Xtar Dragon VP4L Plus Battery Charger

Review of this four slot lithium ion and nickel metal hydride cell charger.
Product links:
www.amazon.co....
www.xtar.cc/pr...

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

The best basic battery charger I've ever owned is the XTAR VC4. 5 years later still Rock Solid👍

[@An.Individual]

Needs to have live voltage and current on each cell really.

[@321tryagain]

No voltage and no current display? No thanks.

[@AlcoveShadow]

Get a life, 🦖 BETA 🤓.

[@Franksey180]

Ok, interesting, I was looking at one of these online recently, great timing for you to make this video.

[@Franksey180]

And happy new year, good to see you back on YT :)

[@DreStyle]

Ha he saved me a lot of times like he can read our minds 😂 Bought a lot of stuff he reviewed

[@Franksey180]

@@DreStyle same here, some items I use almost every day such as the USB C charging cables that Julian reviewed, with minature OLED watt meters on the output end of the leads, genuinely useful.

[@Franksey180]

Have to say I'm not totally blown away by this unit, pretty big and the design only displays data on two bays at any time. Also lack of "live" voltage/current displays is not ideal. I'm still using two Opus BT-C3100 chargers that work very well, though they can only take up to 21700 size so that's their limitation.

[@gshingles]

Did you try triple click? 🤔

[@JulianIlett]

Ha ha, no.

[@Martin-oo4kn]

£65.99

[@KrzysztofC-1]

I assume it was sent for free, it's expensive for what it is to buy with own money.

[@Okurka.]

@@KrzysztofC-1 Of course it was sent for free; that's why he's so positive about it despite it lacking important features.

[@andymouse]

Don't be so rotten ! he declared it was free and gave an in depth description of it's pro's and con's and I think a very rounded review which is actualy quite refreshing :)@@Okurka.

[@Okurka.]

@@andymouse No voltage and no current should be a deal breaker for Julian but he said he got around it by counting an amount of bar flashes per percentage charged! He also said it was no problem that NiMH got undercharged as you can measure the voltage using an external voltmeter and then charge the cell again if needed. That's a positive review, not an objective one.

[@andymouse]

Good point.@@Okurka.

[@Okurka.]

My car doesn't have a speedometer but that's fine as I can look at the odometer and count the seconds it takes for it to tick over and then calculate how fast I'm going...

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I bought the XTAR Dragon Vp4 plus (Not Vp4L). Electrically it works great! The type of plastic they use makes it a piece of junk! Mine started cracking and falling to pieces after 8 or 9 months. To this day I still have zip ties holding the bottom together with epoxy inside to make it still usable.

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I hope they changed the plastic on the newer ones!

[@namAlexander]

same here, hard plastics glue works on that plastic , the spring holder i had to drill and add a screw its a bit of faff but gets it working again

[@nickpelov]

for NiMH batteries state of charge is not indicated by voltage. Voltage above 1.2-1.3 means nothing.

[@nickpelov]

​@@AlcoveShadow TLDR: charge termination does not depend on absolute voltage... Details: Either they put something just because or they don't know how Ni-MH batteries are charged. Hopefully it's the first. Ni-MH are not charged to terminal voltage. They are charged until : 1. voltage drops a bit instead of rising - not sure - about 0.05V, 2. temperature starts rising faster 3. time limit for safety. Combination of all 3 is required because 0.05V drop is very easy to miss, temperature might depend on environment, so that's why there is also time limit. The absolute voltage can be anything on fully charged batteries - it depends on charge current, battery capacity, internal resistance ... etc.

[@Big_TD]

Try out the Vapcell S4 Plus charger, really good charger can charge all slots at 3a at the same time

[@ericklein5097]

Yep, makes every other 4 slot charger on the market obsolete. At $42 it blows this away. Xtar is really losing it.

[@johnshaw359]

Not offering much for the high price. At least elapsed time and accumulated charge on my USB charger means simple maths. p.s I wish they would auto-cycle through with more than one cell with an auto / man cycle button if needed, drives you crazy.

[@pesho9971]

I have a XTAR VC8 charger and I have to say I'm not happy with it. I should warn you and everyone using this charger that the internal resistance test is a complete gimmick. The is a 30mOhm difference slot to slot(some might be the close but at least on my charger some slots show double the resistance on the same test cell. Not to mention they all show different values).It can only discharge on 4 out of the 8 slots, discharges only at 330mA and only has a type-C QC input. Also on my charger slot 4 has a higher self discharge than the others so the capacity test will start again if you leave the cell sitting in the charger for a couple of hours. For the price this one is not worth it. Might as well pay extra 10-20$ and get a something else with more functionality

[@noobbuddycantdragmedown2607]

do you have any recomandation for good smart battery charger?

[@leaulentille2764]

This is the best review of this charger I've seen. I like the cheat sheet idea. The "manual" leaves something to be desired.

[@cosmos9227]

No repair mode on this inexpensive I switched to vapcell s4plus the only thing problem with vapcell is battery resistance but it's doesn't matter on me.

[@sajidkhanmahmood]

hi guys i use a similar charger to charge my 18650 batteries but there are 2 inputs on the back a DC input and an AC input for which they provided a mains lead and plug but when i charge using that lead the batteries and charger get quite hot but 4 batteries will charge in about 3or 4 hours. But i tried using a DC charger which also charged but took much longer about 6 hrs but was totally cool to the touch all the way through. My question is which is the correct lead i should be using. I seem to think its the DC cable because its not overheating. I would appreciate any info on this since ive googled all over and i did not find an answer

[@jburdman7]

No LiFePO4 support, so I stick to Liitolokala. The Lii-S2 does the basics well for only a few bucks

[@auronthas]

Hi Julian, thanks for the review, sadly there's no individual slot charging current selection ... if I place mix AA and AAA NiMh batteries, what's the recommended charging current to set ? 50% of smaller AAA mAH , I.e. 50% 1000mAh =0.5A charging current ?

[@TheLordstrider]

great video thank you. i wonder though, eneloop batteries that i just purchased came at 48% (got 12 of them) does it means they were in the warehouse for years? just wondering.

[@harasti]

Compered to Nitecore charger I think Xtar didnt change quality and they are still the best simple and safest charger on market. Still if you regenerating cell all charger will be permanent demage if cell start leaking, even gas from vented cell can push corosion on board realy fast and you think is bad charger ! Best to use dumy cell with wire and add additional holder next to charger for every cell so if cell leake wont demage charger.

[@roughcollielover1784]

Good informative video Thanks

[@jacquesb5248]

interesting equipment

[@Un_Pour_Tous]

I have the VC2 Plus its ok had for years no issues

[@randallneikirk6385]

Disconnecting and then reconnecting the "dead" battery is what they had to do for Skylab batteries to bring them back to life.

[@Okurka.]

Skylab used a fuel cell.

[@dino6627]

I have the Adeaska SQ4, whilst lacking the discharge capacity function, the display is much better. It can charge LiFePO4 as well as Li-ion and NiMh. I would recommend it. The Xtar display is limited and showing only 2 channels is very poor. The button interface seems clumsy.

[@JulianIlett]

I blew up my SQ4 by putting 13.5 volts into it :(

[@Jbpennes]

ADEASKA VC4 might the way now :)

[@JohnGotts]

The XTAR chargers are pretty good. I have two of them. I had one blow out a diode but it was an easy fix and no issues since.

[@Okurka.]

My car is pretty good; I only lost a wheel once.

[@TheLordstrider]

@@Okurka. my last car was amazing, the engine blew out of the engine bay mid drive. worked great for another 3 years with a new engine. (then i sold it)

[@DreStyle]

They need to make these chargers like hobby chargers!! I mean they are always so limitated My hobby charger can charge a wide variety at dazzling amps And these seem always to walk behind

[@fredflintstone1]

Happy New Year, I think I will stick with my Opus and Miboxer chargers 🙂

[@hommerdalor6301]

Hello Julian. You could easily check the current by inserting the probes . Some insulating material between 2 magnets inserted between the negatives. The littokala chargers that I own say charge discharge 1A, but the charging current is less. Cheers.

[@Sylvan_dB]

I use a small piece of double-sided PCB material in between battery and terminal to measure current. A piece of card stock with copper tape on both sides also works, especially when the battery is already a tight fit.

[@Okurka.]

Or you could get a cheaper charger that actually shows the current.

[@AlcoveShadow]

​@@Okurka.Why do you need to see the current? Are you going to shoot electricity through your finger tips like Flash and SHAZAM to help out the cell? Get a life, 🦖 BETA 🤓.

[@UpLateGeek]

I've found my anyloops recover relatively quickly from 0V, and if I leave them for a while they usually bounce back up to 1.0-1.1V. The only time I've been able to measure a negative voltage was while they were still in the device after they ran flat, or within seconds or removal. For example, I just ran a pair flat in my Game Boy Color [sic], and they read 0.54V and 0.86V in my Opus charger about 30 seconds after removing them from said Game Boy. I immediately removed them from the charger before it started charging and waited about 15 seconds before reinserting them, and they were already up to 0.77V and 0.96V. I've also found they charge much more evenly and take a higher amount of charge if I let them rest for some time after discharging. For example, I've seen them take around 1200mAh and 1400mAh when charged immediately after discharging (can't remember which was at a lower voltage), whereas they both usually take very close to 1500mAh when I leave them for some time after discharging (usually at least a few hours or overnight). Obviously these are well-used cells, I always let my newer anyloops rest, and their charge level hasn't seemed to drop down over time like my older cells which I always used to charge immediately.

[@JulianIlett]

Sounds like a good idea to let them rest a while. Problem is - wife says "light's not working" and expects it to be working again immediately.

[@Stuartrusty]

It's strange this should come out right as I am considering an upgrade to my XTAR VC4 after many years of reliable service. It does display current, voltage and capacity during charge and pulse charges the NIMH. Additional outputs would be useful as well as the test and discharge modes. Thanks for the review.