Battery tech is evolving so quickly that updating your excellent reviews would be a way of keeping us viewers informed and interested. Which in return keeps us coming back. I have the vx4 and am very happy. We all want to know what batteries to buy now. Protected or not. Known brands or el cheepos. Keep us updated and we will return.
I have the VC2 that use with my solar charger and power bank on the trail. Works great! Need more charging space so I’m going to pick this one up. I can’t believe how far technology has come for battery charging. Quality brand. I appreciate the review.
Thanks Mr. LuxWad. I know this video is old now, but it was still useful to me. I prefer these detailed long term reviews, since they always expose the things that you just can't imagine when reading the spec sheet.
For batteries, long charging with a weaker current is definitely healthier. Therefore, when I will charge 2 batteries, I will put them in the middle ports. I prefer to wait longer and have batteries in good condition (longer).
I got the XTAR VP4L dragon a couple days ago and im loving it, its very similar to this one but has more settings, it can even fit protected batteries even though indont have any, i worked it out i think and it cost $0.005 to charge a 21700 battery
I got mine yesterday, but it have some differences, There's not the marks showing the two bays in the middle being 0.5 amp and the others ones being 1amp. Other newer buyers reported the same. One thing I didn't like is that the screen , after a recharge, show the information that the batteries are loaded. But at the same time you take it off and put in the bay where it was and starts to recharge again. It adds 60 mah to the batteries. In other words, the battery was not fully charged. Does your charger do this too?
My charger does not add this much extra, but when removing and then reloading a charged battery, it will begin the charge cycle again, only to slowly add a couple mAh before stopping. The charger does not have a way to identify the specific individual battery that is being placed in the charge bay, and does not retain any sort of memory for any of the bays, so once it is removed and replaced, it will be seen as a totally new cell - one that already almost full. Because the charger uses a declining charge-ramp to ensure battery longevity, a freshly added cell with be charged at a higher current than one at the end of its recharge cycle. This is why it will add extra mAh to the supposedly finished cell, as the VC4 is essentially cramming extra charge into it, thinking it is a completely different battery. This will not harm the battery, as the charger can still detect the voltage level and won't over-charge a new cell. The reason this can happen in the first place is because it actually appears to undercharge very slightly, just to ensure the cell isn't overloaded, which is why it can fit that much extra charge into the 'finished' battery. That may be a bit long-winded, but I hope it fully answers your question, thanks for watching :)
@@LuxWad Yes, It adds 50mah in "extra" charge. Little quantity, in fact. Now I understood the question. I'm liking the charger, the reactivate function works good. Thanks for the answer!
today in I seen Duracell and Energizer battery chargers, I take it that the XTAR VC4 is better, I hope it is as I think I should buy the XTAR VC4 but can you please answer the following 7 Questions please. 1. If I put in 4x AA NiMH 2800mAh, I see the outer terminals has 1.0A but the 2 middle ones have 0.5A, will this charge them equally as I want all 4 to be charged at the same time, how long will that take. 2. Can I use my Tronic charging lead with it, on it, it say the following. input: 100-240v~50/60Hz 0.7A Output: 12v 1.5A 3. I also have a Samsung Charger which has on it. input voltage: 100-240v 50/60Hz 0.35A Output voltage: 5.0v Output Current: 2.0A 4. What are the best make of AA NiMH Rechargeable batteries, I have heard the Eneloop and Amazon basic are the same. 5. What is the cost to recharge 4x AA 2800mAh NiMH Rechargeable batteries. 6. Does the XTAR VC4 have a built in fan. 7. Why is this model better than the newer models and as I said before, is this better than the Energizer and Duracell battery chargers. Kind thank, just don't understand mAh charging etc and if none of those 2 charging leads are no good to connect with this charger, what cheap one on eBay will be good as I don't want to use usb cable all the time, I prefer normal plug into the wall.
1. They will charge the same, the VC4 only supplies .5A to NiMH batteries. The amount of time will depend on the size of the batteries. 2. Anything that has a USB output will power the charger. The VC4 will tell you how much current is being supplied, but it needs at least 2A to provide maximum output. 3. Same, any USB output will work 4. Eneloop 5. Nothing 6. No 7.It's not better than newer models, and the generic Energizer/Duracell/etc chargers are inferior mAh stand for miliamp-hours. One mAh is a 1/1000 of an amp-hour (Ah). If a battery has 1000 mAh (or 1 Ah), it can output a current of 1 amp for an hour. It could also output 1 miliamp for 1000 hours. The same is true for charging, just in reverse; if a battery has a 1500mAh capacity, it will take an hour and a half to charge it with a 1A current.
What does the middle dialdo, I bought 4 new molicel batteries and they are still at red the middle dial is at OA and the lights are at red with channel2 and 3 flashing at 0021 and 0021, ive had this charger for a number of years and wondered mabye I need a new charger,sorry for being a bit thick but I have not got a scooby how it all works!
ive took 2 batteries out in the middle and it seems to be working,will charge the other 2 when its done....Don't know if this is right but anyways see how it goes
I just got this charger a little over a week ago. I'm worried about charging 18650 batteries. I bought a rechargeable flashlight that came with a 18650 battery. It was supposed to come uncharged but when I put it in the VC4, it registered as 4.2V. I thought those batteries are only 3.6V. I'm scared of making the battery explode because I have seen all kinds of warnings about charging them. It's an unprotected one by the way. Can I really trust the VC4 to charge these with no problem?
Yes, you can trust the VC4. Battery voltage is slightly complicated, but a fully charged 18650 will register at 4.2V, while an empty one is around 2.9-3.4v (mostly just depending on what you consider "empty"). If it reads 0v, it is dead and is no longer capable of functioning. The rating of 3.7 is the "nominal voltage", which in simplified terms, refers to the average value for the cell's intended range. A fully charged cell will always read higher than it's nominal voltage.
Hello friends, I have a problem for a few months ... The CH2 does not work for me ... You can see "Err" in the CH2, I put a battery and nothing happens, any solution? Thanks
@@LuxWad Any NiMh charger can safely charge NiCd. The higher trickle charge current of a NiCd charger is what makes them undesirable for charging NiMh because NiMh is much more sensitive to temperature. NiCd eats up high and low temps and isn't very bothered by being slightly overcharged. With that said, Xtars charging algorithm for NiMh leaves a lot to be desired. Cells often show "FULL" when they are far from full.
@@jayinla228 Okay. The big capacity display shows how much has been added to the battery, so a fully-charged cell should just read 0 while an empty cell will increase until it's finished (so an empty 3200 mAh 18650 will read 3200 when it's done charging)
You did not test a aaa battery in your in depth review, had you done so, you would have found it does not hold the battery in the correct position and is problematic to get it to charge, very poor design and the reason I will be returning mine.
Maybe not better, but this one runs off USB while the Lii 500 uses a wall wart. The Liitokala also charges all bays at 1A, so charging 4 batteries is faster. Both are great chargers
Liito Kala Lii-500S and 600 have a serious flaw in their discharge measurements. Slots 1 and 4 discharge at 500mA when 500mA is selected but slots 2 and 3 discharge at 470mA. You can put 4 identical 3500mAh cells in all 4 slots and your readings will be 3500, 3300, 3300, 3500 (as an example obviously they will vary slightly but not by much. Here's the results from 4 LG MJ1's I ran: 3499, 3312, 3289, 3506 and 4 Molicel P42A's: 4191, 3977, 3985, 4196) This makes the charger as a cell capacity analyzer useless. Unless you want to figure out a formula to apply to all cells run through slots 2 and 3 you will be left with half your cells reading 6% low. When you go to build a pack, if you do not factor this defect into your capacity figures and further your parallel group capacities you will end up with groups that are understated if they have a larger percentage of slot 2 and 3 cells than other groups. If your cells are all various capacities you could end up having a parallel group that just happens to be 75% slot 2 and 3 cells. 75% of this groups capacity has been underestimated by 6% while your other groups might only have 25% or 50% of their cells underestimated. Your parallel groups will be all out of whack and you will have serious balance problems as your groups that are heavy with slot 2 and 3 cells last longer than they "should" and all your "equally balanced" parallel groups come out roughly the same because all of them have say 40% slot 2 and 3 cells. If your pack is large you will absolutely need an active balancer to keep up with this game on every charge and discharge cycle because a BMS with a 60mA balance current wont stand a chance. Take the charger apart and look at it. It's built....chincy compared to other brands like Xtar, Vapcell, or Opus. The fact that Liito Kala couldn't even make a circuit with 4 even discharge currents tells you how much they care about qualitiy. They likely knew this and released it anyways. If they didn't know.....well then they did no testing because I figured it out after doing 12 batches of cells through the charger and noticing the trend. It took me all of 30 minutes to rig up a current clamp to external holders to measure the current during discharge to confirm the defect.
Battery tech is evolving so quickly that updating your excellent reviews would be a way of keeping us viewers informed and interested.
Which in return keeps us coming back.
I have the vx4 and am very happy.
We all want to know what batteries to buy now.
Protected or not. Known brands or el cheepos.
Keep us updated and we will return.
I have the VC2 that use with my solar charger and power bank on the trail. Works great! Need more charging space so I’m going to pick this one up. I can’t believe how far technology has come for battery charging. Quality brand. I appreciate the review.
Thanks Mr. LuxWad. I know this video is old now, but it was still useful to me. I prefer these detailed long term reviews, since they always expose the things that you just can't imagine when reading the spec sheet.
For batteries, long charging with a weaker current is definitely healthier. Therefore, when I will charge 2 batteries, I will put them in the middle ports. I prefer to wait longer and have batteries in good condition (longer).
Good review
I got the XTAR VP4L dragon a couple days ago and im loving it, its very similar to this one but has more settings, it can even fit protected batteries even though indont have any, i worked it out i think and it cost $0.005 to charge a 21700 battery
The VP4 is an awesome charger, I haven't tried one yet but would love to own one
I got mine yesterday, but it have some differences, There's not the marks showing the two bays in the middle being 0.5 amp and the others ones being 1amp. Other newer buyers reported the same. One thing I didn't like is that the screen , after a recharge, show the information that the batteries are loaded. But at the same time you take it off and put in the bay where it was and starts to recharge again. It adds 60 mah to the batteries. In other words, the battery was not fully charged. Does your charger do this too?
My charger does not add this much extra, but when removing and then reloading a charged battery, it will begin the charge cycle again, only to slowly add a couple mAh before stopping.
The charger does not have a way to identify the specific individual battery that is being placed in the charge bay, and does not retain any sort of memory for any of the bays, so once it is removed and replaced, it will be seen as a totally new cell - one that already almost full. Because the charger uses a declining charge-ramp to ensure battery longevity, a freshly added cell with be charged at a higher current than one at the end of its recharge cycle. This is why it will add extra mAh to the supposedly finished cell, as the VC4 is essentially cramming extra charge into it, thinking it is a completely different battery. This will not harm the battery, as the charger can still detect the voltage level and won't over-charge a new cell.
The reason this can happen in the first place is because it actually appears to undercharge very slightly, just to ensure the cell isn't overloaded, which is why it can fit that much extra charge into the 'finished' battery.
That may be a bit long-winded, but I hope it fully answers your question, thanks for watching :)
@@LuxWad Yes, It adds 50mah in "extra" charge. Little quantity, in fact. Now I understood the question. I'm liking the charger, the reactivate function works good. Thanks for the answer!
today in I seen Duracell and Energizer battery chargers, I take it that the XTAR VC4 is better, I hope it is as I think I should buy the XTAR VC4 but can you please answer the following 7 Questions please.
1. If I put in 4x AA NiMH 2800mAh, I see the outer terminals has 1.0A but the 2 middle ones have 0.5A, will this charge them equally as I want all 4 to be charged at the same time, how long will that take.
2. Can I use my Tronic charging lead with it, on it, it say the following.
input: 100-240v~50/60Hz 0.7A
Output: 12v 1.5A
3. I also have a Samsung Charger which has on it.
input voltage: 100-240v 50/60Hz 0.35A
Output voltage: 5.0v
Output Current: 2.0A
4. What are the best make of AA NiMH Rechargeable batteries, I have heard the Eneloop and Amazon basic are the same.
5. What is the cost to recharge 4x AA 2800mAh NiMH Rechargeable batteries.
6. Does the XTAR VC4 have a built in fan.
7. Why is this model better than the newer models and as I said before, is this better than the Energizer and Duracell battery chargers.
Kind thank, just don't understand mAh charging etc and if none of those 2 charging leads are no good to connect with this charger, what cheap one on eBay will be good as I don't want to use usb cable all the time, I prefer normal plug into the wall.
1. They will charge the same, the VC4 only supplies .5A to NiMH batteries. The amount of time will depend on the size of the batteries.
2. Anything that has a USB output will power the charger. The VC4 will tell you how much current is being supplied, but it needs at least 2A to provide maximum output.
3. Same, any USB output will work
4. Eneloop
5. Nothing
6. No
7.It's not better than newer models, and the generic Energizer/Duracell/etc chargers are inferior
mAh stand for miliamp-hours. One mAh is a 1/1000 of an amp-hour (Ah). If a battery has 1000 mAh (or 1 Ah), it can output a current of 1 amp for an hour. It could also output 1 miliamp for 1000 hours. The same is true for charging, just in reverse; if a battery has a 1500mAh capacity, it will take an hour and a half to charge it with a 1A current.
@@LuxWad if I'm charging two different sets of the same lithium batteries at the same time can I just put them in any order while charging
@@grandcapo6449 Yeah it won't matter where you put them if you're doing 4 at a time
@@LuxWad thanks
What does the middle dialdo, I bought 4 new molicel batteries and they are still at red the middle dial is at OA and the lights are at red with channel2 and 3 flashing at 0021 and 0021, ive had this charger for a number of years and wondered mabye I need a new charger,sorry for being a bit thick but I have not got a scooby how it all works!
ive took 2 batteries out in the middle and it seems to be working,will charge the other 2 when its done....Don't know if this is right but anyways see how it goes
Middle dial shows how much current is being used to charge the cells
I just got this charger a little over a week ago.
I'm worried about charging 18650 batteries. I bought a rechargeable flashlight that came with a 18650 battery.
It was supposed to come uncharged but when I put it in the VC4, it registered as 4.2V. I thought those batteries are only 3.6V. I'm scared of making the battery explode because I have seen all kinds of warnings about charging them.
It's an unprotected one by the way. Can I really trust the VC4 to charge these with no problem?
Yes, you can trust the VC4. Battery voltage is slightly complicated, but a fully charged 18650 will register at 4.2V, while an empty one is around 2.9-3.4v (mostly just depending on what you consider "empty"). If it reads 0v, it is dead and is no longer capable of functioning. The rating of 3.7 is the "nominal voltage", which in simplified terms, refers to the average value for the cell's intended range. A fully charged cell will always read higher than it's nominal voltage.
Hello friends, I have a problem for a few months ... The CH2 does not work for me ... You can see "Err" in the CH2, I put a battery and nothing happens, any solution? Thanks
Does this happen with any battery you put in CH2? If so, the channel may be dead, you might want to contact XTAR about it
it is not the same charger, its improved in some areas, however, this one remains better since you can control your charge rate.
Can i charge xtar vc4 by 18w or 20w mobile phone charger?
If it has a USB A port
Can i charge ni-cd batteries by xtar vc4 charger?
Have any feature to protect overcharging?
No you can only charge NiMH and Li-ion. It does have overcharge protection.
@@LuxWad Thank you sir..
@@LuxWad Any NiMh charger can safely charge NiCd. The higher trickle charge current of a NiCd charger is what makes them undesirable for charging NiMh because NiMh is much more sensitive to temperature. NiCd eats up high and low temps and isn't very bothered by being slightly overcharged.
With that said, Xtars charging algorithm for NiMh leaves a lot to be desired. Cells often show "FULL" when they are far from full.
Will this charger charge molicel 21700 batterys safely
Yes
My display stays on 0 no matter what battery I charge. Any tips?
Maybe try putting the battery in backwards and see what it says - it should read Err. Yours may be defective
@@LuxWad it does read error when I do this, would a fully charged battery read 0?
Ah, I think I may see your problem. Is it the (small gauge-like) voltage indicator or the main capacity indicator reading zero?
@@LuxWad correct, I put a drained battery and it charge and show its voltage
@@jayinla228 Okay. The big capacity display shows how much has been added to the battery, so a fully-charged cell should just read 0 while an empty cell will increase until it's finished (so an empty 3200 mAh 18650 will read 3200 when it's done charging)
You did not test a aaa battery in your in depth review, had you done so, you would have found it does not hold the battery in the correct position and is problematic to get it to charge, very poor design and the reason I will be returning mine.
I haven't used aaa I'm a long time but I remember it working fine, just needed to position it properly. Sorry it didn't work for you though
is this better than liitokala lii 500?
Maybe not better, but this one runs off USB while the Lii 500 uses a wall wart. The Liitokala also charges all bays at 1A, so charging 4 batteries is faster. Both are great chargers
@@LuxWad but if you are to choose between the two, what would you get? 😊
Personally I like the XTAR more, but I might just pick whatever is cheaper where I'm shopping :)
@@LuxWad many thanks. Xtar it is. 😊
@@LuxWad by the way how about xtar vc4 or nitecore d4/i4? Any insight? 😊
I have a Liitokala Lii600 and it's much better than this one.
Liito Kala Lii-500S and 600 have a serious flaw in their discharge measurements. Slots 1 and 4 discharge at 500mA when 500mA is selected but slots 2 and 3 discharge at 470mA. You can put 4 identical 3500mAh cells in all 4 slots and your readings will be 3500, 3300, 3300, 3500 (as an example obviously they will vary slightly but not by much. Here's the results from 4 LG MJ1's I ran: 3499, 3312, 3289, 3506 and 4 Molicel P42A's: 4191, 3977, 3985, 4196)
This makes the charger as a cell capacity analyzer useless. Unless you want to figure out a formula to apply to all cells run through slots 2 and 3 you will be left with half your cells reading 6% low. When you go to build a pack, if you do not factor this defect into your capacity figures and further your parallel group capacities you will end up with groups that are understated if they have a larger percentage of slot 2 and 3 cells than other groups. If your cells are all various capacities you could end up having a parallel group that just happens to be 75% slot 2 and 3 cells. 75% of this groups capacity has been underestimated by 6% while your other groups might only have 25% or 50% of their cells underestimated. Your parallel groups will be all out of whack and you will have serious balance problems as your groups that are heavy with slot 2 and 3 cells last longer than they "should" and all your "equally balanced" parallel groups come out roughly the same because all of them have say 40% slot 2 and 3 cells. If your pack is large you will absolutely need an active balancer to keep up with this game on every charge and discharge cycle because a BMS with a 60mA balance current wont stand a chance.
Take the charger apart and look at it. It's built....chincy compared to other brands like Xtar, Vapcell, or Opus. The fact that Liito Kala couldn't even make a circuit with 4 even discharge currents tells you how much they care about qualitiy. They likely knew this and released it anyways. If they didn't know.....well then they did no testing because I figured it out after doing 12 batches of cells through the charger and noticing the trend. It took me all of 30 minutes to rig up a current clamp to external holders to measure the current during discharge to confirm the defect.