balancing 6 18650s of wildly varying charge levels is very, very slow. Balancing 8 is probably a 24hr affair.

Any old AT PSU will work fine with either if you happen to have one. ATX PSUs are a little more complicated.

A hobby charger is not that safe. Most battery incidents come as a result of human judgment/error anyway, and a hobby charger is very much heavy on user interaction.

Don.

Thank you for your answers!

Then, i choose this:

Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger 22.99$ + This PSU 15.30$, with self built battery holder for 6 cells

agenthex:

You're right, but much safer as consumer Li-ion chargers (fireproof). And i think, much-much safer for batteries.

The human error factor, happens at any time with us.... (car, stove, walking)

I little difficult than consumer charger, but i think, i will grow up to the task.

Mine - all three of them - power up with the last used set of settings.

However, it will refuse to charge if those settings are inappropriate. The error beeps get incredibly annoying when trying to charge a dying/dead laptop battery pack.

Especially when I have to tell lies to the charger about what is actually attached to it.

Had to resort to a variable PSU (AKA a car battery and a bunch of resistors to keep the current down) to get some charge into it so that any sane charger would recognise it at all.

Pity it wouldn't hold any charge at all after all that wildly unsafe effort (Which was done outdoors on concrete with nothing near the cells I couldn't afford to lose)

It is usually faster to charge 18650's one at a time at 1.5-2A then put them in a multi-cell holder and balance them.

If they are being used in a single cell 18650 light, balancing them is a waste of time. I only bother balance charging cells to be used in multi-cell lights.

Xtar Charger



Im taking a look at the Xtar WP2 Battery charger ..
14500 / 14650 / 17670 / 18500 / 18650 / 18700

Operating temp 0 - 40deg C
Input 12VDC 650mA
Rated Voltage 4.2v
Constant Charge current 600mA +-10%
Cut off voltage 4.2v +-1%
Cut off Current 60mA +-10%
Weight 70g

The charger comes with a very small power supply [ 12VDC ] , about the size of a mobile phone charger , and it barely seem to get warm charging a single cell at a time .

The charger does in deed charge at a constant current of 600mA , at least mine did , right up to 4v at which point the charge current began to drop .
@ 4.01v it was 580mA
@ 4.1v it was 280mA
@ 4.14 it was 180mA
With mine the termination current [ just before going green ] was 65mA .
Now this charger does not fully terminate , I did monitor a current of 0.04mA , and then it would jump to 0.11mA , then back to 0.04mA , and then up to say 0.23mA and back again to 0.04mA .
I can only suggest that this behavior is a form of monitoring the state of the battery , as it seems to mimic the way the battery is charged , which is similar to the WF-139 , a sort of pulse charging , whereby the charger stops to monitor the battery state then continues charging .

I cant say this is a bad thing as the current is so low , that it would take several hours just to feed the battery a single mA , so pulling the battery is no where near as critical , as with a charger , trickle charging at 40mA .
In fact this monitoring , I believe is a feature of this charger , for long term storage of the battery in the charger , so when the battery discharges to a certain level , the charger automatically tops it up again , and then continues monitoring the battery . [ As to whether you wish to use such a feature , I leave up to you ]

I put several batteries through this charger , and they terminated from 4.15v all the way to 4.19v . I dare say we have another charger that may be sensitive to the internal resistance of batteries as they near max charge . [ Maybe ] The charge voltage seems to about 0.09v above the battery voltage as its charging , until about the end when it seems to max out at 4.22v or so .

Overall , Im impressed with this charger , Its brand new , and this one was sourced from flea bay . The very low monitoring current at the end of the charge is so low as not to be an issue , and I would be personally in no real hurry to pull the batteries , I would rate this a very decent charger for the money , and one which should not have any issues with the length of 18650 batteries .

There you have it , another weapon to chose from to charge those 18650's

Also the WF-188 is worth being part of the collection [ 10440 ]

Sounds like the WP2 is well worth buying.

I already own quite a few too many chargers but it sounds like I'm about to own another one.

Just bought one of Lummi's USB chargers which will do for small cells. Must do some tests on it.

I got one within 36 hours of ordering. With sensible postage rates.

Unlike the book I just bought from Australia where the postage was 67% of the rather high cost of the book. Strange bit is the author lives 18km from me. I had dinner with her tonight. the book ended up costing me around US$50

I love books ...

And I love the books on ebay , just wish I lived in the USA , I would go nuts buying books ... So darn cheap there ...

Here in Oz , too expensive .. Yeah , getting anything posted here costs ...

If you know any mothers. I suggest you get her a copy of the book. But don't buy your own mother a copy. She probably won't find it funny.

Then get a copy of Nick Earls' Bachelor Kisses. He writes about what I do for a living. It is clear he knows what he is talking about. It is probably the funniest book I've ever read.

And he's an Australian. And an excellent writer. I may add this book is not for the prudish. Neither is Gillian's book.

I've just collected a signed copy of Gillian and Emma's book to hand to the person in charge of training of midwives in Scotland. Hopefully she'll get it tomorrow night if the snow lets me drive there.

old4570: Great review!

Looking good this Xtar WP2. And his big brother the WP6 too.

I read good things from WP6, and not so good thing an another forum....I can't follow those things.

I have now 6-8 charger (Li-ion), and 4-5 Ni-Mh. I lost all interest collecting/trying chargers.

If you add up how much has been cost.... More than 6 new P60 host.


Those chargers (TR-001, TR-002, WF-139, WF-188, Shekor, DSD etc.) all have some problem, or they are none CC/CV. I read from the Shekor is a good charger, i ordered one from KD, and that i received is totally different. You can read on CPF.......
The another common problem, the supplier or the manufacturer always change the circuit or the whole charger. I've got bored those things.

For that reason I've decided, i buy a hobby charger. I often charging 4-6 18650 Li-ion, and sometimes 5-10 AA Ni-Mh.
Also the Li-ion batteries are not cheap, i want spared my batteries,

Some one has to test them .. Well , not have to ... but $15 is not the end of the world ... I dont smoke , drink . or use drugs , so I got to spend a little money on something ...

+ Its nice when you find a good one , should make life easier for others ...

I have tried many from DX and such the DSD, shekor, random oem charger and similar... Well compared to both xtar MP1 and WP2 they are all very forgivingly called pure piece of junk! I dont trust any charger by "playing it safe" reasoning but if i would choose only xtar ones would do.

I like the MP1 the most but also like the wp2 as a whole package and it is even slightly faster. I use my pc usb to charge with wp1 after i tested a few samples extensively.

Where can i order Xtar-s?

I saw on QCG (WP2 WP6), but i have nothing experience with him. And on SBF(WP2, WP6).

Anywhere else in Europe or HongKong?

Hi antib,

i ordered my Xtar WP2 from qualitychinagoods.com because the shipping costs at sbflashlights.com are very high (10$). This is my first time i ordered there, but they shipped it within 3 days. Now it's up to Hongkong Post to screw it up.

Thanks tethering!

Maybe i try QCG. "the shipping costs at sbflashlights.com are very high (10$)" yes, for me too.

I just look at the e-mail from qualitychinagoods.com. The shipped my charger with Singapore Post not Hongkong Post.

Has anoyone experience with this post service?

Very good postal service, delivery is very fast

Unfortunately a little expensive , even when compared to ebay .. QCG

The cheapest "buy now" article on ebay is this for 12 bucks. It's chinaqualitygoods.com ebay shop.

Sadly on ebay, they won't ship to my country (germany).


This seller on ebay sells it for $15.99 including shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/XTAR-14500-18500-14650-17670-18650-18700-Charger-WP2-/150524246468?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230bf1b9c4