Solarforce charger.

[linterno]

Considering forum members comments, Solarforce flashlights are good quality.

But, how about Solarforce chargers?

 

[old4570]

Considering forum members comments, Solarforce flashlights are good quality.

But, how about Solarforce chargers?

Also found on DX for less ... Now which one are you talking about ?

 

[linterno]

Now which one are you talking about ?

Any, just wondering if those are good or not.

 

[Black Rose]

The 18650 charger on DX (sku 3499) doesn't have a lot of feedback positive or negative.

It charges at 600 mA, so it will take a while to charge higher capacity 18650 cells.

 

[linterno]

DX sku 3499 is not Solarforce. Looks similar but is not.

In fact it is not really important. I just wanted to know about Solarforce branded chargers . Since some solarforce bundles include the charger I thought that someone could comment about it.

 

[Black Rose]

Based on the images at the Solarforce home page as well as Solarforce store, there are no Solarforce "branded" chargers. They are simply generic chargers.

 

[linterno]

Black Rose: Didn't know that. So no good quality solarforce charger there.

Thank you.

 

[Black Rose]

They may still be good chargers, it's just that they seem to be flying under the radar at the moment.

Now that jake25 is an official US Solarforce dealer that is selling these chargers (and has sold out of the 18650 chargers) we should start getting some feedback on them.

 

[old4570]

There cheap ? If they do a good job of charging and dont over charge all should be good .

No1 problem with cheap chargers is overcharging , a lot of folk get antsy when the charger goes over 4,2volts .

The "Since" charger is a nice RCR123A charger , but not dual channel .
My Ultrafire WF-138 is also a nice RCR123A charger , and works well for me .

I have a WF-139 that works well with protected cells , but goes slightly over 4.2 with unprotected ones ..
dx/sku.936 is a 18650 charger and has never gone over 4.2 . but is single channel .

Im waiting on a 5th charger ATM , which will be a mod project ...

 

[LightJaguar]

If anybody is still wondering about this chargers I recently got from DX. I was curious to see how it performed. When I first got the package from DX i went straight for the charger and i was surprised about how small it was. I expecting something bigger. Its less then a third the size of the WF-139.
I opened a bit to look at the electronics inside and it seems to be of ok quality. I recall seeing a WF-139 clone that was horrible and scary once you opened it up.
I put it back together and decided to stick a newer unprotected 18650 in it.
The LED indicator went from green to red. After about 10 minutes I smelled a electronic almost burning smell coming out of the charger. I pulled the battery and looked inside but it looked fine.
I work with electrical and electronics parts a lot and that smell is very familiar to me. A lot of the newer electrical things like electronic fluorescent ballast have it.
I stuck two discharged RCR123 in it with fuses to make em fit on the charger. Again the LED turned red meaning that it was charging the batteries.
I pulled them off and decided to put the unprotected 18650 back in to let it charge. It took about two hours and half to charge an 18650 battery that was reading 3.8 volts.
I was working on my comp while the battery charged and kept an eye on it the whole time. After about two hours I got a bit nervous about the LED not turning green meaning that the battery was charged. I pulled the battery from the charger and it read 4.20 volts.
I decided to put the battery back in to see if the charger would keep on charging. After about 10 minutes of putting the battery back in the LED indicator turned green. I took another voltage reading on the freshly charged battery and it read 4.21