Any good charger for multiple battery types (including 26650, LSD Ni-MH and D size)?

jalbam

Newly Enlightened
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Aug 31, 2009
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Spain
Hello,

I already own a Nitecore D4 charger but I left it in my country. Here in China I do not have a good one so I am willing to buy one that fits my needs.

The main problem with Nitecore D4 is that big batteries (as "D" size, for example) do not fit well inside. I also think that the charger is too fast sometimes (750mAh when only one cell is charging) and maybe that is bad for battery life (correct me if I am wrong, please).

I would like to buy a new charger with at least the following features:

  • Good safety features.
  • Good quality.
  • Reliable warranty and good customer service.
  • Easy to operate.
  • Includes a screen with information easy to understand (LCD probably).
  • Allows me to charge either just one single cell or multiple (at least four, but I can also accept more as six or eight).
  • It can charge different battery types (different chemistries and sizes as 26650, D,LiFePO4, Ni-HM, Ni-Cd, Li-ion... the more the better) and detect them automatically (auto-detection is important for me and I think it would add safety).
  • It should be "Eneloop-and-alike friendly" (I mean it should charge LSD Ni-MH taking really good care of them to help keeping its lifetime as long as possible).
  • Let me choose between different charging modes (at least two: slow and fast).
  • It should include an analyzer to spot bad batteries, revive them if possible, etc.
  • I want to be able to connect it at home but also in my car (so it should have 12V input).
  • It would be nice if I could find a solar panel in the future that could feed the charger so I could use it with the power of the sun if I needed.
  • Support for different currents around the world (100-240V) and let me change the connector cable (with C1 or C7 connector or any other standard easy to find and replace).
  • Any other feature good to have it (maybe I will need it in the future or I will use it from the first day).

What chargers could I buy with those characteristics? After knowing some I would try to find them online (Taobao, Amazon or any other online shop).

Thank you very much in advance!

Cheers,
Joan
 

Lynx_Arc

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Oct 1, 2004
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11,212
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Tulsa,OK
The Opus BT-C3100/3400 chargers are decent. Some have mentioned the Liitokala Engineer 500 charger also.
 

CuriousOne

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Oct 14, 2012
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Wismec Avatar barely fits into requirements, but it has some features that all above mentioned chargers are missing - it supports QC 2.0.
 

jalbam

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Messages
56
Location
Spain
Thank you very much for your replies.

The Wismec Avatar does not fit my needs at all and it seems there is even QC 3.0 now although I am not very into that.

According to my research on the Internet, the Opus BT-C3100 had some issues fixed in the BT-C3400. But neither of them seems to support D size batteries so they are not good for me (correct me if I am wrong, please). The same goes for the LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500.

Regarding the XTAR VC4 and XTAR VP4, they seem to support D size batteries (although only two at the same time). I do not know whether they support LiFePo4 or not (this feature is not really so important to me). The VP4 does not seem to support Ni-MH but the VP4 Plus does. But the main problem is that their connector cable (which has an adaptar included) is not easy to replace for another one when I change to another country (Nitecode D4 is perfect in this aspect because it uses a standard C1 connector which is just a cable without any adaptar or electronics included with it at all, easy to find, and this charger also has a 12V input). Apart from that, the VP4 Plus' lowest charging current seems to be 0.5A which sounds too much to me although maybe I am wrong with this.

Does anyone know any other chargers that could fit my needs more, please? It seems difficult to find a good one.

Thank you,
Joan
 
Last edited:

Lexel

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Sep 15, 2016
Messages
457
Location
Germany
0.5A is ok for aaa and 14500/18340

but for smaller cells a charger with 0.25-0.3A would be nessesary

the VP4 or VC4 is a great charger

the Nitecore D4 wont charge D size

for D size NiMh a charger with at least 1A would be brst as on low current it is hard to detect the deltaV for cut off
 
Last edited:

snakyjake

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Nov 28, 2007
Messages
668
Location
WA, USA
It will be difficult to find a single charger that does it all, and do it simply. So I opted for two chargers.

For LiFePO4, the Xtar VP2 would be best because you need the 3.2 voltage selection (which would be a 3.6v cut-off).
I'd get the EBL charger for NiMH charging AAA, AA, C,D.
 
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