My Nitecore i4 is having some problems charging NiMH AAA batteries. Even if the battery is completely flat, i4 starts at 3 leds and stops charging the battery after some time.
Dumb charger have no problem charging same battery. but dumb charger have to have 2 batteries to be able to charge :S
I have read somewhere that i4 having problems charging Eneloops.
Is it a known problem or is it just my luck?
That's how my first i4 was with lithium ion cells, but it worked fine with nimh cells.
The i4 is an inexpensive li-ion charger that you can accidentally leave cells in for a couple hours and not have to worry about setting your house on fire. It might be capable of charging NiMH cells but they’re not the best tool for them.
And who knows, Nitecore’s QC may have slipped. My i4 terminates at 4.15v :zipper_mouth_face:
No problem charging lithium ion. Not all NiMH are causing problem. Its not happy with some, that must be because of the “intelligent” thing.
Charging either 18650 li-ons ,or 14500 ni-mhs .
I have gone through three of these chargers, they have all failed.The last one is at the cabin in WV.It only works on two channels now.I have given up on “universal” chargers.It’s either a LiIon charger(Xtar’s) or a NiMh charger.I know others have had better luck, but not me. 
Not the same product, maybe not the same components but the same manuf.
Mine does fine on Lion. I tried it on good NiMh and it got them hot. I won’t use it for NiMh anymore.
Weird, my i2 gets my lions hotter than Eneloop nimh. Charges slightly less than optimal on lion though (normally 4.19 off the charger, occasionally 4.2).
in pairs at minimum. If you’re only charging two AAA’s then you must put one in the first slot and then the second one in the third slot. Or one in slot two and the other in slot four.
If you don’t do it this way with the i4 then it will pump too much current into a AAA.
Wasn’t sure that if you already know this.
I’ll try the pair of AAA. I remember reading something like that on the notice, but did not pay too much attention.
Ive AAA’s overcharged and coming hot off the charger, so I dont recommend using it for AAA sized batteries, be it in pair or single battery charging.
Has to do something with contacts at the positive end of batterie where it meets the chargers metallic parts.
I just read my i4 directions, nottawhackjob is correct 
I just use mine for li-ions. I brought it camping last season with the 12V adapter figuring I only had to take one charger, but it soon became obvious I had brought about a month’s worth of batteries, so I still haven’t used it for NiMH yet. Still seems like it would be fine for NiMH in a pinch.
It’s always felt a little cheap to me but so far it’s held up well. Cells come off at 4.21 volts IIRC.
I use mine with NiMH’s all the time (tho my iq-328 is my first choice).
I was also having some other issues withthe charger freaking out/resetting larger capacity Li-ion’s and I was able to rectify the situation, as well as not have any other issues with NiMH, by switching from the A/C plug (therefor bypassing the Internal AC->DC transformer) to a 5A 12vDC power supply. Before hand I really didn like the i4 v2, it had a few issues and got super hot, now its perfect, not one issue wasnt cleared up by switching to the new PS, its to bad it increases the price 50% but oh well, I’m happy with its performance now.
My i4 was purchased less than a month ago. It charges my liions to 4.25v :exmark:
I’ll go back to only using only my hobby charger for them or start pulling the liions off the i4 early.
AZ
FYI - I bought the i4 to use along with my hobby charger for easy liion charging. Scrap that idea I guess.
FYI #2 - So far it has been fine charging NIMH cells for me.
I just bought some Duracell Ion Core, supposedly LSD, and also have some Eneloops from Costco. I wasn’t reaching 1.45V+ with the Duracells with my I2 like I could with the Eneloops so I went back to my ‘Tenergy’ Charger and it will charge up to 1.5V! I wasn’t happy with the Centura and Premium Tenergy’s and thought it had something to do with the Tenergy charger getting too hot. I started actively cooling with a brushless fan pulled from an old computer but still didn’t get the results I was hoping for (with the Tenergy’s)
But now that I have these new Duracells and along with the Eneloops, I’m attaining 1.45V+. Resting voltage after a day or so for Eneloops is 1.4V and 1.38V for Duracells.
My I2 is excellent to for Li_Ion and occasionally, It will charge my 18650 Sanyo 2600, Panasonic PD and B batteries to 4.23V (overcharge?)
I get tire of this kind of things with this charger, I just replace it for a hobby charger…
I use my I4 to charge AA ni-mh, AA Sanyo Eneloops, and 18650 li-ions. NO problems; no heat; NO problems whatsoever. As stated earlier, if just charging 2 batts, must use slots 1 and 3, or 2 and 4.
I pulled 6 cells from some old discarded Acer laptop yesterday. Out of the pack they recorded over 3.2v. Put 4 into the charger at night and went to sleep hoping it would have charged this morning
:~
Woke up today and found that the 3 cells were still charging… got them out immediately.
Forgot that I should not leave batteries un-attended. I was lucky that they did not overheat and explode during the night.
My bad actually. I guess the charger is trying to top up the cells but they could not achieve the required voltage.
I should get a timer next time.
My i4 charges lithium batteries like a pro but I don’t trust him with nimh…
I have the feeling it don’t charges them completely just stops at80% or so.
By the way my hobbycharger overcharged an eneloop AAA nimh too. I set it on charging at 300mA and on the next morning the b6 had pumped 2000mAh in it….
But after reading that the Sanyo overnight charger charges 16h no matter how full the battery was, I think overcharging at moderate currents(0.1*C)is no issue…maybe I will try this