nitecore intellicharge i4 poof

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

I received a nitecore intellicharge i4 today. Charged a couple of AA nimh cells, then an unprotected Samsung, all seems ok.

Decided to feed it two keeppower 3400mah cells.

Switched off at the wall, put the cells in bays 1 + 3 just to see worst case scenario. Switched on, blue flash from inside charger and nothing.

Guess I need to contact the supplier, have I done anything wrong here? And yes, they went in the right way around. :~

Edit, there is the distinct smell of cat wee, synonymous with burnt electrics, I doubt its a fuse gone.

2

maybe wrong order?

i always do:

first plug in wall socket, blue LED turns on, yellow LED's blink, ready to go, insert cells.

3

Nothing you did wrong, I was just about to buy this charger as well, as it is so versatile, maybe have to rethink now.
All you can do is contact seller, see what they say.
I got a 100% duff SRK from f/t today, it has very obviously been apart before in an attempt to fix, but who ever did it was on the wrong track, but I’ve fixed it now, quality of the black SRK from fast tech is nowhere near as good as their own UV-S5, not sure on light output as charging up me new SenyBor cells at moment on me trusty ultrafire and trustfire chargers, slow but do the job.
Hope you get yours sorted ok,
tabs

4

My intellicharger i4 from Fasttech was dead on arrival.
I’ve sent it back and am awaiting a refund of the postage cost and a replacement.

5

I suspect sorted will be in the lap of the supplier, it does have a serial number molded into the box, all the nitecore bumf and a warranty card, you know the one you never fill in? Guess what I’ll be doing…

I don’t see why it should have popped though, that bothers me a bit, cells have always charged fine in my no-name charger, I just wanted an i4 for the flexibility. :expressionless:

6

Och! Sorry to hear that. Always power up the charger first before inserting batteries unless stated otherwise in the instructions.

7

The problem with that was I had to pull the neg contacts and drop in the cells. Whilst I’m not adverse to a little electrical tingle, I didn’t think it was a good idea, better dead circuit, insert cells, turn unit on.

In hind sight, I’ve not felt a tingle just touching the negative contact before (i don’t make a habit of touching the contacts whilst live tbh) but perhaps this was an indicator of something not right. :expressionless:

8

I think you’ve just been unlucky. I use the same sequence as you, i.e. put the cells in the charger before switching on at the wall.

Did it come with a UK plug or do you use an adapter?

I bought mine from HKE, not that it should make any difference. I assume they are all made in the same factory.

9

i never do anything in particular with my i4 when charging…batteries in plug it in…or plug it in then batteries in…it’s been rock solid for the past 7 months…sounds like you just got a bad one unfortunately

10

Just touching the negative contacts won't shock you, you would need to touch both positive and negative and even in that case it wouldn't shock you since the voltage is to low. (just confirmed that right now)

11

Vas, it came with a us lead :~ I had to use an adaptor, for some reason I thought I’d ordered one with a UK lead.

Scaru, I know what an electrical tingle feels like, it was there, just through the neg contact to ground (through me), I don’t consider it a jolt till I’m messing with three phase or ht leads, it was there though, sane feeling as when you lick a good 9v batteries contacts but more intense. As I say, in hind sight, this should have told me what was likely to happen as I’ve never felt that on a charger before.

12

Really? Sh*t... That definitely should not have happened, I just grabbed the negative end of a 12v battery and that didn't give as much as a tingle; something must have really been screwed up with your charger.

13

That’s my thought. It was definitely there, like touching a PSU leads, but just touching negative contacts, so the ground path must have been me to floor. The keeppower’s saw it off though, it stinks of burnt electrical components. I’ve filed an issue, I don’t expect a reply till Monday (cny) so if I get one earlier I’ll be impressed, for now its back in its box. I don’t want to try stripping the unit till I’ve had dirrections as its not a screw together case, I don’t want accusing of breaking it.

14

Who did you order it from? Also, do you know it successfully charged those cells and that they came out at 4.2 volts?

15

I’d prefer not to say who I ordered from till they’ve had a chance to respond, I don’t like the whole I ordered here its crap climate.

AA #1 = 1.39v
AA #2 = 1.39v
Samsung 18650 = 4.20v

Not sure on the nimh readings but the 18650 seems bob on, shame.

16

I’ve had mine 3 months. I quickly found if I don’t insert cells before powering on, it sometimes fails to charge 1 or 2 cells properly, especially with a full load of NiMH. For that reason, I always turn the power strip off before inserting or removing cells.

Otherwise, it’s been flawless charging 10-12 Eneloops and 4-8 18650s per week (knocking on wood) and my sticky sliders have smoothed out nicely.

17

I’m on my second one of these and it now has problems as well.The second one worked great until I took it to work.There it refused to charge 18650’s in bay 1 and 3, but still works perfectly on bay 2 and 4 or with NiMh on all four channels?It dosen’t recognize LiIon cells in 1 and 3 and quickly goes to solid 3 bars if I put a cell in one or both of those bays(18650).I wan’t to like this charger but this is my second from the same US store.I see that ShiningBeam is selling them now…I may give one from Bryon the 3rd(and last)chance for this charger.-Rick

18

Relatively new LSD batts should have ~1.5V fully charged.
Don’t know but maybe they’ve started to use cheap components? They’ve won our attention and now… Why not make even more profit? :evil:

19

These are pretty new, but I don’t think LSD, just store bought cheapies, since I as of yet have no AA lights, I’ve not got into eneloops yet, too much else to buy.

The i4 was the first step…… I may stick to li-ions at this rate, the chargers don’t go poof or shock me for fun :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Don’t suppose this is the problem but it’s nonetheless a possibility.