Vapcell BL4 any good?

I would want to purchase the Vapcell BL4 charger. However, finding reviews is difficult and uncommon. only one person reviewed it in this BFL forum.
and I found some on youtube, but they are not in English. Most are in Russian.
is the BL4 that bad? or is there something else that makes the reviews so few?

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It’s nice to see you, Andussang!

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Welcome Andussang!

Any reviews for the BL4 charger done in another language can be translated (using Google, or whatever else).

The BL4 chargers are available (again).

I have three BL4 chargers. I actually wanted two, but sort of accidentally wound up with three chargers instead.

The Vapcell BL4 charger is very similar to the Vapcell S4+ charger (which I have as well). The only main difference being the BL4 charger has slightly limited maximum charging current available due to its PD port for power.

I found the BL4 charger to be fairly intuitive and easy to use.

The S4+ charger is sort of OK, but it may not always recognize cells properly and available charge current settings can be a bit off (limited) on occasion.

I like the BL4 charger, it has (so far) worked very well!

If you are not concerned with somewhat limited maximum charging current, then this would be a good choice of charger.

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Here is a long thread on it.

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Yes, I have seen it. It has a very good and detailed explanation. However, it seems like only two people reviewed it in detail, at least in English.
On YouTube, it seems like no one reviewed it in English; most of what I found was in Russian and Thai

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It is a niche charger, because it is less powerful than previous model, however it has USB power. Not many would go for this, thus fewer reviews. What is your concern exactly? I do have this charger and it has a place in my set of chargers.

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Thanks for the reply,
My concern is why there are so few reviews. Is it because the product is so bad that few people are interested or because it is still new?
But I hope that because it is still new, there are still very few reviews.
Since you already have it, I wanted to ask, does the charger make a sound when the battery is fully charged, like on the SL4 Plus?

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Thanks for the reply,
Since this will be my first charger, I needed one that would be easy to use and not require fast charging.
I think this BL4 is for me…
Oh, does the charger make a sound when the battery is fully charged, like on the SL4 Plus?

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I have this charger. For me it is easy to use and it doesnt make any sound when it is finished with charging.

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thanks for the info,
I think I’m gonna go for it…

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No sound on finished charges.

Good choice of charger. I think you will be happy with the BL4 charger. It is not difficult to use, and (so far) I haven’t observed any issues with the BL4 (I’m not expecting any issues with the charger either).

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I will make some short video reviews of some chargers like the Vapcell BL4, XTAR VX4 etc.

Written reviews with testing takes a long time. Several weeks.

A 5-10 minute video review might take a few hours to record and edit over multiple days if demonstrating each mode and the procedures with the outcome. E.g. Cycle a cell 3 times at 1A, show the initial setup, show what the charger is doing, show the results a day or two later. Repeat for 5 other tasks.

Anecdotally, I’ll put the BL4 in my car when I need to charge small or large cells. Small cells fit well and the current can be reduced. USB-C is very convenient.

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XTAR VX4 supposed to be a very good charger and it can take multiple types of batteries and different type of li-ion 's… (1.2V, 1.5V… etc) !

I had an old model the XTAR VP2 for 10+ years and i never had any problems… !

About the beeping noise on the Vapcell S4 Plus V3.0 that notifying you that the batteries are charged, is a nice feature to have and i like it so far, plus you can turn it off by switching the screen off ! I personally turn the screen off at the whole charging process, and im turn it on again when is about time to be fully charged (somewhere about at 90% or so) so i can hear the beeping noise and take the batterys out at the right moment !

ETA :

Plus in that way (when you are turning the screen off) its a very good feature - thing because the screen is not getting all that running time at the whole charging process (is in a ā€œresting modeā€) !

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It’s a good and solid charger. As long as you understand that there’s no perfect charger and you understand its features with all their cons and pros. I don’t like a grammar error in ā€œStorageā€ name and I don’t like I can’t grade 1.5VLiIon AAs. Other than this I had only one unexpected reboot in half a year of occasional usage (and that might be as well my house power fluctuation). I definitely recommend this charger.
P.S. It doesn’t beep at the end of the program.

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That’s awesome.
can this charger do 0V activation on both Li-ion and Ni-MH battery?

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Thank you all, for your reply… I appreciate it.
And I choose to buy this charger…
This is my first charger. So far, I have always bought Alkaline batteries for my Mouse, TV remote, wall clock, etc.
And the flashlight that I currently have uses AA Alkaline batteries. Of course, in the future, I will buy a flashlight using a larger battery, such as a Li-ion battery

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Chapter 1.2.5 Repair of the manual - Vapcell BL4 Charger and Capacity Checker Review

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0V activation works for Li-ion cells.

I drained a 3.7V Li-ion cell with a protection circuit down to 2.8V and it cut out. The voltage measured is less than 1mV. I had to drain it using a flashlight without low voltage protection. Most chargers don’t let you drain a cell below 2.5V.

When I put the cell in the Vapcell BL4, it detected the cell, and I was able to charge it.

I have an unprotected 3.7V Li-ion cell that dropped to 0V after a runtime test in a flashlight without low voltage protection. It doesn’t hold a charge. It is not detected by the charger.

I’ll drain a NiMH cell and check.

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Somewhat offtopic, but just a tip for when someone has a charger that doesn’t have a 0V activation function for Li-ion: buy a cheap Trustfire UC10 magnetic charger, which does have 0V activation (only Li-ion though). They can normally be had for around € 4,- on Aliexpress.

I recently was testing a protected 18650 for the low voltage protection. The charger I had at hand was one without 0V activation/did not detected the battery, but 1 or 2 minutes on the UC10 and the voltage was high enough that the protection circuit turned off and I could charge it normally again on the charger I had connected.

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No ringtone reminder, numerous current levels, compatible with multiple batteries, stable quality :grinning:

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