1A is the highest discharge setting for NiMH with a few chargers, most are not able to reach it. 1A is OK for me with AA-NiMH
Not sure if the Skyrc MC3000 can do 2A also with NiMH (all slots?), the NC2500 Pro can do 6x 1,5A but AFAIK you can´t set the slots individual (reminds me of Xtar )
I believe that it can. I use one of my C9000s for NiMH most of the time though. But the SkyRC MC3000 will definitely charge LiIon and NiMH cells at 3 amps for all slots at once.
EDIT:
If you are talking about DISCHARGE current, The MC3000 can do max 2A for all 4 slots at the same time with NiMH.
1 Amp with all 4 slots for LiIon cells.
Well, not for high capacity cells. Maybe 16340 or 14500 ~1000 mAh cells, but that it about it. Even then it may be a bit light. 21700 or 26650… or even most 18650 cells, not unless you have days to wait.
Don´t get me wrong, I don´t mean I need a discharger with 20A discharge to test the max drain
But I think 1A discharge for LiIon should be possible, maybe not for 4 cells because it will cause big heat and a fan is required. I think the solutions from Vapcell S4+ (2x1A, 2x 500mA) or LiitoKala Lii-600 (4x 750mA) are good enough, at least for me.
For NiMH it should be no problem with 1A for all slots, I have 3 chargers which can do it.
I´m also interested to see if the cell have voltage crash at discharge with 500mA-1A, in this case a 300mA discharge would be the right choice.
I think that any charger that I would chose as my main charger would be able to do at least 1A for all bays. But agreed we run into physical limitations. Yes a big heat sink and maybe a fan are required for all 4 slots at an Amp at the same time.
With two bay USB powered chargers for occasional use, travel or power bank use, I could live without any discharge capabilities.
I think the Opus BT-C3100 can do 1A with LiIon for all bays. But it have a fan, a very noisy fan. And somewhere I saw a video how to change the discharge-resistors, so it would be also critical with fan to discharge 4x 1A with LiIon
The new Gyrfalcon chargers S4000 Pro and S8000 can also do 1A in all slots, hope the fan isn´t so noisy.
My C4 EVO can do 2x 1,5A with LiIon and it´s so noisy that I only use it in a room I´m not in at this action. Also at 1A it´s to loud.
So I use my Vapcell S4+, only the outer slots for discharging/testing LiIon at 1A.
I do also not discharge everyday, but if I buy a new charger it should have some good features in general. Generic chargers without many features are boring for me
I get it, but I have so many chargers that I have bought some for specific purposes. Like the Xtar PB2SL for travel charging and power bank functions. No discharge needed… boring but functional for the purpose that I need. Or the recently purchased and modded Nitecore USM4. Specifically because I can now put 4 26800 cells in it to charge. I previously had to use one of my hobby chargers for 26800 cells. Again, yes, boring, but it does what I bought it for. Would more features be nice (discharge)? Sure but this would result in a larger, heavier and more expensive device.
I do have two MC3000s and now an S8000 that give me all of the features that I will need.
So for me, it comes down to the right tool for the requirements. Those requirements can be quite narrow for me. Meaning, I have lots of chargers (or so I rationalize it to myself… )
A lot of people swear by the PB2SL and similar others by XTar. I’ve considered it (or a previous, similar model – it’s been 2 years) but judged it too large to carry on my belt pouch, so I opted for the Fenix ARE-D1 which being single-celled, was the perfect fit size-wise.
And functionality-wise, the Fenix has been working just great – it’s the only charger (that is, besides the one built in my Wurkkos FC13) that I’ve packed for my current overseas trip (which has just been extended to 6 months ) and it’s being used daily to charge and control all my batteries, and (so far, knock on wood) has not let me down.
No discharge needed
I’ve needed that function a couple of times during my current predicament, and was able to accomplish it with my Fenix (which does not offer it) by a somewhat contrived, but perfectly doable procedure:
put the battery to be discharged in the charger, and use its powerbank functionality to charge something (perhaps even a flashlight that you can leave on at some luminosity, so as to prolong the powerbank operation for the necessary time;
wait 60 seconds and check the remaining charge; do a rule-of-three calculation to forecast how many more seconds will be needed to discharge the battery to the wanted battery level;
start a timer for that much seconds, then come back and check the charge and remove the battery.
This has been working fine for me, and should work with any charger offering a powerbank function (and a numeric indication of the battery level) .
Granted, not as fancy/nice/automatic as my MC3000, but it’s a few thousand miles from me now, so as they say, necessity is a mother…
For my travelling I have also some small, USB-powered chargers like the supercompact Skyrc NC1500 (NiMH-only), for LiIon I have the UMS4 which is not that small but IMHO lightweight for it´s size.
There are also some other 2-slot-chargers from Xtar, LiitoKala, Vapcell, Nitecore. Maybe there should be more chargers with higher charging current, but at least I think there are enough simple, small chargers available
You often mentioned the MC3000, since the last time also the S8000, this means to me you also interested in advanced chargers. IMHO a charger like these two are flashier than a 08/15 simple/small charger.
If you look at the Enova Gyrfalcon topic you should understand that the many responses, ideas for features, improvement suggestions will never happen if there is a 2-slot-charger which is just charging
It´s also a point the manufacturer could prove that he can do more than just build a simple charger. Sure, I think, a simple charger for a low price would be sell more than a super charger, but you will not attract attention with it. You are just one of many charger manufacturer without a flagship.
Enova had good chargers before but with missing features for advanced users. I´m happy that Enova is interested to give us chargers like the S8000, I don´t really expected a half year ago that they will build such a charger.
And for this topic: Xtar, please bring us a charger which have also discharge with currents like 1A because even my smaller cells will take to much time for discharging/testing capacity.
I hope it will allow much higher charging currents than all other Xtar use at the Grad.-function
Something similar to the Vapcell S4+ with 2x1A and 2x0,5A with LiIon or 4x1A with NiMH like the Powerex 9000 should possible in a well designed (big) charger without fan. With a big charger case it´s also possible to use a low rpm big fan for quiet working.
Allow the biggest battery sizes and give pain to the user with very small currents is not so good