CuriousOne
Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2012
- Messages
- 813
Hi all.
I guess, you all already tired with different reviews of this charger, so I decided to go in a bit different way. I will skip all that yada-yada, like packaging, who likes what color of display and so on, my tests/conclusions will be practical, and analyze aspects, not shown in other reviews. As others, I've received this charger free of charge, in exchange for honest, unbiased review.
First of all, why someone should ever consider "all-in-one" charger? I'm personally big fan of hobby charger, and by using dedicated cradles, I use Turnigy charger for almost all my battery charging tasks. But, it requires a lot of space, changing of wires, etc. each time, so universal charger might be a bit useful. I do have a bunch of chargers, part of which you can see on the attached picture. I will compare C4 charger to each of them in a corresponding field, so you can see, whenever it replaces them all or not. So here we go.
From left to right (with current average street prices in brackets):
Xtar MP2s charger - one that can handle CR2/CR123A cells, and has LiFe support. ($15)
iPowerUS 9V smart charger - so far, this is only one known to me, charger, which can charge 9V NiMH cells with rapid charge, and also handles 9V LiIon rechargeables. ($35)
Lacrosse BC-700 - well known veteran for AA/AAA NiCd/NiMH charging, can charge, can analyze, can refresh, can cook a dinner (ops, that's not it!) ($35)
LiitoKala Li-260 - charger for 2 LiIon cells, can charge and discharge ($15)
Miboxer C4 Smart charger - our hero ($30)
At the first glance, C4 might look like behemoth, compared to others, but it has built-in power supply, so if we put power supply, next to, say BC-700, size difference is not that much.
Let's start with VS comparison. If one feature is missing from C4, it will get -1 point. If feature is present in C4, but absent in competitor, C4 will get +1 point. If feature is present in both chargers, no points will be awarded:
C4 vs MP2s:
-1 Can charge CR2 cells? - no, they are too short for C4 charger.
+1 Can charge CR123A cells? - yes.
+1 Can charge LifePo4 cells? - yes.
C4 vs iPowerUS charger:
-1 Can charge 9V batteries? - no.
C4 vs BC-700:
-1 Can all slots be used for analyze/refresh/discharge?: no
-1 Max charging current is 300mA vs 700mA
+1 can measure cell internal resistance: yes
C4 vs LiitoKala Li-260:
-1 Can two slots do discharge/IR test: no
+1 Can charge Life cells: yes
+1 Can charge NiMH/NiCd cells: yes
+1 Can charge 4.35V cells: yes
So, C4 got 5 -1 points and 6 +1 points, you have to decide, which ones are important for you.
One is clear, LiitoKala Li-260 is not a competitor for C4, so if you was planning upgrade, you can select C4 with no doubts - it has same features as Li-260, but it can charge 4 cells at time.
For the BC-700, it is hard to say, which one is better. On the one hand, you get 700mA charging current with BC-700, which is not adding health to cells, but sometimes can be useful. Also, it is good for analyzing whole batch of cells, while C4 can only do 1 cell at a time. Overall, if you have BC-700, and do not plan to charge LiIon cells at all, there is no reason for you to upgrade to C4. But, if you're going to buy a first charger, you should go with C4 - for less price than BC-700, it has much more capabilities.
C4 is definitely not a competitor to iPowerUS 9V charger, but that is very specific product, I just included it, to showcase, that someone might need fast 9V charger, and having such function in C4, would it make one of the best chargers in the world.
MP2s shines in only one department - it can recharge rechargeable CR2 cells, but it has 400mA charging current, just like C4, which is overkill to most RCR2 cells. So these are not direct competitors.
So, are there any competitors to C4, in given price range? Sure they are some, but all of them have own shortcomings - Opus chargers have noisy fan, no LiFePo4 support, Nitecore chargers lack analyzing features, hobby chargers require external cradles/power supplies. So, I believe, in the given price range ($30 and under), C4 is one of the best chargers available.
I'm using this charger for a while already, and did some more tests;
- Charger can handle any cell size, starting from CR123A, ending with protected 26650 cells.
- It has excellent dV sensitivity for NiMH, which works even in temperature ranges 0C-30C. At high room temperatures, for example, BC-700 has overheat issues, and terminates charge prematurely, this does not happen with C4.
- Unlike LiitoKala 260, this charger does not overheats LiIon batteries during discharge test.
So, my recommendations/considerations are as follows:
1. Add more current choices - like 150mA for LiIon and 600mA for NiMH
2. Add analyzing capabilities to all 4 slots
3. Show charging mAh, instead of charging time
4. (very personal) change backlit color to white or to amber orange
Thanks all!
I guess, you all already tired with different reviews of this charger, so I decided to go in a bit different way. I will skip all that yada-yada, like packaging, who likes what color of display and so on, my tests/conclusions will be practical, and analyze aspects, not shown in other reviews. As others, I've received this charger free of charge, in exchange for honest, unbiased review.
First of all, why someone should ever consider "all-in-one" charger? I'm personally big fan of hobby charger, and by using dedicated cradles, I use Turnigy charger for almost all my battery charging tasks. But, it requires a lot of space, changing of wires, etc. each time, so universal charger might be a bit useful. I do have a bunch of chargers, part of which you can see on the attached picture. I will compare C4 charger to each of them in a corresponding field, so you can see, whenever it replaces them all or not. So here we go.
From left to right (with current average street prices in brackets):
Xtar MP2s charger - one that can handle CR2/CR123A cells, and has LiFe support. ($15)
iPowerUS 9V smart charger - so far, this is only one known to me, charger, which can charge 9V NiMH cells with rapid charge, and also handles 9V LiIon rechargeables. ($35)
Lacrosse BC-700 - well known veteran for AA/AAA NiCd/NiMH charging, can charge, can analyze, can refresh, can cook a dinner (ops, that's not it!) ($35)
LiitoKala Li-260 - charger for 2 LiIon cells, can charge and discharge ($15)
Miboxer C4 Smart charger - our hero ($30)
At the first glance, C4 might look like behemoth, compared to others, but it has built-in power supply, so if we put power supply, next to, say BC-700, size difference is not that much.
Let's start with VS comparison. If one feature is missing from C4, it will get -1 point. If feature is present in C4, but absent in competitor, C4 will get +1 point. If feature is present in both chargers, no points will be awarded:
C4 vs MP2s:
-1 Can charge CR2 cells? - no, they are too short for C4 charger.
+1 Can charge CR123A cells? - yes.
+1 Can charge LifePo4 cells? - yes.
C4 vs iPowerUS charger:
-1 Can charge 9V batteries? - no.
C4 vs BC-700:
-1 Can all slots be used for analyze/refresh/discharge?: no
-1 Max charging current is 300mA vs 700mA
+1 can measure cell internal resistance: yes
C4 vs LiitoKala Li-260:
-1 Can two slots do discharge/IR test: no
+1 Can charge Life cells: yes
+1 Can charge NiMH/NiCd cells: yes
+1 Can charge 4.35V cells: yes
So, C4 got 5 -1 points and 6 +1 points, you have to decide, which ones are important for you.
One is clear, LiitoKala Li-260 is not a competitor for C4, so if you was planning upgrade, you can select C4 with no doubts - it has same features as Li-260, but it can charge 4 cells at time.
For the BC-700, it is hard to say, which one is better. On the one hand, you get 700mA charging current with BC-700, which is not adding health to cells, but sometimes can be useful. Also, it is good for analyzing whole batch of cells, while C4 can only do 1 cell at a time. Overall, if you have BC-700, and do not plan to charge LiIon cells at all, there is no reason for you to upgrade to C4. But, if you're going to buy a first charger, you should go with C4 - for less price than BC-700, it has much more capabilities.
C4 is definitely not a competitor to iPowerUS 9V charger, but that is very specific product, I just included it, to showcase, that someone might need fast 9V charger, and having such function in C4, would it make one of the best chargers in the world.
MP2s shines in only one department - it can recharge rechargeable CR2 cells, but it has 400mA charging current, just like C4, which is overkill to most RCR2 cells. So these are not direct competitors.
So, are there any competitors to C4, in given price range? Sure they are some, but all of them have own shortcomings - Opus chargers have noisy fan, no LiFePo4 support, Nitecore chargers lack analyzing features, hobby chargers require external cradles/power supplies. So, I believe, in the given price range ($30 and under), C4 is one of the best chargers available.
I'm using this charger for a while already, and did some more tests;
- Charger can handle any cell size, starting from CR123A, ending with protected 26650 cells.
- It has excellent dV sensitivity for NiMH, which works even in temperature ranges 0C-30C. At high room temperatures, for example, BC-700 has overheat issues, and terminates charge prematurely, this does not happen with C4.
- Unlike LiitoKala 260, this charger does not overheats LiIon batteries during discharge test.
So, my recommendations/considerations are as follows:
1. Add more current choices - like 150mA for LiIon and 600mA for NiMH
2. Add analyzing capabilities to all 4 slots
3. Show charging mAh, instead of charging time
4. (very personal) change backlit color to white or to amber orange
Thanks all!