Warning Bad lot of chargers at Manafont - Beware

I bought a large # of SKU 6184 to go with lights for a Christmas presents. All of them have been bad. You plug them in and within 2 minutes they smoke and sound like popcorn popping in the internals.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/110v240v-ac-lithium-battery-charger-for-single-18650-us-plug-p-5642


I have put in for replacements and am not downing Manafont, but I would certainly avoid these chargers.

Thanks for posting. That is my go to charger for lights I sell
and give away.

Well I got somebody on the chat at manafont but got nowhere on a resolution then they cut me off. Upon getting back on with chat, I was told I needed to send another email detailing the problem and they would begin an investigation. This after sending one a week ago that got no response.

I am talking to paypal about this to get my money back. Not feeling good about it.

This was 125 chargers, not one or two so the whole lot is bad and manafont is not willing to admit it or fix it thus far.

Uh oh I bought 2 of these for a friend too. I have received them so I'm going to charge some batteries off them to see if anything goes wrong.

If I supervise the chargers while they are charging I should be alright?

you'll know within 2 minutes - snap crackle pop, light goes green then goes out and if you are lucky it doesnt smoke too bad.

Manafont is a pretty good company and Jim posts here sometimes but for 125 chargers you will probably have a fight on your hands. I will be watching this one for sure.

I got an email almost immediately from Manafont asking about how to proceed so at least the paypal dispute got the attention it should have. Maybe they will make right quickly - lets hope.

I think the chargers I got are good. Both are charging a battery, one protected one not. So far there is no visible defects. No smoke or sparks or bangs/pops. It has been 10-15 mins. I'll keep them on charge until they say the battery is fully charged.

I think this is bad

125 chargers? That’s a lot for them to source. Probably bad sourcing on their part. Looks like they didn’t even test before sending them out.

Ok, Both my chargers charged both unprotected and protected 18650's ok without any problems. Fully charged at 4.19 volts.

I hope you get this resolved. Thats way to many bad units. Hopefully with MF presence here you get this sorted.

So far they want me to go through hoops and video one going bad etc. I find it completely unacceptable that a company would do no QC and sell a product that not only is defective, but a fire hazard and then make the customer go through all the QC effort after the fact.

Now they are telling me I should buy another lot of chargers and wait for a refund on the first batch. Sure, I can afford to tie up another $600 in their mistake. I guarantee one thing, if I do have to buy another batch of chargers it sure wont be from Manafont and once this is resolved, I'll steer clear in the future. I've done nearly $15k worth of business with them and if that isnt enough to get decent service for an issue like this, what chance do you have when you only spend $20?

Last chance Jim, make it right or expose Manafont as no better than DX, DD or some of the others.

I bought one of these at DD..I tested it last night after seeing this thread..it worked perfectly..sucks you got 125 bad ones..that's nuts..

I ordered 5 for gifts and all 5 went poof in just a few seconds.

I thought there was a problem with my outlets!

I got the exact same charger from DX. It last 3 months and then POOF. Noise and Smoke and it's gone forever.

I bet that switcher input capacitor was faulty or even lower voltage than it should be or simply bad quality or overrated. Charger works for a brief time, just enough to pass QC (if there was any at all) Perhaps you can open one and take some pictures...

I'm allergic to low quality chinese capacitors and I always replace them with reliable hi-quality parts, especially if device is AC operated.

I know this would be highly impractical in your case but as I don't trust chinese QC (or lack of it) I always open device to make sure it won't electrocute someone or burn down the house.

On the other hand, price for this charger is way to low to expect even basic QC or even half decent product that would be safe to give to others without opening and checking them out.

For example xtar mp-1 is much simpler product (no AC section, much lower parts count, less material...) and it still has a higher price than this one.

I hope that Manafont will sort this out properly (refund / replace them)

Bad news with that deal. But I also would suggest buying better chargers to give to non flashoholics as they will tend to forget and leave batteries on the charger for too long. I even do it myself and I know better.

I assume 10's of thousands of these guys have been sold they are the same charger given with the 5,69 $ 502B battery and charger combo from dino direct ..if the charger is bad it's easier to take if you get a free light ,drop in and blue battery :P

Sorry to hear about run around on junk ...cpf has one thing correct ....Lifes to short

Bad luck mate, that's a rotten result. And as Langcjl says, it's bad all round as Manafont have always seemed one of the more reliable sellers. If they can't be trusted..Frown

For what my 2p is worth, I'd advise biting the bullet (not easy, I know) and play it by the book, i.e. do what they ask within reason and keep cool. If they refuse to budge on this, and insist on a video, send it if possible. Sure, you shouldn't have to, but at least this way Paypal can't fault anything on your part. I've read of many cases where, if all else fails, they (Paypal) have stepped in and judged in a purchaser's favour with a full refund.

And/or, what about offering to ship the chargers back to Manafont on the understanding that you'll get full shipping refund once they've seen for themselves? Hopefully, of course, Jim will do the right thing and none of this will be necessary. Fingers crossed for you.