XTAR VC4 Universal Battery Charger - LCD Display, 4 Slots for 18650 Batteries

Being a die hard Nitecore brand enthusiast for many decades, it great to see other companies that can compete. This XTAR VC4 surprised me when it fully charged a 18650 Battery that my prized Nitecore D4 deemed as a bad battery.. The XTAR VC4 is definitely one of the best chargers on the market in terms of price, quality, durability, craftsmanship, attention to detail, and holds it own against the tried and true more expensive brands in every test.. I highly recommend this charger especially since the USB charging cable can but used in the car as well as home, unlike my more expensive Nitecore that required an additional purchase for car charger. You can't go wrong with either, but I'm starting to think XTAR VC4 is a better product, even though the Nitecore has an over decade long spectacular track record with zero malfunctions or issues!! Thank you for supporting America and it's Armed Forces!!

I have been using a Powerex MH-C9000 Maha for over 10 years and it has been fine. In its day it was considered a very advanced charger. It died a few days ago and I replaced it with the Xtra VC4. Over the last couple years I would throw the batteries that the C9000 said were defective into a bag for later recycling. Turns out this charger can bring them back to life, very nice. Now I am not claiming it brings them back to like new, but many times I need batteries for a clock, or a sensor, not high demand applications. I am thrilled to bring these batteries back into "circulation". I also bought the EBL USB Wall Charger, 5V 2.1A Charger Adapter(Model: M5129) to be used with this since it only comes with a cable and no usb transformer. It seems to work fine and provides the 2.1A needed for fastest charging. I have only used this combination for a few days so cannot say anything about long term durability.I should mention that the first unit I received had one light not working and was promptly replaced by Amazon. Perhaps not ideal build quality but seems to be well designed circuitry.

I have been into rechargeables since the 1960s. I have owned chargers in many brands from Radioshack to MAHA (at about 20 years of age my maha nimh slow charger is a workhorse but it cost $30). I have advanced chargers to charge LI-Po powered helicopters so I have some experience. This VC4 is easy to use and charges batteries slowly, which is best for the battery. I use it a couple of times a week to charge some Li-ion 18650s. It will even charge my collection of 10,000 mah nimh size d's which time out on most chargers. If you get into rechargeable batteries and use them a lot for advanced flashlights that see use every day, or for portable music systems that see 16 hours of use per week in the summer you will spend a bit of money to get good rechargeable batteries, and fast charging degrades them quicker than slow so I chose the vc4 above the vc4s.So why three stars at the first review? Because slot 4 was defective. The same battery put into slot 1 would be recognized and charged while in slot 4 it would not be recognized or charged. Amazon crushes service for this prime member so the replacement will be here tomorrow. The second one was perfect.While any product has occasional defects, if I get a defective product, I will not give it a five star review even if the replacement deserves it.

OK, so I don't know too much about Lithium chargers, so while i think this is a good charger, I'm not an expert in chargers...I bought some 18650 batteries (for flashlights) and tried to charge them in the very, very basic Lithium charger I got included with a flashlight I had previously bought. Despite charging for 8+ hours the charger never showed them as fully charged. When I put the batteries in this charger, it took a couple of hours, but the charger did fully charge them. The weird thing is that when I put the other new batteries (that I never tried to charge in the old charger) in this charger, they fully charged in less time than the others took to finish charging. So it looks like maybe the old charger did something to these batteries.I really like that it has a display and shows me the charge voltage and current. Not that I really know how that relates to the state of the batteries, but it's good to have extra information and watch for anything obviously wrong.I also like that I can charge 4 batteries at once.BTW, I don't know what "sheerness" meant, so i just gave it 3 stars.

This is a first impression review as I've only had this about 48 hours so here goes. First off, I was a bit worried about counterfeit items as I've heard that's possible but there's a label on the box with a scratch off that you can enter at xtar.cc and confirm that it is their product which is cool. I use 18650 batteries for my vape mods and also flashlights but this will also work with most all rechargeable batteries. I had about eight 18650 batteries that I had marked with a 'D' (for dead) in sharpie because my vape mod wouldn't charge them anymore. As others have said, this charger can bring batteries back to life, they are all (so far) now again completely useable! I also completely charged up some very old Panasonic enloop AA batteries. I couldn't be happier with my purchase! It feels sturdy and well made and the display is very well thought out and informative. I highly recommend this product! Xtar chargers are way past cool!