Best charger for reasonable money?

Hey guys,

I just wanted to start off by saying thanks to all the members of this forum. I have been a lurker for literally 6 years now (eeks, I know!). There are so many great people here doing so many great things.

I wanted to ask, because I have gotten very behind on chargers (an my Xtar-2 finally died on me) what the best charger was for a reasonable amount of money. I noticed some give things like battery health and a litany of other features and I looked at sooo many reviews of chargers where people were testing gear, but as far as I could tell there hadn't been a 'best charger for the dollar" thread in about a year.

Id love to have something that told me something about cell condition, I don't really care if it tells me how far along it is in the charge or anything like that but I am still running cells that are 6-7ish years old.

So, I turn to your great expertise. What are the top dogs on the market? Id say $50 or less preferably but if $60 buys a much better charger I will spring for it. My Xtar lasted me for at least 5 years so I got my $20 out of it

Thanks!

Which battery chemistry are you using? If using NiMHs you could get a few Eneloop/Panasonic chargers, otherwise i have the LaCrosse BC1000 and the Maha C9000. Both are very good chargers, Maha has 8 cell chargers too but they don't have the information display. There is also the Sky-RC MC3000 but that's over $90 but it supports different chemistries [FONT=&quot]s[/FONT]uch as Li-ion and NiMH. I don't have that charger yet but it'll be soon enough.

18650 Charger

Oh, I am terribly sorry, derrrp. Best battery charger for what? A 24 volt diesel engine? lol

No, kidding ^, charger for 18650. The 18650 ones I have seen have always charged things from like 14500 to 26650 but if the best one now-a-days only does 18650 im fine with that because I think my odd sizes have all gone bad from years of neglect. So yah, long story short 18650. When I left on they were just introducing the LUC-4 and VC4's into the world which seemed really cool at the time but I figured surely something better has come along. I like to post my answer at the top of my message for those with don't want to read too much typing syndrome (me) and because sometimes I type a bit much.

Opus BT-3100/3400 v. 2.2, or the newer v. 3.1.

Multi Chemistry (NiMH/Li-Ion) analyzing charger, that can run off of 12vdc (car/solar.)

Liitokala Lii Engineer 500. Same sort of deal.

Both under $50 and closer to $40, or $35 if you look around.

Chris

Opus looks might nice but it is almost 2 years old, nothing has changed since then? Do any of the current ones display stuff like internal battery resistance or at least say good,medium, bad? Working as a USB charger and having car plug is nice (darn xtar-2 spoiling me all them years ago)

I really like my Thrunite MCC-4S. It's a true 4 channel charger. It starts everything at .5 amp but you can kick each channel up to 1 amp if you want. It doesn't give a lot of info but it can handle almost any rechargeable out there. And it's a good price for what it is.

Opus BT series V3.1

So what has changed? 3100 & 3400 seem to be the same charger from what I see and only a upgraded firmware from 2.1. Its a bit confusing line. I like this one the best of the ones I have read about since it does have a fan to manage cooling but pulse charging is not optimal. A steady current at a lower rate would charge faster than pulsing cells which I don't believe is good for them.

tripplec said:

but pulse charging is not optimal. A steady current at a lower rate would charge faster than pulsing cells which I don't believe is good for them.

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Please don't repeat old wives tales. There is no definitive scientific evidence that such pulse charging is bad in this context.

ManThatIsBright said:

Opus looks might nice but it is almost 2 years old, nothing has changed since then? Do any of the current ones display stuff like internal battery resistance or at least say good,medium, bad? Working as a USB charger and having car plug is nice (darn xtar-2 spoiling me all them years ago)

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Then get the Sky RC MC-3000, or the Xtar Ultra Deluxe Dragon. They'll cost you twice as much as the Opus and Liitokala, but what the hell...they're 'newer'.

There are like a million posts on the Opus and Liitokala chargers, as well as the SkyRC MC-2billion and the Dragon Slayer, so have fun.

Or you can read here:

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers UK.html

I have a bunch of Xtar chargers, but I'm not familiar with the Xtar 2.

Chris

I love my XTAR VC4, and the price is well within your budget limit. If you don't need analyzing or detailed readouts, I don't believe there's a better value for the price.

mightysparrow said:

I love my XTAR VC4, and the price is well within your budget limit. If you don't need analyzing or detailed readouts, I don't believe there's a better value for the price.

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Depending on what you can actually get them delivered for, the Opus and Liitokala 500 are more capable and more flexible than the VC4 and I've owned a VC4 for a couple of years.

Chris

Oh well, each has a view and as I recall in a review HJK favoured a non pulsing charge mode on one I read the other day screening a number I found. I know my steady current auto charger outperformers bigger taper down current chargers. It puts more electrons through the chemistry in shorter time and does so intelligently (Noco Genius Fyi). Never the less my next charger will have cooling fan for sure. Limited on choices at the moment here. But more will pop up. For a home charger size is not an issue and even my I4 Intellicharger is much bigger than most others.

As for the VC4 it comes with 5V 2.1A charger. You're not going to get a 1A charger rate on all channels. Certainly not with some major time slicing of the charge cycle so its a wash up in my opinion if you intend to charge at 1A.

tripplec said:

Oh well, each has a view [...] It puts more electrons through the chemistry in shorter time and does so intelligently .

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That is vary far from scientific evidence to support your unfounded claims about the detriments of pulse charging. There are loads of false claims polluting the web. Don't believe everything that you read on the web.

Iirc, HKJ's concerns about the Opus were that the large PWM pulses in initial versions might possibly accelerate degradation of extremely small cells. But the pulses are much smaller in recent versions, and not many users heavily use such tiny cells, so this is a non-issue for 99.999% of users.

I have an Opus C3100 V2.2 on the way, easy to return if I think its excess. Im still using my Trustfire TR-01 charger for now. Interested to see if the bells and whistles are worth it. Or if I return it and go Xtar/LUC/I4 type. Good ol TR-01 chugging 7 years strong.

ManThatIsBright said:

I have an Opus C3100 V2.2 on the way, easy to return if I think its excess. Im still using my Trustfire TR-01 charger for now. Interested to see if the bells and whistles are worth it. Or if I return it and go Xtar/LUC/I4 type. Good ol TR-01 chugging 7 years strong.

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Unless you're spending your last $50 on the Opus, you'll probably end up keeping it because much like my Maha C9000 NiMH analyzing charger, it's better to know something about the health of your batteries/cells, than not. Even if things aren't perfect.

Chris

Gauss163 said:

Iirc, HKJ's concerns about the Opus were that the large PWM pulses in initial versions might possibly accelerate degradation of extremely small cells. But the pulses are much smaller in recent versions, and not many users heavily use such tiny cells, so this is a non-issue for 99.999% of users.

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Do you have any evidence the Opus uses smaller pulses in recent versions? or is it just an unfounded claim?

My points are not based on web fanfare. My opinion based on working on various technologies for over 4-5 decades. There are a few here who have seen and can confirm if the pulse charger cycles are out of phase with each change or at least to by 180 degrees. If so they are time slicing there efforts to the batteries. Overlapped phases, then not so much or less charge down time. But a steady managed current has to be much better. The TP5000 Review http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Test-review-of-Charger-1-5A-3-6-4-2V-(TP5000) does not indicate a pulse charge but linear. All be it one cell tested at a time since its a PCB rather than a total solution. IMO pulsing does the chemistry no favours in implementing a good charge environment for the batteries. Even a slow steady rate is far better and better controlled. When I see Input power less than equal the the combine 4 channels as in the VC4 I know it cannot be a true 4 channel charge. It has 5V 2A PS available and it would need at least 4 or more to supply it all running at max duty itself without the PS burning up. Not position or shouldn't be as a home table charger, Automobile yes I suppose but they have 12V so still not reason to restrict the input to less than 4A or run it at 5V. I was wondering why it was cheaper than the VP4 which did not have a display.(I want a display)

I am more focused on a good steady state cool running charger which works. 1A is ample an ample rate, with 1.5A probably the max for 18650 without concerns. But the I4 and likely D4 Nitecore units (I have the I4) become too slow with more than 2 18650's populated properly for the 750mA outputs. I think more attention to the fact that the OEM is pulsing as well as other channels are going off alternately needs to mentioned. Desirable or acceptable or even not due to the method used.

HKJ said:

Do you have any evidence the Opus uses smaller pulses in recent versions? or is it just an unfounded claim?

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A rather ridiculous question given that you mentioned it in your reviews. Further, if you had been paying attention on BLF you would have learned that Henry Xu says that the next revision will further reduce (or eliminate) large pulses.

Gauss163 said:

A rather ridiculous question given that you mentioned it in your reviews.

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The input current spikes is smaller, the pwm for charging is not that much changed, small cell will still get about 10 times rated charge current.

Gauss163 said:

Further, if you had been paying attention on BLF you would have learned that Henry Xu says that the next revision will further reduce (or eliminate) large pulses.

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I have seen that, but I cannot see it has anything with your statement to do (In my dictionary "recent" is different from "future").

HKJ said:

The input current spikes is smaller ...

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If you know that already then what was the point of your prior question?