Hello I just joined after going a bit overboard ordering mostly Sofirn flashlights. I have an Xtar VC4 that I have been using for AA/AAA NiMH batteries. Full disclosure…I ordered the Xtar VP4 Plus Dragon yesterday after seeing a video of someone refreshing li-on batteries. I may have jumped the gun, since I don’t really need all the other features of the charger. I used to have a NiMH charger that did the refresh, and it died. Amazon.com
I have been digging in the forums, and since refreshing isn’t necessary for li-on, it is hard to find people recommending what I’m looking for. BTW I have been using an Xtar VC4 for the AA/AAA charging, and may have messed up a couple of the slots. I would put batteries in any slot, but maybe I should have been making sure I used either 1 and 4, or 2 and 3…and not 1 and 2 for example.
Thank you for any tips!
Edit: ok I’m finding a few threads now that I’m searching for “refresh” instead of “drain before charging” lol
Nimh batteries generally don’t need to be discharged before charged.
Now if you want to try to recover some old ones that is a helpful feature. For that I prefer a generic charger like this that can charge and discharge just about anything (lipo,nicd,nimh,life,lead acid, etc). Plus they have much higher discharge rates than the aa chargers with the ability to cycle 5x times
Lots of different models exist here is one. Just get a cheap battery case and you are good
Uhm, NiMH don´t have a memory effect like NiCd but there is still the lazy battery effect for long stored cells, but it´s not so problematic like the memory effect. Maybe a charger with a fast test mode (discharge and charge) is good enough to eliminate the effect.