I always wanted to ask you if instead of spending 25-30 euros in one of those analyzing charger would be much better a 30- 60 € for one of those 50-80-150W hobby charger (for under 60€ you could have a 300W discharge one) , considering one always have a spare PSU laying somewhere in the house. Maybe a laptop one or even a Desktop one (maybe a single 12V rail could not be enough thou).
Sure you lose the ability to analyze capacities of 2 cell at the same time if charging in parallel, also different chemistries at the same time. Also don’t know it is totally safe to charge let’s say a 2.8V cell with a 3.2V. Or cells with different form factors…
But Do the charging curves appear A LOT better?
Also is the Opus Pulse current a lot worse than the Liitokala charging current for a “everyweek recharge”? Or am i wrong?
Hobby chargers are more universal and has much better charge curves and more safety, you do also avoid heat from the charger.
BUT: They can only handle one cell at a time*, you need to do you own charge cradle and you often need to push considerable more buttons.
* Except with a balancing rig, and it can slow down the charging.
With 18650 I would not worry much about the pulse current, but with smaller cells I am not too happy about it. The LiitoKala do not use any pulses but a steady charge current.
Only two opinions on Amazon. This one was the first…coming from a 3400 seller…Never been substanciated.
But this not the correct thread…How to chose between three very good chargers…
- I’m probably going to buy the 300 . Powerbank function is really usefull when phone/tablet batteries are expensive/hard to change or when the device is meant to be disposed of when batteries are dead ( The case of many bluetooth loudspeakers )
-Support of LiFePo would be nice. I’ll write to the maker
I’m sure the OP has already chosen a charger, but in my experience so far, I trust my Xtar the most. Very consistent and precise. For simply charging li-ion it’s hard to beat.
I have found my Lii-300 to be useful, but not as well made as I had hoped. Discharge tests are always higher on one channel and the cells terminate charging at 4.26V. It’s been useful for weeding out bad cells from my laptop pulls, and really like the fact that USB out uses both slots, but other than that, I would not use it on a regular basis for charging.
And that’s a valuable opinion, since you have both.
Thanks for that. Sadly it mixes things up more. As seems there is not a valid charger that charges decently and also measures capacity. Maybe charging with vp2 and analyze with liitokala.
Or just go for Hobby chargers
For the common of mortals/beginners, LiitoKala Engineer Lii-300 could be the one and only charger to have.
Thank you for bringing that device into the thread.
If you plan on charging low voltage (<2.8V) Li-Ion batteries such as those pulled from laptop battery packs or Li-Ion batteries drained down by your flashlight because they do not have overdischarge protection, Opus BT-C3400 would be able to restore the battery to higher capacity (and prolong your battery life) than LiitoKala Engineer Lii-300 just because the first charge after such a rundown is critically important.
I have lots of laptop battery packs which I have disassembled. I discovered by experience that BT-C3400 would recover significantly more capacity of a 1.5V battery if the first charge is 200mA than a 2.5V battery if the first charge is 500mA. For example, a Panasonic 1,800mAh cell drained down to 2.5V would restore to about 1,500 mAh when the first charge was 500mA and a 1.5V battery would restore to 1,700mAh if the first charge was 200mA. Now, my first charge of any battery discharged below 2.8V is always 200mA. If I missed charging a battery at 200mA at first and charged it at 500mA and it restored to 1,500mAh, then discharging and recharging it at 200mA would not increase the capacity to 1,700mA. So, If the first opportunity is missed, it is missed forever.
Unfortunately, Lii-300 can only charge at 500mA at minimum. It also overcharges batteries to 4.23-4.26V while my BT-C3400 has never gone even to 4.21V. It cuts off exactly at 4.20V. I read a lot of charger reviews when shopping for a new charger a month ago, and since I planned to use the charger mostly for 18650 laptop pulls, I decided that Opus would serve my purpose better.
I believe HKJ once said that if you know the shortcomings of your charger and how to work around them, many chargers would be acceptable. I just did not want to insert a resistor between the battery and LiitoKala to reduce the charging current, nor to stand over the charger all the time while it would be charging my batteries so that I could pull the plug when the display showed 4.21V. If you are are prepared to do these, LiitoKala may be the best charger for your needs.
Thanks for the additional info. But floating around there are incomplete information… I mean 1/10 of a fast charge… Yes, but what is a fast charge? It depends on the battery I think. Samsung inr18650 24R can charge at 4A. But otherwise what do you mean by fast charge? 1C? I think also that fast charge relies con the chemistry itself… Icr should have a far less “fast charge ”. Am I wrong? I’m just trying to acquire the more and more correct information from various sources. Sorry
trume_3454 - Thank you for the very useful information.
No - have not got a charger yet. Actually had a VP2 for a very short time until it was stolen and liked it but after having read post #23 that changes everything. Almost all the batteries that will be charged are laptop pulls.
In the last several days since the budget is really tight just now I was thinking about just getting a single slot 18650 1.0A charger but having just read post #23 just a moment ago it would not be anywhere near optimum to even consider that.
I am ruined. A bit of advice....do not even look at any charger you cannot afford in the near future. If a SkyRC MC3000 (found only in the current catalog (from their website) but not on their product page) came our way that would definitely seem to be the ticket but it will probably cost at or slightly over $100 and it probably will not be released for maybe two more months. Meantime we need a charger for only 18650 laptop pulls and so it seems the Opus BT-C3400 would be the best logical choice right now. Oh and there may be a few times where charging some AAA NiMH would be convenient.
Thank you all for all the input. If any additional opinions come to mind please share.
Yes, saw that one, thank you. I will only get one that can discharge and analyze now that it was explained how valuable a good analyzer and discharge function are ESPECIALLY for used laptop pulls.
Well, while I was waiting for another review for the lii300, i made the (maybe wrong) idea there must be something very bad about it (HKJ already burned the Lii260 and other chargers shared the same end before he completed his reviews), since he already wrote about other 5 reviews since then , and he stated that everything was almost ready a month or so ago.
So i almost made my decison for a Turnigy Reaktor 300W 20A, should be a good learning tool.
Regarding the VC4, you should wait HKJ review about it, and also keep in mind that comes without power adapter, It is feeded by a USB plug, so if you have a good 5-5.1V @2.0-2.1A power adapter for smartphone or tablet you should be good to go….I’m not that sure if using it that intensively could stress it bytheway, so keep this possibility in account
