My Vapcell S4+ Analyzing Charger photos and observations

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
54

Thanks

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The Vapcell S4+ is now available at 18650batterystore for $34.99

USPS ground shipping to Texas is $5.61

56

I see some test that it draw 4.5A while charging 4 batteries at 3A, could be work with a proper car charger (12V 5A)?

57

Yes, it will work, IIRC, most car lighter 12v receptacles are rated up to 10A.

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Thanks

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The Vapcell 4+ is also available from Neals Gadgets - here

Whilst far more expensive, my XTAR Dragon VP4 Plus served me well for nearly 3 and half years now. It’s a solid bit of kit.

60

I feel when test battery capacity using Vapcell S4 Plus, the batteries are too hot. Is that normal?
When I test the same batteries using Lii-500, they don’t even get warm.

Both tests were set at 500 mA current.

61

Anyone know if there are any coupon codes available — like for BLF users?

62

Looking at this charger on the official AliExpress store, why are there so many different listings for the same charger? Is this an AX “feature” or are they actually different?

63

I would like to hear people’s experiences using the Repair mode on the S4+. And please let me know if you are using it on li-ion or NiMH cells.

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I am seeing 50% higher shipping cost than what you found — $8.41 to Dallas, TX for USPS Ground.

65

I’ve ordered this charger, and I have some questions (I’m a noob and this is my first charger).
My batteries are only Ni-MH (eneloop and noname).

- When battery fully charged (100%), should I seen on the charger the therorical capacity of the battery (for example, if I charge an AAA eneloop 1.2V 750mAh battery, when then battery is full charged, should I read 750mAh on the charger ?)

  • How to read resistance (mOhm), I’m currently charging 4 AAA noname batteries 750mAh, 2 was in error, and I’ve used the repair fonctionnality to charge them, All of them are reporting different resistance values (from 200 mOhm to 999 mOhm) ?,

And I also have a general question :

- I heard that Li-Ion battery exist, they never sold in regular shops, so can we replace a Ni-MH battery with a Li-Ion, is there some exceptions ?

  • Using which criterias you decide to recycle your batteries ?

Thanks

66

Charging mode only reports how much it puts into the battery. If you want to check that use the Cap Test mode. Do note there is an issue with this charger in that mode where it won’t really fully recharge NiMH cells at the end of the test despite it saying they are 100%. I just do a Charge mode on any cell right after the Cap Test is done.

Take the milli-ohm values with a grain of salt but higher numbers generally aren’t a good indicator of battery health.

Li-ion cells have a nominal voltage of 3.6V while NiMH cells are 1.2V — so they are completely different and not simply interchangeable! You really should do some research…

I have some older low self discharge cells that no longer can even handle just a 250mA discharge rate, but I can still use them in some of my LED flashlights. For some flashlights I use 3AA-to-D parallel adapters to make use of my older cells.

67

Thanks for your answers.

I charged many batteries and on two of them the charger was filling the battery much more (4000 mAh) than the theorical capacity (2700 mAh). The battery was very hot when I removed it from thé charger… I think this very dangerous !

I can’t charge battery on night or when I’m at work, I’m not very confident …

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I have noted a similar behavior (both on this charger and my old LaCrosse BC-900) with old worn-out batteries. Maybe try the Cap Test or Repair function on those cells.

69

Can you give us some information on the batteries that you were trying to charge with this charger? Also, how old are the batteries?

70

Too bad it has only .5A on 2 discharge slots.

I would of really liked it to have at least 2A discharge on each slot independently.

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But then the charger should need perhaps 2 high-volume fans to manage the heat generated at 2a x 4 !

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Not a problem; I’m really looking for a multi-slot high current tester. Let the cooling be handled by me.
Most testers I generally found are .5A on discharge test which is utterly useless for any high current cell.
Opuses can do 1A on all slots (and needs modded cooling). Did not find anything better so far.

73

SkyRC MC3000 can do 1x 2A discharge, or 4x 1A discharge.

I’d really like for the MC3000 to be able to at least do 4x 1.5A, and hopefully make a variant compatible with longer protected 21700 batteries…