Charger recommendation for 18650 and 21700 batteries.

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Good afternoon, I’m looking to upgrade with a charger that has the option of recovering old batteries and measuring capacity. I currently have the lii-202. I have been seeing that they recommend the miboxer c4 but unfortunately the shipping to Argentina is more than double the value of the charger (AliExpress). what dou you recommend? budget u $ d 20 approximately … Google automatic translation, sorry …

2

Hola Fabricio,

I would not expect too much from any „recovery“ function in a battery charger. It only works with NiMH/NiCd batteries and basically it is nothing else but a simple charge-discharge-charge program. A $ 20 budget is quite a challenge but if you are willing to spend a bit more than this I can recommend buying the Vapcell S4 Plus charger.

HKJ tested it and came to a quite positive conclusion.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/59947

The updated version from 2020 has got some improvements. You can buy the charger from Vapcell on AliExpress or from Sofirn‘s webshop.

https://vapcell.aliexpress.com/store/group/VapCell-batteries/1084158_513344502.html

https://sofirnlight.com/products/vapcell-s4-smart-chargers-with-4-slots-max-3aer-slot-for-10440-14500-16340-18650-21700-and-26650-batteries

3

Thank you very much for the answer, I will review your recommendation. From what I was seeing I get $ 40 for the charger plus $ 14 for shipping in AliExpress ... a lot more than what I had planned to spend ...

4

The so-called recovery function (as running a ch-dsch-ch cycle) is not useful for reviving LiIon cells, and for 20 bucks, it will be very difficult to find an analyzing charger.

My recommendation is to get a good, ordinary charger (something from XTAR extensive range of two bay chargers). If you really want to have a capacity measuring capability, you’ll need to go quite a bit higher on the budget.

5

And for 30 to 40 dollars, what do you recommend? I'm mainly looking for an analyzer charger because in Argentina most of the batteries are fake, so I could complain when I buy new ones ... I don't mind that it's two bays ...

6

Actually, I’m not aware of any two bay analyzing chargers.
For a 4-bay one, this is a budget option:

https://www.amazon.com/LiitoKala-Lii-500S-Battery-Charger-Capacity/dp/B083K9WGFB

EDIT: If you are having doubts about the originality of your cells, another way to prove it (and easier at that) is weight. Just get one of those cheap Chinese electronic scales. Read the manufacturer specs about the weight and compare. The fakes are almost always lighter.

7

Perfect, thanks...

8

Besides the budget, there are a few things you need to take into consideration when choosing your battery charger, to make sure that it meet your expectation, including:

  • Charging speed
  • Chemistry
  • Bay Count

With around $20, I recommend XTAR VC4S which can test the real capacity by “charging-discharging-fully charging” the batteries, so that users can know whether the battery capacity is over-stated. You can read a very detailed review of this charger at lygte-info.dk.

9

Zanflare C4

10

You can check more details via HKJ’s reviews: Round cell charger index
For your requirements, you can take a look at xtar VC4S, and it be a go-to charger with good price.

11

I wish Xtar would update the VC4S with support for protected 21700 batteries and type-C input. Xtar - any chance of this happening?

12

I can recommend the Vapcell S4 Plus.

13

The most recent review on Vapcell S4 Plus Battery Charger and Battery Discharge Tester - Wholesa – Liion Wholesale Batteries claims that this unit is still buggy. Has this been fixed since?

14

Has the testing bug in the Vapcell been addressed? I see that a bug was found and a software update to fix it did not. I’m not sure if the latest version still has the bug.