I was going to give a friend buying a light from me one of my now used cheap chargers, a double bay blackie plain one I’ve had for over a year and used just fine. I go to test it out on the battery and they lights stay green. Doesn’t acknowledge any battery. Is this a common problem with these? Joining my hate for cheap batteries is cheap chargers now, I guess.
The fact that the light stays green is usually a sign that the battery is bad and it doesn’t recognize it.
Or that the battery is already charged.
Although the Xtar's are pretty decent for that style of charger, the really cheap no brand Chinese chargers should be avoided. You don't wan't to take chances with cells that can potentially explode and end up burning your house down especially if you're charging unprotected cells. Hobby chargers are the way to go. Full control over the charge rate, plus being able to monitor the state of charge is a big plus..
I bought one of these cheap chargers before I knew anything about this hobby. I gutted it and made a 2 bay parallel battery holder for my hobby charger..
my hxy-1 (or whatever the model no under it was. it was tested to use a good charging algorithm by someone on this forum) charger from DX can be that way as well. the led won’t turn red when inserting a battery. i usually shake the charger a little, and wiggle the plate that connects to the positive end of the battery.
but now i have a couple of chargers on my way from wallbuys christmas sale! 
The batteries are good for sure. These would be chargers, cheaper ones, for those just getting into decent torches. I could put my finger against the positive and the sign would blink red, but no battery would get any reaction at all. Strange.
I had been using those ultra compact wall plugged single bay chargers usually sold at $3-4 for some while with success. But one they one of them wouldn’t charge but light up green and the other one gone POOF with some smoke. They were like noname chargers and you can see many under different names. They worked well until then, charged good and under limits.
Now there are many chargers with reasonable prices like Trustfire’s, ML-102 USB type chargers and single bay XTARs. They are usually at 5-8$ range. These are much more reliable and I have been using them without problems for a long time. FastTech now has even cheaper ML-103 and ML-101 for under $5. They need a 5V power supply but who hasn’t a USB charger at home already ?
Thanks. I know what ones you are talking about and they have been good. Also, never tried the XTAR ones but have heard good things. That may be how I’ll go from now on.