USB powered 1-4 cell intelligent charger with independent charging channels and sliding contacts suitable for LiIon / NiMH batteries in a variety of sizes. Features LCD display, auto battery type recognition, short circuit protection and reverse polarity protection.
Features & Benefits
Intelligent charger suitable for:Â
up to four 3.6V/3.7V lithium ion cells in sizes 10440, 14500, 14650, 16340, 17500, 17670, 18350, 18500, 18650, 18700, 22650, 25500, 26650, 32650.
Independent channels with high definition LCD screen displays charging current, battery voltage and capacity.
Intelligently recognise / display / charge NiMH and LiIon batteries at the same time.
Three-phase charging (TC-CC-CV).
Automatically adjusts charge current from 0.1A to 1.0A and max up to 0.5A*4 / 1.0A*2.
Soft start current and automatic shut-off to avoid damaging batteries with charge reactivation if cell voltage drops below 3.9V when batteries are left in the charger to keep ready for use.Â
0V low battery activation.
Reverse polarity and short circuit protection.
Accidental insertion of faulty / NiMH batteries are automatically identified and will be displayed as 'NULL' on the screen.
Overheat protection as well as effective heat dissipation design and fire resistant ABS case.
LED red/green status indicators.
By discharging the battery and recharging again, the VC4 is capable of identifying the real capacity left in the battery to ±5%, allowing you to better judge how long its current runtime might be and when it will need to be replaced.
Quick and dirty review
Only the outer two slots can charge at the full rate. If you use either of the middle two the charge rate is cut by half for all four slots. This doesn't excite me. I'm thinking it's because it's USB powered.
I love that it can pretty much charge any battery type. That being said there's a downside to that versatility, batteries are easily dislodged in the slots.
Overall though it is what it is & it will do what I want. That is, it will allow me to charge my AA & 18650 via USB power bank or through the car USB. I'm talking about when the power goes out I can still recharge batteries for my devices. In that it's excellent. Day to day charging however I'm using dedicated AA/AAA & 18650 chargers for those batteries.
Overall - I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. If I could only have one charger it'd be this one for the versatility, but hey? Why have one charger? That's like asking me to only have one torch :-)
5
Xtar VC4 review
Posted by Marian Parol on 25th Jun 2018
As always, shopping at Liteshop is a breeze. If only all small Aussie businesses were run like this one!
Although still early days, I can give a quick report on the performance of the Xtar VC4. The LCD 'speedometer' style readouts are easy to read and accurate. The battery slides are smooth and work properly unlike the Nitecore intellicharger i4 V2 (purchased from eBay). In fact, the main reason for buying the Xtar is because the Nitecore packed up after only about a dozen uses. Even after the first use, the Nitecore produced a plastic smell that filled the room. Again this was an eBay purchase, so the authenticity of the product is questionable. Let's just say that I learnt my lesson.
The Xtar VC4 works nicely using 2.1A USB adapter. The USB-only feature of this charger is a two-edged sword really. It makes the charger versatile in that it can be hooked up to any USB power outlet including USB power banks. But I still think that a 240V inlet or even a 12V cig inlet wouldn't have been too much to ask.
To conclude, the charger looks to be well built and thought-out and online reviews confirm this. It handles any of my 18650's with ease. So far, I'm quite happy with the purchase. Thanks Adam!
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