What battery charger do you recommend?

[RustyUs]

@gregosh... Hota Battery Chargers

 

[desmobob]

Another vote for the Hota D6, in case the OP still hasn't decided in 13 years, and for others interested.

 

[WickedFog]

So I have a question about the Hota D6 pro. I picked one up per all the recommendations on this post. So I have used it a few times now and it will only charge all of my batteries to about 75% per my battery checker. My other charger will charge to 95% or slightly higher. Is there a setting I’m missing on the D6?

Thanks

So you charge a battery on the Hota, then check it with a battery checker and it says 75%? 75% of what?

 

[WickedFog]

I was about to recommend the new d300 Plus as well, 2 years on my d300 and it's still awesome

I wonder why Gens didn't take the oppurtunity to upgrade that balance current while they were in there? It would be the best charger in its price range had they done so. Some folks don't seem to care that the D300 is slower than the Hota, but most simply don't know how important balance current is, or how chargers work.

Charge a big 6s battery that has some age to it and a couple cells varying a bit and you'll see why balance cutrent is important, while you sit there and watch your charger inch along trying to equalize the remaining cells for an hour or more. Having a better balance current will speed that up. A better balance current is also a lot better for the health and longevity of your batteries.

Why? Because while that weak ass balance current is struggling to catch the weaker cells up to the 4.2v of the finished cells, those finished cells are still being (over)charged. The charger never stops feeding juice to any of the cells until the charge is complete. That's where the balance current comes in. It will keep siphoning off the extra voltage that the charger keeps feeding the full cells. So every cell that is full is in a constant state of charge/discharge the whole time the other cells are playing catchup.

Ever seen what that does to your cell phone battery? Play your games while charging and after doing that too much while not noticing your battery is at 100%, your battery eventually begins to degrade, loses mAh, puffs, and eventually you'll be lucky to get a couple hours out of your phone's battery before it needs charged again.

So here's what happens...
You set a 10A charge rate and start a charge. The charger is dumping 10A into the battery. When any one cell reaches 4.2v, it doesn't stop charging that cell. Instead the charger goes into balance mode and begins drawing the excess voltage from that full cell to keep it from turning into a 3600°F space heater. But the charger can only drain that energy so fast. It's limited by the balance current. So the charge rate of your charger drops way down so it isn't feeding energy into that full cell faster than the charger can burn it up through the resistors.

So the balance current rating on chargers is how fast the charger can pull that extra voltage from the full cells by running that excess energy through resistors, which turn that energy into heat. So the bigger the balance current the better. The bigger the balance current, the faster those remaining cells keep charging. The faster that process gets done, the easier it is on your batteries.

 

[DavidB1126]

This new charger is the new hotness. Beast of a charger.
1600w DC. 500w AC. Built in power supply for external power uses via 2 XT60s on the side. External discharger can be used. Also has a new charge feature called reverse discharging where if you have a fully charged battery you can take the charge from that battery to charge another battery on the other channel. Pretty cool. Hitec products are always on point.

Also has a 20w PD USB C port on the other side for phone charging!

Up to 8S as well! This might be better than the _ _ 8 series of iChargers, features wise???

It is 8s, makes me wonder why they went with XT60s for the main channels rather than XT90s like Greg said in his video. But to be fair for an 8s battery of that size due to the wattage of the pack, your probably not going to exceed more than 15 amps (educated guess) so XT60s should hold up just fine. Plus basically any and every modern charger either has XT60s or 4mm banana plugs for charging anyways.

 

[22SSragtop]

Amain just had a heck of a sale... the eco power dual (rebranded gensacearespammers d300) for $77.

 

[DavidB1126]

Amain just had a heck of a sale... the eco power dual (rebranded gensacearespammers d300) for $77.

Dang that's an amazing deal! Especially for the specs compared to anything else cheapo on Amazon. Me personally I like the interface on the g_e_n_s a_c_e more than the rebranded Eco power but still for the specs of it, you cannot beat it. Especially since it is the holidays.

 

[RustyUs]

This new charger is the new hotness. Beast of a charger.
1600w DC. 500w AC. Built in power supply for external power uses via 2 XT60s on the side. External discharger can be used. Also has a new charge feature called reverse discharging where if you have a fully charged battery you can take the charge from that battery to charge another battery on the other channel. Pretty cool. Hitec products are always on point.

Also has a 20w PD USB C port on the other side for phone charging!

Up to 8S as well! This might be better than the _ _ 8 series of iChargers, features wise???

It is 8s, makes me wonder why they went with XT60s for the main channels rather than XT90s like Greg said in his video. But to be fair for an 8s battery of that size due to the wattage of the pack, your probably not going to exceed more than 15 amps (educated guess) so XT60s should hold up just fine. Plus basically any and every modern charger either has XT60s or 4mm banana plugs for charging anyways.

I think Hitec has always rebranded, for good reason, SkyRC chargers like the D750 MIX Dual AC/DC Charger

 

[desmobob]

That new HiTec is pretty neat! I'm surprised as reviewers continue to rave about the "reverse discharge" function, which the inexpensive Hota D6 has been capable of for years...