+mhanlen1 you know what might be cool? A video about good basic hand tools you use to work on flashlights and/or knives. I know personally I wasted a lot of money on cheap crappy torx bits and drivers before I invested in good Wiha tools, and I'm sure plenty of folks would benefit from knowing what you use. Also, bees.
What does the display look like while activating over discharged batteries. I put a relatively new 18350 into the Uam10 and the lcd display blinked"0%" for ten minutes. No Error message though. Any thoughts?
Thats weird. I gave the UM10 back, but I never encounter that message. Is it a protected cell? Sometimes that causes a cell to not charge... do you have a multimeter to test the cell voltage?
i got my UM10 and a usb charge brick wich is 750mah,kinda slow for my 18650 3400mah. so i want to change to an ipad charger,it have an output of 2A, i wonder if that is too much for my 18650 because the charging amperage reccommend for 3400mah 18650 is 1.5A so the question is: will the UM10 regulate the current down to match the battery or it gonna charge whatever amperage i put into it?
Yeah... you can use higher amperage charging blocks... as long as their 5v USB... the Nitecore is a smart charger and will only send up to 1 amp to the battery. You're safe!
+mhanlen1 Thanks for the quick reply...I haven't bought it yet but wanted to make sure it would shut off and not over charge the battery before I did...Thanks again
+Mark Gray There's always that chance. I say it's good practice to double check your charger occasionally if you use lithium ion batteries. Pick up a cheap multimeter, and check a battery every now and then after charging has terminated.
⊙﹏⊙ .... How did you know!? But really, I am currently bidding on one of these (D4) on eBay. I wish I could have seen a review on the "UltraFire 18650" batteries that I just received from a seller on eBay that are CRAP! They weigh 32 grams each and "SAY" they are 5000 mAh. BS! Did you do a review on Chinese rip-off batteries? I'll have to check your upload history. Anyway, thanks for this review. It really did help! :)
+RonRay I missed this comment. I have not reviewed cheap batteries... Check out my lumitac g700 review for all you need to know about cheap batteries. They're always mislabeled and can vary wilding in quality. Never skimp on cells, because that could be dangerous. Use Panasonic, Sanyo, lg, Sony, and Samsung cells. I usually list the cells I test lights with in my reviews... If in doubt use those as recommendations. You can often fine high quality cells for 5-10 a piece if you shop carefully.
Hey buddy , thanks for all your reviews which really put a smile on my face. I recently was looking for a charger and discovered the xtar WP2's'.Go and check it out as I think you will find it interesting .
I've had the D4 for several months now and as great as it sounds on paper, the build quality just isn't there. Aside from heating up to concerning levels during charging cycles, within three months the spring loaded contacts that hold the batteries in place started to grind and stick when you try to insert your batteries and one slot just suddenly quit working altogether. Nothing on the display, no charging (checked it on another charger to confirm), nada. It's just plain dead now. Against my better judgement I purchased this because it was on sale despite having been told by more than one person to get the LUC V4 instead. This was my first Nitecore product and will almost certainly be my last if this is the level of reliability I can expect.
+John Montgomery That's a shame to hear. I underastand there are fake Nitecore chargers out there, is it possible you got one of those? Even so, I could see this turning a person off to Nitecore. However, doing some research I tend to defer to people who do thorough testing of chargers. Awesome reviewer HKJ reviewed the LEC V4, and found it consistently overcharged Lithium ion cells: lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Efest%20LUC%20V4%20UK.html He says the Efest is not a great charger, and can harm the overall life of your cells. He seemed to think that the D4 was a pretty good universal charger though. lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Nitecore%20Digicharger%20D4%20UK.html Again, I would probably avoid Nitecore chargers if I had a bad experience like yours. It might have been a badly QCed Nitecore charger or a cheap knockoff. Who really knows? Check out Xtar chargers, or the Opus BT-C3100 for alternatives.
Upon investigating whether or not my issues were common (the heating up most definitely is), the possibility that it was counterfeit came up and I confirmed that it definitely was not. As to the recommendations on the LUC V4, I was mainly referring to certain guys who frequent /r/batteries on Reddit (a few are even engineers or similar by trade) that I've come to consider pretty knowledgeable. For the most part their advice has been pretty solid in the past, but I certainly do take your point as they may not be quite as thorough as your reference. Having said that I do feel like I have to point out as well that even though I have no prior knowledge of the person you linked to and his methodology is apparently quite extensive and meticulous, it still does not appear to speak to the long term reliability of the unit which was obviously not good in my particular case.
+John Montgomery Well HJK does make a note of operating temperatures in his reviews... so if he doesn't mention an unsafe operating temperature I tend to believe him. He seems to note it gets warm, but never unsafely warm. My reviews rarely talk about long term reliability, because I often review stuff in several weeks of getting the item. Internet forums are usually a good resource like this... as you have said. I will be using this as my secondary charger, so feel free to hit me up in a few months and ask me what I think about it. Upon my initial testing, and just a general overall consensus, I have no reason to doubt it should be a good charger. Mine might turn out to be a dud- who knows? I know that a lot of people use Nitecore chargers, and you will get a dud occasionally. I have heard many more positive things about them than negative ones. I do a lot of flashlight reviews and coincidentlly use a battery charger a lot more than the average person... so I'm sure if it's a piece of crap I'll know it soon enough. For example... I had a Panasonic GH3 camera die after a year and three months of occasional use. I paid about $700 for the camera, and used it as a B camera for the videos on this channel. I can look all over the net and see many people use these cameras, and rave about them. But I happened to have one die- and I was out well over $700 after shipping and repair estimates. Anyway, see my point? My experience isn't typical. It doesn't make it invalid, but it will also keep me from buying a Panasonic camera in the future (other than the $500 G7 I was sold at a discount, so I could have a backup camera).
Oh, I completely understand your point. I'm also well aware that you do a lot of flashlight reviews and as a consequence deal with a tons of batteries, thus why I'm subscribed to your channel. ;)
+John Montgomery I will say... one good thing about buying from an authorized US dealer is that you get an easy to contact point of sale, if you have any warranty problems. Anyway, thanks a bunch for watching... and if you ever have any questions about long term durability of anything I've reviewed feel free to ask.
Charging the NiMH Eneloops at 300mA isn't likely to help their longevity... A higher charge rate produces a more pronounced delta V curve which results in less chance of the charger missing the spike and overcharging your batteries.
+johnfranks interesting. I read in a review some time ago that eneloops prefer a 200mah charge rate... Which is why I do that. The other options with this charger are 500mah. I forgot where I read the 200 mah thing. The batteries always seem to stay cooler too with a lower rate. Is this not accurate.
+mhanlen1 At slow charge rates, delta V gets difficult to detect. If the charger also detects delta T (temp), then slow charging isn't a problem. The datasheet for AA Eneloop lists a charge rate of up 2A and 800mA for the AAA. 500mA is fine for either of those cells. Will you lose a few cycles from charging at bit higher current? Maybe... But you run a much lower risk of overcharging by missing the peak V detect.
+mhanlen1 The HR-3UTGB datasheet lists the capacity with a 200mA x 16h charge with a 400mA discharge. Maybe thats what you are thinking of... In that scenario, they deliberately over charged the cell for 6 hours to get the maximum capacity out it. Not exactly best practice for cell longevity. The fast charge rate for that cell is 2000mA.
+johnfranks So the fast charge rate won't harm the shelf life long term? I think you're right- that's what I was thinking of. I'm never in a hurry, and I always err on the side of charging things slower because I'm often charging several things at once... and that can make the chargers work hard. I used to have a dedicated NIMH charger, but I gave that away and now charge with the i4 and the BT-C3100 exclusively. I get lots of my information from HJK.
Yeah I didn't post this one a lot because I didn't know how useful it was... since it was more of an overview. If you think it'd be useful, I don't mind posting it there at all.
Damn... I'm really gonna miss that goat too. She had spirit.
+marshalllaw123 Sometimes a goat throat gotta be slit.
+mhanlen1 you know what might be cool? A video about good basic hand tools you use to work on flashlights and/or knives. I know personally I wasted a lot of money on cheap crappy torx bits and drivers before I invested in good Wiha tools, and I'm sure plenty of folks would benefit from knowing what you use. Also, bees.
+marshalllaw123 Good idea! Either that or they'd be appalled. It could be a nice short segment.
love my torch and charger so far. thanks again for the recommend.
How has this guy not blown up?
What does the display look like while activating over discharged batteries. I put a relatively new 18350 into the Uam10 and the lcd display blinked"0%" for ten minutes. No Error message though. Any thoughts?
Thats weird. I gave the UM10 back, but I never encounter that message. Is it a protected cell? Sometimes that causes a cell to not charge... do you have a multimeter to test the cell voltage?
Hi great vid. Is this recommended for charging samsung 30q INR batteries?
Yes these chargers will work well for a Samsung 30q. I use the D4 as one of my main chargers
Damit!!! Now I have to get my credit card. As if I wasn't in debt enough.
i got my UM10 and a usb charge brick wich is 750mah,kinda slow for my 18650 3400mah.
so i want to change to an ipad charger,it have an output of 2A, i wonder if that is too much for my 18650 because the charging amperage reccommend for 3400mah 18650 is 1.5A
so the question is: will the UM10 regulate the current down to match the battery or it gonna charge whatever amperage i put into it?
Yeah... you can use higher amperage charging blocks... as long as their 5v USB... the Nitecore is a smart charger and will only send up to 1 amp to the battery. You're safe!
Questio...The UM10 will or will not safely charge unprotected 18650 batteries...will it shut off when the battery is charged fully?
+Mark Gray Yep, as a standard all Nitecore chargers should. If you have one that doesn't then it's faulty.
+mhanlen1 Thanks for the quick reply...I haven't bought it yet but wanted to make sure it would shut off and not over charge the battery before I did...Thanks again
+Mark Gray There's always that chance. I say it's good practice to double check your charger occasionally if you use lithium ion batteries. Pick up a cheap multimeter, and check a battery every now and then after charging has terminated.
Congratulations on video.
LiFePO4 can be pronounced Lithium Iron Phosphate, or Lithium Ferrophosphate (LFP)
You told me to comment, so I did. Good overview though.
+Dan Bartolucci COMPUTE AFFIRMATIVE THANK YOU
⊙﹏⊙ .... How did you know!?
But really, I am currently bidding on one of these (D4) on eBay.
I wish I could have seen a review on the "UltraFire 18650" batteries that I just received from a seller on eBay that are CRAP! They weigh 32 grams each and "SAY" they are 5000 mAh. BS!
Did you do a review on Chinese rip-off batteries? I'll have to check your upload history.
Anyway, thanks for this review. It really did help! :)
+RonRay I missed this comment. I have not reviewed cheap batteries... Check out my lumitac g700 review for all you need to know about cheap batteries. They're always mislabeled and can vary wilding in quality. Never skimp on cells, because that could be dangerous. Use Panasonic, Sanyo, lg, Sony, and Samsung cells. I usually list the cells I test lights with in my reviews... If in doubt use those as recommendations. You can often fine high quality cells for 5-10 a piece if you shop carefully.
Hey buddy , thanks for all your reviews which really put a smile on my face. I recently was looking for a charger and discovered the xtar WP2's'.Go and check it out as I think you will find it interesting .
I've had the D4 for several months now and as great as it sounds on paper, the build quality just isn't there. Aside from heating up to concerning levels during charging cycles, within three months the spring loaded contacts that hold the batteries in place started to grind and stick when you try to insert your batteries and one slot just suddenly quit working altogether. Nothing on the display, no charging (checked it on another charger to confirm), nada. It's just plain dead now. Against my better judgement I purchased this because it was on sale despite having been told by more than one person to get the LUC V4 instead. This was my first Nitecore product and will almost certainly be my last if this is the level of reliability I can expect.
+John Montgomery That's a shame to hear. I underastand there are fake Nitecore chargers out there, is it possible you got one of those? Even so, I could see this turning a person off to Nitecore. However, doing some research I tend to defer to people who do thorough testing of chargers. Awesome reviewer HKJ reviewed the LEC V4, and found it consistently overcharged Lithium ion cells:
lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Efest%20LUC%20V4%20UK.html
He says the Efest is not a great charger, and can harm the overall life of your cells. He seemed to think that the D4 was a pretty good universal charger though.
lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Nitecore%20Digicharger%20D4%20UK.html
Again, I would probably avoid Nitecore chargers if I had a bad experience like yours. It might have been a badly QCed Nitecore charger or a cheap knockoff. Who really knows? Check out Xtar chargers, or the Opus BT-C3100 for alternatives.
Upon investigating whether or not my issues were common (the heating up most definitely is), the possibility that it was counterfeit came up and I confirmed that it definitely was not. As to the recommendations on the LUC V4, I was mainly referring to certain guys who frequent /r/batteries on Reddit (a few are even engineers or similar by trade) that I've come to consider pretty knowledgeable. For the most part their advice has been pretty solid in the past, but I certainly do take your point as they may not be quite as thorough as your reference.
Having said that I do feel like I have to point out as well that even though I have no prior knowledge of the person you linked to and his methodology is apparently quite extensive and meticulous, it still does not appear to speak to the long term reliability of the unit which was obviously not good in my particular case.
+John Montgomery Well HJK does make a note of operating temperatures in his reviews... so if he doesn't mention an unsafe operating temperature I tend to believe him. He seems to note it gets warm, but never unsafely warm. My reviews rarely talk about long term reliability, because I often review stuff in several weeks of getting the item. Internet forums are usually a good resource like this... as you have said. I will be using this as my secondary charger, so feel free to hit me up in a few months and ask me what I think about it. Upon my initial testing, and just a general overall consensus, I have no reason to doubt it should be a good charger. Mine might turn out to be a dud- who knows? I know that a lot of people use Nitecore chargers, and you will get a dud occasionally. I have heard many more positive things about them than negative ones. I do a lot of flashlight reviews and coincidentlly use a battery charger a lot more than the average person... so I'm sure if it's a piece of crap I'll know it soon enough.
For example... I had a Panasonic GH3 camera die after a year and three months of occasional use. I paid about $700 for the camera, and used it as a B camera for the videos on this channel. I can look all over the net and see many people use these cameras, and rave about them. But I happened to have one die- and I was out well over $700 after shipping and repair estimates. Anyway, see my point? My experience isn't typical. It doesn't make it invalid, but it will also keep me from buying a Panasonic camera in the future (other than the $500 G7 I was sold at a discount, so I could have a backup camera).
Oh, I completely understand your point. I'm also well aware that you do a lot of flashlight reviews and as a consequence deal with a tons of batteries, thus why I'm subscribed to your channel. ;)
+John Montgomery I will say... one good thing about buying from an authorized US dealer is that you get an easy to contact point of sale, if you have any warranty problems. Anyway, thanks a bunch for watching... and if you ever have any questions about long term durability of anything I've reviewed feel free to ask.
Charging the NiMH Eneloops at 300mA isn't likely to help their longevity... A higher charge rate produces a more pronounced delta V curve which results in less chance of the charger missing the spike and overcharging your batteries.
+johnfranks interesting. I read in a review some time ago that eneloops prefer a 200mah charge rate... Which is why I do that. The other options with this charger are 500mah. I forgot where I read the 200 mah thing. The batteries always seem to stay cooler too with a lower rate. Is this not accurate.
+mhanlen1 At slow charge rates, delta V gets difficult to detect. If the charger also detects delta T (temp), then slow charging isn't a problem. The datasheet for AA Eneloop lists a charge rate of up 2A and 800mA for the AAA. 500mA is fine for either of those cells. Will you lose a few cycles from charging at bit higher current? Maybe... But you run a much lower risk of overcharging by missing the peak V detect.
+johnfranks Thanks for the great info. I swear once I say 200 mah printed on the side of an eneloop, but maybe I'm just crazy.
+mhanlen1 The HR-3UTGB datasheet lists the capacity with a 200mA x 16h charge with a 400mA discharge. Maybe thats what you are thinking of... In that scenario, they deliberately over charged the cell for 6 hours to get the maximum capacity out it. Not exactly best practice for cell longevity.
The fast charge rate for that cell is 2000mA.
+johnfranks So the fast charge rate won't harm the shelf life long term? I think you're right- that's what I was thinking of. I'm never in a hurry, and I always err on the side of charging things slower because I'm often charging several things at once... and that can make the chargers work hard. I used to have a dedicated NIMH charger, but I gave that away and now charge with the i4 and the BT-C3100 exclusively. I get lots of my information from HJK.
You know, you're more than welcome to post charger reviews on /r/flashlight.
-mcfarlie6996
Yeah I didn't post this one a lot because I didn't know how useful it was... since it was more of an overview. If you think it'd be useful, I don't mind posting it there at all.
***** I think it'd be useful which I'm sure everyone loves your videos either way.
Cool, I put it up there sometime soon. Thanks man!