XTAR VC4 Charger named “Best battery charger for vaping” by Business Insider 2020

Business Insider names the XTAR VC4 charger as the “Best battery charger for vaping”!

original article

Why you’ll love it: At a relatively low price point, the XTAR VC4 Charger is able to charge a wide range of battery sizes and types.

There are a couple of features that set the XTAR VC4 Charger apart from other devices in our guide. First, it doesn't plug directly into the wall. The charger features a USB charge cable, which you can plug into just about anything with a USB port. I use a multiple-port USB wall adapter. Another unique feature is that the slots are large enough to fit D-cell batteries. It's fairly rare to find a unit that can handle NiMH cells ranging from AAA to D.

About six months ago, XTAR sent me the VC4 for free to test out. For the most part, my family is happy with it. I use it for charging NiMH batteries for a variety of devices, including my sons' toys, and my wife uses it for her vaporizer's 18650s.

I've found that it's a real pain trying to get the AAA batteries in there just right to get them to charge. Other sizes seem to work fine, though. The display is easy to read and gives helpful information that even a layperson can understand, but it can be finicky when you first insert the batteries.

The Danish site lygte-info.dk closely examined the technical aspects of the XTAR VC4 Charger. The testers recommend it as a good family charger since it can handle many different battery types. The reviewer was impressed with how low the cell temperature stayed during the charge, a good safety measure. But, they found that the full-current charge was very demanding on the USB power supply and didn't work as well when using a weak USB power supply. Several vaping websites also recommend the VC4, including Vaping Insider and Guide to Vaping.

The famous reviewer Zeroair at his XTAR VC4 charger review article said, XTAR has great build quality, both on their chargers and their lights. I like the plastic used here–it ends up feeling solid and doesn’t have any hollow ring or tone to it. The display is crisp and bright, and works very well. Each bay is labeled with a max current and cell pole orientation markings, which is a nice touch.

Approximately 81% of the Amazon buyers who reviewed the XTAR VC4 Charger gave it four or five stars. NLee the Engineer, a top reviewer of several battery chargers on Amazon, tested NiMH cells ranging from AAA to D size and Li-ion cells from 14500 to 26650. He found all charged well, but the 22650 was a tight fit. However, he questioned the accuracy of the current meter and would have liked a discharge mode.

For the most part, buyers found the USB power input to be a positive because it reduced the weight of the device and allowed for flexibility in power sources.

Pros: Charges several different battery types, cost-effective, USB power input

Cons: Doesn't come with a USB wall adapter, it takes some work to fit AAA batteries in