I looked at the list of reviewed chargers, and it seems the best ones on the list were from 2017.
With that said, I’m in the market for a 2 or 4 bay charger in 2023.
I’d like to keep the price around US $40 give or take, but if there is something hugely better that falls a bit out of my price range please mention it.
My wants/needs;
Individually working slots. Automatic detections & selections of charging modes. Automatic termination of charge. All protections. auto temperature control.
21700 unprotected cell ability (would be nice if protected would fit but not a necessit
Ability to charge NiMH & LSD cells (AA & AAA)
NiCd too if possible.
IMR, ICR, INR, LIFEPO4
Ability to charge 10440, 14500 & 26650 cells
Ability to charge 10180 & 14250 (not a deal killer if it won’t charge these tiny cells)
Some sort of circuitry that can determine the health of cells, as to whether they are getting worn out.
Some sort of circuitry that can redirect “dead” cells. Reactivate “zero voltage” batteries.
Maybe not available at all, but ability to charge Olight proprietary cells 21700 & 18650 that have both poles on the same end of the battery.
Lots of wants here, and I didn’t know if they are all even possible to get together (or available) at my price point.
I don’t think it ticks all of the boxes, but my charger of choice is the Vapcell S4 Plus.
It’s kinda pricey, but it’s really nice, and it can charge four 21700 cells at 3 amps a piece.
Looks like version 2 is currently on sale for $26.99
I hear that version 3 is better, but I don’t know how much better it is.
EDIT:
I have two version 2 chargers because I bought them before version 3 came out.
Honestly, if version 2 is quite a bit cheaper then version 3 (like it is right now), I’d choose version 2 if I needed another charger.
I’ve got the nitecore ums2 and I think it fits everything you’re asking for except the olight cell compatibility.
It auto detects li-ion or NiMH, and seems to have a length detector so by default it charges 21700s faster than 10440s. However the lowest it automatically goes with a li-ion is 500mA, so I manually set it to 200-300mA.
The only downside is it uses micro USB instead of USBC but that’s not a big issue
Is that voltage OK for these cells. I thought they maxed at 1.2V
Or is it like it is with Li Ion that are rated at 3.6/3.7V but charge to around 4.2V?
Also, I read of there being a software bug I believe in the testing mode that was found. An update to the software was made, but it still didn’t fix the bug. I wonder if the latest version finally has it fixed.
NiMH : tried and true Panasonic Eneloop BQ-CC17 or BQ-CC55. They have fancier versions like the BQ-CC65
LiIon : I’ve been through a lot of chargers, if you just want charging, the Gyrfalcon AL-44 is my favorite, but it doesn’t do anything else. It does handle LiFePO4 though. The XTAR VC8 Plus looks good on paper, but mine was possessed by satan (each slot behaved differently and the display for each cell had wildly fluctuating currents). If you don’t need storage mode, Vapcell S4+ V2 is good. If you want storage mode, wait for V3 … which at this point was released a while ago but sales channels are waiting to flush before update. MC3000 can do LiFePO4 but its a pita with 21700 cells, and forget button top 21700.
I had the VC4SL also, you can only select the max. current, the charger itself decide how fast it charges.
Vapcell S4 Plus is one of the best NiMH-chargers actually; and I have a lot of NiMH-chargers. The most pure NiMH-chargers have more problems than the S4 with not so good cells. And the S4 have temperature monitoring.
The Xtars are completely lost here, it is almost impossible to charge a NiMH completely, most times it stops far away from full.
More than 300mA at discharging with big cells which have over 5000mAh.
No
No
Nobody´s perfect
The digital display of the Vapcell is much better to read than the tiny, rough dial of the Xtars
The only benefit is that the VC4SL shows some values of all slots.
it Could be you satisfied with your Xtars, but the massive drawbacks should be mentioned.
Too bad neither shows the actual voltage of the cells after charge termination. It is very useful to be able to see the actual resting voltage of the cells after sitting for a while. But not many of this class of charger can do this.
Unfortunately I haven’t found any of these “cheap” chargers that click all of the boxes for me.
The one that I use the most is an old BTC-3100 V2.2 (I think mine is version 2) from Opus. It won’t charge at 3 amps (but I don’t need that for 90% of my cells.) The display shows all sots without pressing any buttons, the mode selection is good Will charge/discharge and cycle. I like that it can do 250 mA for the smaller capacity cells.
Just another option to think about. Depending on your needs it may be OK. At least mine is still working well after lots of years. I have had Xtar and Vapcell chargers die in 20% of that time. I am talking about a Dragon Plus which Amazon lists for over $80 and puked all over itself i under a year.
Budget is relative. If you have a healthy one, consider the SkyRc Mc3000. It does about anything you would want to do with a charger. It does them all well. (including LiFePO4) I have one that is used pretty much daily and it is going on 12 years old… It is not cheap, but sometimes you do get what you pay for. Having replaced the Dragon Plus (still kick myself for that, but I wanted the external IR check function) I could have just bought another MC3000.
EDIT:
Yes, You need to know the cells. But between Capacity, IR, and resting voltage, you can make pretty good decisions.
The Vapcell s4+ i have does pretty much all of that, except storage. I can recharge Olight cells and Imalent cells. The v3 will have this, but i pretty much never use it. All for arond $40. The next best is the SkyRc mc3000 at around $110.
As far as detecting dead cells…this really only applies to li ion cells and its easy to tell from the voltage: below about 2 volts. The S4+ has a cell refresh function that will recharge ‘dead’ li ions under 2 volts, but do it at your own risk. Batteries these days are pretty safe overall, but its not worth the time and effort. If it works and you do revive them, they might work fine for a long time or work fine for a while then fail to take a charge or immediately discharge.
They do make that claim. It sells chargers. It’s not something you should be doing, whether the charger will do it or not, it’s not safe to do. If it goes to 0V you shouldn’t try to revive it. NiCad you can in a pinch.
Ya, s4+ is good. I have to say, with the S4+, it has a feature that lets you use it as a powerbank. Something went wrong in mine and it burned up the chip that controls that. It was just a burning smell and then no more powerbank feature.
As far as I know I’m the only person who’s had this happen. The rest of the charger still works and I still use it, no other major issues. I’d still recommend it.
If you want charge NiMH, stay away from most Xtar-chargers, especially the VC4SL and similar
If you want individual slot configuration, see 1.
If you want a charger which really charge at selected current, see 1.
Some other drawbacks of VC4SL are already mentioned
The Vapcell is the best bang for the buck if you don´t need LiFePO4
All chargers which can do more are rare and expensive, like ISDT C4 EVO and Skyrc MC3000. Don´t have the MC3000 but the C4 EVO have also problems with NiMH, can only charge 2 LiIon and supports not all sizes of LiIon
The Opus BT-C3100 is not bad at all, but IMHO not the best choice for LiIon and the fan is really annoying (same for the C4 EVO but at charging you don´t hear it often).
IMHO the Vapcell is hard to beat, especially not for it´s price.
