I bought this one for a friend and made a test charge on two pink protected UltraFire 18650 2600mAh.
Battery 1: New, about 4 cycles. Cutoff at 4.16V, 4.16V after a couple of hours resting.
Battery 2: Old, about 2 years, MANY cycles. Cutoff at 4.18V, 4.16 after a couple of hours resting.
I then used my Turnigy Accucel 6 to top them off.
Battery 1: 70 mAh
Battery 2: 73 mAh
Not a very scientific test, but still.
I like this charger. I doesn't overcharge and that to me is the most important part, feels safe. The cells are around 2400mAh so "loosing" about 70mAh I feel is OK as long as you can trust the charger not making a fire. From what I've read and with this test I certainly would like to recommend this one as a good cheap charger.
I ordered one off ebay last week. Got it for $13 with free shipping. The delivery estimate is almost 2 months, but it's already shipped. Can't imagine it taking more than a few weeks..
Hm, black one with white text? :| AFAIK, original WP2 is made from grey plastic (top part, and black bottom part) and "DC 12V" text is not written with white paint :~ Fake WP2?
Yup, perhaps new batch. But... I'm still leaning towards a fake WP2 :X Anyway, hope it works equally well for you, glenn, but yeah, keep eye on it while charging. Just in case ;)
SashiX, thanks for the heads up. I'll measure the charge current and voltage with my Fluke 189 multimeter. I'm very careful, especially with 18650's. I charge my batteries in my detached garage away from anything combustible. Paranoid is my middle name lol!
I finally got my charger. The only question is, real or fake? Question: For some reason I can't get images to display in this forum. I have no problem in other forums I belong to. What am I doing wrong?
I'm charging ultrafire 3200 mAh's I have on hand right now. I know they're not great batteries, but they're all I have right now and they do just fine in my Fenix TK35. I do have Xtar 2600's and Panasonic 2900's on order. Hopefully they will arrive soon. I'll measure voltage when charging is complete.
Here's my findings so far. The charge current pulses on and off at a fast rate according to my Fluke 189 multimeter. Isn't it supposed to be constant current? It does read a little over 600 ma on peaks. Again I'm using cheap Ultrafire 3200mAh cells. Also the end charge voltage is around 4.09. Is this due to the fact I'm using sub standard cells? Or do I have a fake charger? (I only paid $13 for it)
That Fluke is awesome :P Check this review, glenn. WP2 tends to terminate early (not a bad thing, actually. will extend cell life). And yes, it depends on cell also. If you need to charge it further, charge it again. I think (for a 18650 cell) you will need half an hour more, just wait till it turns green again ;)
So, if you can make graph like that (in the review I mean), you'll see if it's a good WP2 or a fake one. I think it's a good one, they (Xtar) just chaged it a bit.