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Review on ๐Ÿ”Œ XTAR DRAGON VP4 Plus Smart Charger - LCD Display Speedy Universal Battery Charger with Probes & Car Charger โ€“ Rechargeable Batteries Ni-MH Ni-Cd A AA AAA SC, Li-ion 18650 26650 26500 22650 18490 17670 Compatible by Richard Woods

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Not good. Monitor battery temperature.

I chose this over the skyrc mc3000 because it was a bit cheaper and had positive reviews. I didn't do my usual thorough research before purchasing, and after it was on the road I found that it didn't have four independent channels, only two. Not perfect, but I thought I could live with that. Then I realized that the only way to see the battery's voltage is to use the weird leads of the internal resistance of the sudo kelvin connection. It made me love it a little less and I started to feel buyers' remorse. I put on a load of batteries and started analyzing them. When I tested it, I noticed that it took forever. Testing usually takes a long time, but it was an order of magnitude longer than the replacement Lacrosse BC700. Also, the device emits random beeps, but nothing happens on the display. It was in my bedroom so it was quite annoying as it beeped and then lit the screen at full brightness. I watched it intermittently for several hours to understand exactly what it does. There were long periods when the batteries would not charge or discharge even though they were in the middle of charging. A breach of contract for me was the lack of thermal protection. At some point during the charging process, I felt the batteries and they burned, although they were charged with a current of 0.5s. I took out the thermocouple and to my surprise they read over 160f. This is totally unacceptable so I returned it and got a skyrc charger. I have an xtar vc2 and it has worked reliably for years. I may have a bad block, but I won't risk looking into bugs in that block again.

Pros
  • > TEST mode: check the actual capacity of your battery as a battery cabinet. Recording function: review and compare battery test records at any time. REFRESH mode: Eliminates the memory effect of Ni-MH batteries. USB output function: can charge your mobile devices with suitable current.
Cons
  • Crumpled packaging