Buy THIS Charger! [XTAR VC4 Plus] 

Will a USB-C PD port give it the necessary power or does it absolutely have to be QC 3.0?

@@ItsEverythingElse it will be ok

VC8 Plus has 12 V Port, and is loading fast.So you cant compare VC4 Plus and VC8 without Plus.

I've had one of these for 3 months now. Pretty good. To your remark about the Nitecore D2 protecting batteries, the Xtar VC4 Plus never charges Li-ions above 4.16 v, usually to around 4.13 v depending on the battery. The user-selectable current setting is in effect just a ceiling - the charger clamps the current much lower if the battery's internal resistance is high. (There may be other criteria, e.g. if it detects a NiMH from the lower voltage.) So, if you do something stupid like trying to charge a NiMH AAA at 3 amps, it doesn't allow that. It clamps it at around 500 mA. And 21700s fit easily in this charger. Two slight problems. The four slots aren't wide enough to accommodate four large batteries side by side, e.g. C batteries. Only two can fit - in the two outer slots. So, if you have a device with four C batteries, you can't charge them all at once. AAA batteries don't make reliable contact with the negative contact sliders - they lie a little too low for the contact nubs. Solution is to cut small rings from silicone tubing, thread the ring around the battery and use it to raise up the battery tail slightly. Also makes getting AAA batteries out less fiddly. BTW, your Anduril creation is a phenomenal achievement. Keep up the good work!

Totally unrelated but if this is you, THE Toykeeper, thank you for your efforts for all my hank lights!!! Best ui ever.

The vc4sl is basically the same as the vc4 plus but you have 4x1A instead of 4x0.5 plus the vc4sl has manual charging current selection. Sadly not per slot but for all 4 slots

Lol I really like the display on this one. Per-bay settings would be great, I would love to have store mode on certain bays and charge on others. I do hope Xtar continues to improve this charger with future versions that add new features, it seems the older chargers just getting cheaper too so that's cool.

@@andreasn455 I don't have a VC4SL, I have a VC4S. They are not the same charger

@@LuxWad I certainly hope they keep improving! The settings thing just seems ridiculous to me, my current main charger is a Miboxer C8, all 8 bays can have their settings changed individually, and this isn't some crazy expensive high end charger so I don't know what XTAR's excuse is. Edit: don't take this as a recommendation or a review of the Miboxer C8, it has its own issues, I'm just comparing one aspect of it here

@@andreasn455 But sadly it don´t work. I tried it often enough with different PSUs

It just depends on the battery, but probably not - my propreitary Thrunite cells don't make very good connection so I wouldn't depend on this to charge those.

Just careful placement, I had to make sure the top contact actually touched the cell. If you can't get it to work you can try adding a small magnet or other metal spacer on top of the cell

That's the revival feature, it will try to revive cells at 0v but if they are too worn out it will stop trying to charge. At that point the cell is dead and should be recycled.

I prefer the XTARs, they have more useful detailed displays

Yes, over time the battery capacity will fall, but using slower charging speeds will reduce that impact and extend the battery's lifespan

I'm not sure what the difference is, each VC4 model is just a minor change from the previous, and the SL seems functionally the same as the Plus

I think i found out. You say the vc4 plus has 4x0.5A . The vc4sl is basically identical but has 4x1A

There is no difference between those two chargers, except their name. An article on XTAR's official website has ever mentioned it.

@@andreasn455one of them came with a power adapter and the other didn’t. So just a packaging difference for distributors that wanted to include a power adapter

The VC4SL is even cheaper at Illumn. It's fine but it's not faster than the 4-bay model since it has the same current output (.5A*8 at most) and it's not as portable as the VC4X, which is part of why I love them.

@@LuxWad The 4SL is two dollars cheaper which is roughly its average price on Amazon. Xtar told me months ago there was another 8 bay in the pipeline which explains the discounting on the VC8. When I turn my 8 sideways it is 10mm wider and 30mm longer than the 4SL. I bought 4 4SL's and really regret it because the grading mode is consistent but very....conservative on the numbers it puts out. The VC8 lines up really close to my EBC-A20. Yes, the VC8 does go lower (2.65? vs 2.80) but I see a 200mah difference on 3500mah cells and theres not that much capacity below 2.80V And don't get me started on the dial. Thankfully you can put it in storage mode to get a numerical voltage reading

What power brick (5V 3A PD 3.0 maybe ?) do you use for the xtar to be able to charge each 4 batteries at 1A at the same time ? Thanks

@@adrien_rzk You need a power brick that has QC2.0 or QC3.0. Xtar says they use QC3.0 but my USB Tester says it is QC2.0. Not really a big deal but you will find most power bricks on the market today advertise QC3.0 which is backwards compatible with QC2.0 so just find one that advertises QC3.0. The next part you need to determine is if it supports 9V2A. I don't think I've ever seen a QC3.0 charge brick that doesn't support 9V2A. Some don't support 12V1.5A or 12V2A but you do not need 12V. You only need 9V2A. If the power brick says 9V1.5A that will not be enough. You need the 18 watts provided by 9V2A to charge all the cells at 1A (4.2V*4 slots*1A=16.8 watts plus the small amount of power the charger needs to work=18 watts) One more time: the output will say 9V2A and the charger will have QC3.0 somewhere near those numbers. Without 9V2A you will be stuck with 5V2A or 5V3A or 9V1.5A

@@ericklein5097 Thank you very much for all this information, do you know if it support PD 3.0 as well ? I have a 20 watts (5V 3A - 9V-2A) power brick that's Power Delivery 3.0 compatible coming up in two days, will it work to charge 4 batteries at 1A?

Only added capacity. To show total capacity you'll need to use grade mode.

They're basically the same, the VC8 just has double the bays. I usually recommend the VC4 simply because most people don't need to charge 8 cells at once, but it's definitely a great charger!

I haven't tried the S4+, it looks really good though! I wish I could compare more chargers but unfortunately it would take too long, I've just stuck with the Xtars because they've been great for me

@@LuxWad I also use thr Vapcell S4+, got it for about 40$ from the sofirn store. Probably the best charger at this budget. The Xtar compared is probably better value, but the inability to select different charging speeds (current) for indivitual slots automatically crosses it off for me. I'm a bit surprised it's not mentioned in the review, or I just didn't hear it :/. Edit: Forgot to mention, the Vapcell also uses a 12V power brick and can charge 3A in all bays at the same time (12A in total).

@@grzybek3376 The S4+ looks great and I'd love to try one, the biggest factor is USB - the ability to power ther VC4 from any USB port is huge for me. I do wish the VC4 allowed more control per bay, but personally I just charge everything at either .5A or 1A so it's not particularly important. However I did talk to XTAR and they said they would consider adding those features to the VC4 line so we'll see what happens :)

Doesn't do storage mode, does it?

@@The-Wise-One I don’t think so. I just got the vc4 plus. Exactly same as vc4sl according to xtar. One isn’t supposed to come with power brick but mine did. I do wish you could Control each bay and temp function is nice on the s4. I don’t really care about the 3 amp charging speed per bay myself. If I would have known sofirn sold them for sub 40 bucks and with coupon code I would have bought one instead of the xtar

Gotta prevent it from getting scratched!

@@LuxWad lol

I use an Olight magnetic charger for mine, XTAR also makes a single-bay charger that fits these cells: xtardirect.com/products/xtar-sc1-plus-powerful-3a-charger-smallest-power-bank

Maybe, it can charge their proprietary 18650s but it's a bit finicky, you have to line it up properly

No, I have heard they're pretty solid though

Avoid the Lii-500S. The slots discharge at different current levels giving you drastically different results from identical cells

The Dragon VP4 Plus is bigger and uses DC power instead of a USB C port. It also has a charging port for 11v battery packs and USB outputs for smart device charging.

@@LuxWad thanks. Does it charge individual batteries or only in pairs?

@@user-du6op6qx5s Individual batteries

The VP4 Plus also has probes for 4 wire AC IR 1khz measurement. The bays aren’t independent I believe they work in pairs. Honestly it’s a tad expensive compared to the Vapcell S4 Plus(V3 has storage function) but the AC IR measurement tool would could you $30+ on its own.

It's good, very similar but with 8 bays instead of 4

VC8 can be had for under $30 from Ilumn and Li Ion Wholesale. VC8 Plus has no real advantages over the 8 so its the best bang for the buck right now in the Xtar lineup

It's pretty much the best charger, but it's much more expensive than the XTAR at $100+, it's just overkill for most people's needs

@@LuxWad completely agree, in many cases it is an overkill but I really like the quality and flexibility of MC3000 :)

Nope. He covered that in the video…

@@KBWrecker That's what I thought. They need to upgrade these already to include the 26800 since more lights are going to use this battery now.

I'm sure they will release a xx800 compatible version before too long

The new XTAR SC1 PLUS can charge 26800.

Yes but they don't have a vc4 model that can support it yet

They are the same, I am not aware of any differences between the two.

Yes but it does not work with cables that have an Emarker (5A/100W+ cables). Seems to work with all my 3A cables

@@ericklein5097 that’s very interesting. thx for sharing.

@@charng no problem. Vapcell S4 Plus V3 is out (might have to email Vapcell sales as I’ve only found a German online store with the V3). It has the storage function just like the Xtar plus 3A per cell charge rate (all 4). I believe it’s 0.5A discharge on all 4 or slots 1 and 4 can do 1A while 2 and 3 do 0.5A. Blows Xtar out of the water and as long as the price is similar to V2 ($40-$45) then it’s the best charger on the market barring the $110 SkyRC MC3000 Downside is it doesn’t use USB C. Because of the charge rate it has a 12V 5A power adapter

So which charger would you recommend?

@@senectarius9685 Still the Vapcell S4+

Yes, I believe it can, but you should reach to Xtar to verify

Have you found the amswer for this by any chance? Im also wondering if it can charge AA 1.5v li-ion battery

No!

😂

@@LuxWad I 'm with you on this. I still got the plastic film on my X2plus screen. 😀

What are you charging with it?

@@LuxWad vape batteries. 18650

@@mikavelli2365 What batteries though? If they are in low health with high internal resistance the charger will take quite a whiile to finish, espeically if it's doing a revive. How much capacity has the charger added to your cells?

@@LuxWad no idea what any of that means. Last charger I had I put the Batts in and it charged them with zero issues in a few hours. This one does not.

@@LuxWad inr 18650 3.7v 3000mah (11.1wh)