Test/review of Vapcell S4+ fast charger

It can handle 4 x 21700s, no problem.

Is there a July 2020 upgraded version of the Vapcell S4+ charger?

EDIT: Linjuan Lau posted an update in Nealsgadgets FB group. I received some screenshots in Chinese and English via AE. Confirmed that a new version is available on AE and ordered. I’ve tried rewriting the English translation below. :slight_smile:

#1
OLD: The display turns off automatically after 8 seconds.
NEW: The display is always on. Press DISPLAY for 5 seconds to turn the display off.

#2
OLD: Press CURRENT for 5 seconds while charging in manual mode. Current will refresh and display. But the displayed current doesn’t change automatically in manual mode.
NEW: This feature has been removed in manual charging mode.???

#3
OLD: When a battery is fully charged, the Current “0mA” and Battery Capacity is displayed in turn.
NEW: Current “0mA” is no longer shown. Instead, the Battery Capacity “mAh” is clearly shown when fully charged.

#4
OLD: While using a CC/CV charging mode for Lithium batteries, the cut off current is 100mA for all supported cell sizes. This is a bit too high for small cells like 10440, 16340, 14500 etc.
NEW: The cut off current is now 50mA when using a charging current of 250mA or 500mA.

#5
OLD: When using Cap Test mode, NiMH batteries are only charged to 50% after discharge.
NEW: NiMH batteries are now fully charged to 100% after discharge when using Cap Test mode.

#6
Needs clarification?
OLD: A charging current from 250mA to 3A may be selected.
NEW: To improve safety and battery cycle life, the charger selects an appropriate current to use and let’s you choose two slightly higher values. For example, insert a cell, it defaults to 500mA. You can then select 500mA, 1000mA or 1500mA.

Actually there are NINE item changes but the pdf I received lack complete translation to English in items 7, 8 and 9.

Anyway, I am confident an official announcement of the changes will be forthcoming.

Anyway we can update the old ones?

I have some long 21700 batteries (protected, with USB port) and would like to know if anybody else has problems fitting i.

HKJ nicely states the max length it accepts, is 76.9mm. And the battery I'm measuring is around that exact length. Just curious if it would a hard fit, or still easy and without problems.

BTW, is this the new one?: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000614094561.html

Yes… I hope :stuck_out_tongue:

I asked Vapcell Store on AE the other day if the new upgraded version was available. They confirmed that it’s in their store and that all S4+ listings in their store are for the same charger. They also provided some screenshots of the upgrades.

Ugh, the pain of being an early buyer. Don’t get me wrong, I love my S4+. But some of these things that have been changed (especially #1 and #5) bug me a lot.

Same I would like 1,3.

So I bought the new one with the “upgrades” but the DC power brick it came with died in a day (good thing the PS is separate I guess?)…

Anyone have suggestions on a higher quality 12V 5A brick or are all these $10-15 ones basically the same with different cord length? Is it a crapshoot?

Vapcell S4 plus upgraded version arrived today!

I’m keen to try this out on my 18650, 18350 and 10440 cells. :slight_smile:

The 12V 5A power brick makes a high pitched noise when using Charge mode. It’s less noticeable in Cap test mode.

In regards to the new charger build and firmware update, @TimMc, can you actually charge NiMH cells at currents over 1A?

No. Not sure what gave you that impression but it seems it is still 250,500,1000 only for NiMH

I tried Cap test in manual mode on the Vapcell S4 plus upgraded version (July 2020):
Slot 1: 10440 Vapcell 320mAh finished with 4.20V 330mAh
Slot 2: AAA LADA 900mAh finished with 1.53V 940mAh
Slot 3: EagleTac 18650 3400mAh finished with 4.20V 3196mA (9:45h)
Slot 4: EagleTac 18650 3400mAh finished with 3.12V 3191mAh (6:42h)

The 18650 in slot 4 finished the discharge step but it didn’t complete the final charge step. Maybe it was interrupted when I pulled the 10440 cell out of slot 1 when it had finished (alarm).

Cap test in auto mode #1:
Slot 1: 18650 GA 3500mAh finished with 4.20V 3468mAh (12:22h)
Slot 2: IMR18350 1200mAh finished with 3.33v 961mAh (2:33h)
Slot 3: IMR18350 1200mAh finished with 4.20V 975mAh (5:14h)
Slot 4: 18650 GA 3500mAh finished with 4.20V 3492mAh (12:5h)

The 18350 in slot 3 finished the discharge step but it didn’t complete the final charge step.

The 18650’s in slot 1 and 4 charged at around 1500mA initially, discharged at 500mA and then charged again at 500mA.

Cap test in auto mode #2 at night:
Slot 1: IMR18350 1200mAh finished with 4.20V 975mAh (3:35h)
Slot 2: 18650 30Q 3000mAh finished with 2.95V 2997mAh (6:25h)
Slot 3: 18650 30Q 3000mAh finished with 2.96V 2934mAh (6:34h)
Slot 4: IMR18350 1200mAh finished with 3.25V 1053mAh (2:25h)

The cells were all around 3.75V to start with. When they reached 4.20V, the charger didn’t seem to want to enter the discharge step. I pulled the power plug and plugged it back in 10 seconds later. Selected Cap test mode again. They started charging to 4.20V and each eventually reached 100%. Slot 1 and 4 started discharge first. A few hours later slot 2 and 4 had started discharge.

Slot 2, 3 and 4 stopped after the discharge step.

The room temperature changed from around 18 C to 10 C at night.

Cap test in auto mode #3 during the day:
Slot 1: 18650 GA 3500mAh finished with 4.20V 3476mAh (12:26h)
Slot 2: 18650 30Q 3000mAh finished with 2.68V 3010mAh (6:48h) 2.95V at 12:26h
Slot 3: 18650 GA 3500mAh finished with 2.82V 3442mAh (7:17h) 3.02V at 12:26h
Slot 4: 18650 30Q 3000mAh finished with 4.20V 3045mAh (10:33h)

Slot 2 and 3 stopped after the discharge step. They counted up to 100% when I pressed DISPLAY to switch to CH2 and CH3 at the end of the discharge step (alarm sounded).

Room temperature started at 15 C but gradually rose to 18 C after 6 hours. Discharge seemed faster in slot 1 and 4. Cell temperatures reached around 54 C.

Sometimes the voltage displayed while charging in Charge mode is 4.20V when it’s actually 4.07V when measured on a UT210E. Even though it might show 4.20V, it also displays >90% and keeps charging. If I take the cell out and put it back in, it then shows 4.07V and gradually goes up as it charges.

Overall, I’m happy with the charger. :smiley: It’s fully charging my NiMH and Lithium cells. Discharge mode is awesome! I can finally put cells into storage without using a torch to drain a cell down to ~3.75V.

@contactr, well, I had some high hopes.

For some reason, I thought that the S4+ actually had higher current NiMH charging than I thought.

I put 4x button top 30Q’s (auto mode) for Cap Test and got similar unexpected results:

Slot 1,3,4 did a full discharge but only recharged to 3.0x volts. Slot 2 fully charged to 4.18V (after hours of resting). This was with 1000,500,500,1000 discharge rate.

Before this I had mostly been testing small batteries and NiMH. It’s a little suspicious that TimMc and I both have these same issues and purchased at the same time?

I’m guessing this only applies to the “upgraded” model since no one mentioned this before now. Here’s slot 1-3 which never complete Cap Test and slot 4 still discharging. Shows 100% on first three slots but all are below 3V

and here’s a video of what happens. It “beeps” indicating it’s done then just counts up to 100% and stops:

They confirmed today that they were able to reproduce the issue. It looks like they’ll fix the firmware going forward…

Vapcell S4 plus upgraded version (July 2020):

NiMH Cap test in auto mode #1:
Slot 1: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.51V 0000mAh (08:31h)
Slot 2: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.52V 0709mAh (03:51h)
Slot 3: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.53V 0685mAh (04:21h)
Slot 4: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.52V 0684mAh (03:53h)

Slot 1 and 3 had cells that started off at around 1.35V.
Slot 2 and 4 had cells that started off at around 1.45V.
Slot 1 took a while to begin the discharge step. When it did start to discharge, it just switched between ~500mA and 0000mAh. Eventually it finished discharge and charged back up to 1.52V. 0000mAh displayed for capacity.

NiMH Cap test in auto mode #2:
Slot 1: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.53V 0729mAh (04:19h)
Slot 2: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.52V 0700mAh (04:01h)
Slot 3: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.53V 0704mAh (04:02h)
Slot 4: AAA eneloop 750mAh finished with 1.52V 0674mAh (03:14h)

These messages don't give me much hope. I will wait till they fix these issues.

It's literally been on my wishlist for a month or so, but since the new one was announced I kept postponing, and I feel like it was released a little prematurely.

Yeah I bought one many months ago and generally like it, but it’s not without it’s faults. If testing would have identified these problems before production, this would be an amazing charger.