I purchased (2) of the same XTAR SV2 chargers from www.illumn.com and one was given me issues as the spring that holds tension on the rear side (-) of the batteries came lose. So I had no choice but to try and open it up to see what the problem was. Well the cheap garbage Chinese plastic came off of like 4 of the screw holders and broke where the spring connects inside. I have uploaded (2) photos of this crap. Anyone know of a good American (U.S.A.) made charger I can purchase that wonāt fall apart?
Even Mercedes Benz makes a stinker from time to time.
You got two, one broke, so send the broken one back and get another one?
Iāve got 12 Xtar chargers and like the brand. Iāve had minor problems with a couple of them, one even concerning brittle plastic (initial VP2 production run,) but theyāre damn good chargers.
The same thing happened to my SV2 the other day. I repaired it by drilling a small hole in the circuit board near the edge and soldering in a brass finishing nail. The sping in now stretched a little more but it seems like it will hold up. BTW, Iāve had mine over a year. I donāt know why they made the stud so thin. Really stinks that Xtarās quality is going downhill.
One of my two did this on one of the spring posts. It was an easy fix. I took an extra lanyard I was not using and ran it around the slot in the motherboard then attached the spring to the end.
Brittle plastic.
Still works a treat.
BTW, thereās no such thing as āChineseā or āAmericanā plastic. There are hundreds of plastic mixtures used worldwide. The SV2 seems to be made of a high temperature plastic (for safely readons) that seems a bit brittle. There are stronger plastics on the market, but they canāt handle as high a temperature. It seems Xtar needs to beef up the post diameters on this model.
Same design flaw as in the early versions of the sky Rc mc3000. I think they have fixed it now but itās funny how newer Xtar products donāt compare to the much older ones, I still have my VP2 from many years ago and they havenāt released another compact charger with voltage display.
Will, I have 2 VP2ās and gave 2 VP1ās to two friends. They get a lot of use. Theyāre bulletproof. My 2 SV2ās get limited use and still, the spring stud broke on one of them. Not happy.
I had the exact same thing happen to it, the post that holds the spring broke. Luckily it was just in one piece and I was able to superglue it back on and it held. I contacted Illumn and they said they needed the serial number in order to verify whether or not it was authentic, I guess. I purchased it from them so I was confused as to why there was an issue. The serial number is not on the unit, it is on the box. I have had the unit for 6 months at that point so I did not keep the box. They were not willing to help at that point. I had to fix it myself. I agree, it is junk. Do not purchase this charger in particular.
I was one of the first people around to get the VP2 and ordered from Richard at Mountain. I got mine before anybody really knew about it. A week, or two later, I got an Email stating that my charger had been recalled due to the plastic housing becoming brittle after being subjected to freezing temps.
I sent mine back and got a new one a few weeks later and the rest is history. Illumination allowed their customers to keep the āpotentiallyā brittle unit and just sent them a replacement, so they scored!
I have an MP1S that only charges to 4.14ish volts, which isnāt catastrophic, but I got credited. My OCD canāt handle 4.14v.
There are enough examples here to surmise that itās indeed a design flaw, but nobody hits a home run in every a bat.
I hope they do! I had ordered quite a few products from them a while back. I have been using the (2) SV2ās to charge (4) 18650ās for my GTās. I can rig up something to make it work, but I shouldnāt have to, if this is a manufacturer defect! I did try calling them a few minutes ago, but they may be out for holidays or something. Iāll post back when I do get in touch with them. Thanks!
