Several people in this thread and others made conclusions from the resting voltage alone.
It's not worth twice the money because it has XTAR stamped on it, it's because it's been tested several times where the conclusions were that it's much better for safety and for the life of the cells than the cheaper Chinese chargers.
The XTAR and even the TR-001 is much safer than hobby chargers because there is no room for user error. You put the cells in and that's it. With hobby chargers you have to fiddle with your own cables and cradles and can use potentially dangerous settings (which you listed as a plus).
With a cheap charger, except for deteriation of cell life and the occasional popped capacitor on the primary transformer side (because of bad quality) you don't risk that much. With hobby chargers people have burned down cars, trailers, houses, workshops, you name it. It's nothing to be recommended to beginners, and having "proper CC/CV algorithm" has nothing to with safety but with charging speed.
I wasn't touting this charger as an amazing piece of space age technology ..like old4570 said "it's underappreciated" as a cheap charger that does a pretty good job and will charge multiple types of batteries.
The fact that it charges 10440's too hard should be noted .
I don't have 10440's so i haven't found this to be an issue but thanks for bringing it up.
Do not jeopardize safety by using a spacer to fit a 10440 in XTAR WP2 and then force a current of 600 mA through that little battery all the way up to 4.2V. The XTAR does'nt hold small batteries for a reason and I'm sure it is to avoid abuse of small batteries.
The TR001 on the other hand only charge with 600mA for a moment while the voltage is low and then gradually reduce the current. At 4.0V the current is about 250mA and at 4.1V appr. 140mA. At 4.2V I measured 11mA still falling to zero at 4.22V. This means that it takes a long time to charge larger batteries but gives the possibility to also charge small.
The XTAR sure uses the fastest algorithm but the TR001 goes more easy on the batteries.
2100 did you read the thread ChibiM wanted to know which charger to buy the TR-001 or the Xtar and which one was safer.
mfm claims to have some test results which prove the Xtar is safer than TR-001 that we are all waiting to see.
Apparently the Xtar charges at a fixed amperage rate of 600ma while the TR-001 varies the amperage according to voltage which is both easier on the battery and safer as well as costing half as much as the Xtar.
Yeah I know...actually I have both the WF-188 and TR-001. Just wanted to give an additional choice from a user's pratical POV. What I know is that the TR-001 is really slow like a turtle for 18650s.
Ok I'll come clean, seriously if you really ask me, i'd never believe that they work correctly till i have tested and measured them. To lend support to this, do a google on the different batches of such chargers, not only do the batches differ we even have to be wary about illegitimate copies from different online sites.
To charge slow is not to go easy on the batteries, it's just to waste time (time that has to be spent watching over the charge process no less). There is no added safety.
No-no-no, the XTAR is more complex as it has the recommended (from battery makers) way of charging (if you want to charge as fast as possible). It is a constant current generator of 600mA up to 4.2V, then it keeps a constant voltage and monitors the battery current and when this is down to 60mA it switches off.
This is just a like hobby charger does but with the latter you can select both charge current and constant voltage.
The TR001 is more simple and are in principle just a constant voltage generator (appr. 4.22V) in series with appr. 1 Ohm. The price difference seems to be quite fair.
Myself, I normally use the TR001 as it is more handy than my hobby charger and I have time to wait. I try to keep a full loaded battery (of each size) on my shelf to switch with the discharged one.
You can not always conclude that as the charger uses power itself.
So, I just got this TR001 from DealExtreme. I put in two Trustfire 2400 mAh protected 18650 batteries in that weren't even fully discharged, and they've now been charging for 5 hours and the lights are still red on the charger. Is that normal?
It can take up to 8 hours to charge 18650s sometimes even longer. Do you have a multimeter to test them with, if not just make sure they don't get hot. Try taking them out and putting them back in also.
The way i picked this charger was because i saw that lighthound was selling the same thing .I figured if a reputable dealer thought it was worth selling..... it probably wasn't a dog .
Bought it from deal extreme .
i made the noobie mistake of ordering the charger and waiting a few weeks trying to figure out what kind of batteries to order ..
eventually bought some 18650 and 16340 and 14500 trustfire flames
Meanwhile i had 18650 lights waiting for batteries .
Heh... my mistake was that I ordered the protected trustfires 18650 with an Ultrafire WF-139 charger. Upon arrival, I realized that they don't actually fit - there is something about WF-139 (even though it looks nearly identical to TR001) that just causes these slightly oversized 18650s to not fit. Had I read all the posts on dealextreme about this charger, I would have known this. Instead, I tried to straighten the back tabs on the WF-139 and ended up breaking them. Then I had to wait another 2-3 weeks for this TR001 to arrive.
i have been using this charger for couple years, only with trustfire flame 18650, 6 cells.
recently just realized that this charger charge differently between single or double/pair cell.
i did some test for all my cells. starting charging at around 4.1v in pair, just in less than an hour the light goes green and DMM says 4.17-4.18 v. however it drops pretty fast while in storage. just in a week, it can goes to 4.14-4.15. after a month or so may becomes 4.08 v.
but if i charge single cell starting at around same voltage, it will take very long hours..sometimes 3, sometimes 4, sometimes even 5 hours. but the turn to green mostly at 4.21-4.22. if i stop charging after couple hours but still in red, DMM says 4.20v. and the voltage in storage will be much slower than charging in pair.
it's like charging in pair is a fake charging (fake full).
anyway this charger slots are too short for panasonic protected cell. tried to bend a little the negative plate and it just snapped into 2 pieces. one slot down :(