Test/Review of Charger Enova All-80

Charger Enova All-80





Enova has a long line of chargers with 2, 4 and 8 channels. This review is about the 8 channel charger. The charger can charge both LiIon and NiMH batteries and work as a usb power supply.



I got it without any box, only the charger and a US power supply.



On one side of the charger is a DC connector for 12 volt input, it can be used for the mains adapter or a car adapter.



On the other side is a usb output connector for the usb power supply/charger function.



There is no real user interface on this charger, just put a battery into a slot and it will start charging.
The 3 leds for each slot gives an idea about charge status, when charging is finished all 3 will be steadily lit.






The slots can support many battery sizes, from 32mm long up to 72mm long, but the larger sizes will have a very long charge time.
When putting batteries in, it is necessary to be a bit careful to get connection due to the large diameter of the trays.






The charger can handle 72 mm long batteries including flat top cells. The specifications also list 16340 and 10440 batteries, but the current is too high for these battery sizes.




Measurements

  • Below 0.35 volt the charger will apply a few mA in pulses and all 3 yellow leds will flash.
  • Above 0.35 volt the charger will apply regular charge current.
  • Above 2.0 volt charger assumes LiIon battery.
  • Charger will restart if voltage drops to 3.9 volt.
  • Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  • When charging is finished the charger will apply 0.18mA charge current to LiIon and 1mA to NiMH.
  • When not connected to power it will drain about 0.25mA from a LiIon battery and 0.06mA from a NiMH battery.
  • The charger is specified as a 4.22 volt charger with 1% tolerance, this means some copies will have to high charge voltage.



LiIon charge



This looks like a nice CC/CV charge curve with a 50mA termination. This is very good.









All the other slots looks the same way.



The 2600mAh cell takes longer to charge, due to the long CV phase.



The 3400mAh will, of course, take longer.



No problems with my old IMR cell.



Or the 18350 cell.



With 8 cells the charger uses the full current on all channels.



This means that the charger uses 2.5A from the power supply.



M1: 40,9°C, M2: 41,8°C, M3: 41,5°C, M4: 41,3°C, M5: 41,4°C, M6: 40,9°C, M7: 39,4°C, M8: 35,4°C, M9: 44,5°C, HS1: 53,5°C

It looks like the heat generating electronic is distributed fairly even over the width of the charger, except at the last cell. It must be because the USB output electronic is there.



M1: 40,8°C, M2: 42,0°C, M3: 41,8°C, M4: 50,8°C, M5: 43,8°C, HS1: 66,5°C



Not much happens during startup, the charger needs about 3 second before it is charging.



NiMH charge



It looks like the charger is using maximum voltage termination here and the voltage is trimmed to stop just about where the eneloop batteries are full.
The charger does not have any top-off charge after the voltage termination, this means the batteries may not be complete filled.









On some of these tracks a slight temperature raise can be seen, when the charger terminates.



The XX must have a slightly lower termination voltage and the temperature peek is more obvious.



The AAA looks the same way.



But here the termination is different, it looks like a -dv/dt termination and the temperature raise is much greater.



Detecting a full cell takes about 11 minutes with eneloops.



With 8 batteries it looks like some does voltage termination (the one I am measuring V and A on) and some might do -dv/dt termination (The one with temperature sensor on).



Charging eneloop the current consumption is lower. The steps in the current at the end, is when the different batteries are finished.



M1: 40,0°C, M2: 40,8°C, M3: 40,6°C, M4: 40,6°C, M5: 39,9°C, M6: 39,6°C, M7: 38,2°C, M8: 35,0°C, HS1: 53,5°C

Like LiIon the last battery is not heated as much.



The charger starts just as fast here, but it will stop charging each other second to check voltage.



LiIon & NiMH mixed charge

Charging a mixed load of NiMH and LiIon does also work fine.



First with V and A measurement on the eneloop and temp on the LiIon.



And here the opposite way.



USB output

The usb output is powered from the 12V input, not from the batteries.



As can be seen it can deliver at bit more than 2.5A.

But it does not have any overload protection and at 2.6A it broke down and the output voltage increased to 12V permanently.

That breakdown prevented me from doing any more test on the usb.


The chargers power supply passed an isolation test with 2500 volt, but failed a 5000 volt test, this makes the it acceptable for 110VAC usage, but doubtful for 230VAC usage, being with US plug this is mostly acceptable. Usage with 12 volt (in a car) is, of course, always possible and safe.



Conclusion

The design of the charger is based on another charger, but instead of 4 slots it has 8 slots and instead of two charge circuits it has 8 charge circuits. This means the charger will charge with full current on all batteries in it. The charger uses a CC/CV algorithm for LiIon and a voltage or -dv/dt termination for NiMH.
I do not like that the usb is without overload protection and that it fails to 12 volt.

This is a fairly good charger if there is a need to charge many batteries, especially LiIon batteries.



Notes

The charger was supplied by Enova for a review.

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger
Read more about how I test USB power supplies and chargers

Hmm. Thanks for the review. Not my cup of tea, but I’m sure some will find this charger useful. A little expensive right now on Aliexpress at ~$45-70 USD.

Nide review HKJ, Out of all the charger you have tested where does this sit it in terms of charging Li-ion batteries only? I have no use for a NiMH

It is in the better end and looks like a good option if you often need to charge many 18650 batteries. For fewer batteries of different sizes I would select a charger where you can select charge current.

I4squared :smiley:

Awesome review as always HKJ!

I don’t think so.
Enova All-80 charge rate is much better than I4. Enova All-80 charge current is 675mAh*8; I4 charge current is 375mAh*4 or 750mAh*2.
Enova All-80 have 8 channels, Each of the eight battery channels monitors and charges independently ; but I4 _.
We have Enova All-41 similar to I4.

I don’t think so.
Enova All-80 charge rate is much better than I4. Enova All-80 charge current is 675mAh*8; I4 charge current is 375mAh*4 or 750mAh*2.
Enova All-80 have 8 channels, Each of the eight battery channels monitors and charges independently ; but I4 _.
We have Enova All-41 similar to I4.

Thank you very much.

best regards

Enova Wu

If somebody is interested in Enova All-80, for themselves , give them discount price ; for their business, give them wholesale price.
If you have any questions ,PLS don’t hesitate to contact me.
My email: sales1@enova18650.com

geez, eight channels? That must have taken some time to test! thanks for the effort, we all appreciate it.

Enova18650,

Do we contact you directly for a forum discount?

Yes, Please call me or Email me. Let me know what your thoughts are on this.
I will do my efforts to get the lowest discount for you-all.

Skype: enova.service1
Email: sales1@enova18650.com

I just received my Enova’s from Mountain Electronics, the power-supplies are different from the one in this review.

I just got mind today to from Mountain Electronics. I’m glad it came with this upgraded charger, which seems to be more robust than the little white one from the review. I’m loving this charger, and testing it with 4 Tenergy “D” 10,000 NiMH cells. Works great and charging them up quickly too.

Great job Mountain Electronics!

I will take a picture of the new power supply. It is more like what you would expect from a typical laptop power supply, with the switch mode adapter sitting in the middle of the separate AC and DC power cords. Testing the charger with 8 cells at once the power supply barely gets warm at all, which is a good thing.

If you click on the link I provided in the previous post I have a pic of the upgraded power-supply, I like it much better than the one posted in the review here. Yes it looks just like a laptop power-supply and doesn’t block 2 outlets while it is use and runs cool :slight_smile:

I bought the ENOVA ALL80 with the original wall plugin power supply. It blow sparks just like unplugging a running power tool every time its plugged in or unpluged from the wall outlet. The charger works great and holds 8-26650’s with just a little jiggling to get them all in. All channels appear to be independent, no current dips or drops when additional cells were added. A different power supply was needed, I hope that these new ones work. I’m stuck with the old style so I use an extension cord to protect the wall sockets.

Nice to see an 8bay version of the i4. USB output comes as a surpise bonus. I could be interested if the price was good and power supply was tested to be on par with needs.

Actually the price is good and so is the upgraded power-supply; it’s not exactly an expanded version of the i4 because ALL 8 slots are individual channels; so it is actually even better than the i4, less heat & better charger than the i4 which if you read all the reports on the i4 I think that one performs rather poorly.

sales1@enova18650.com Emailed me today to tell me that they had sent the original style power supply with my order and that production model is using a newer power supply. They will be sending me the new power supply. If they keep up this kind of service I can see myself buying more of their stuff. Honestly I’m a little surprised and a bit happy they thought enough to care after a sale.