Which charger? £50 or so ones?

[KenIchikawa]

Hi

I have a £13 vapex charger which seems to have given up the ghost.

I've been recommended a WE SM4 Smart Charger, but it's £50. It is any good? Are there any alternatives?

I've seen several in the zero in shop such as the G.T. Power X-Charger B6

Also the Turngy Accucel-6.

Any idea which is good?

All I use is NIMH 8.6 and 9.6 batteries.

Thanks

[Fizzy]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

Accucel-6

Will work if you make the move to lipo also

[KenIchikawa]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

Funny you should say that as I ordered one about an hour ago!

[steve grey]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

a wise choice mate, i've got that and the IMAX b6, both very good..

[Stories]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

Accucell 6, defiantly a good choice!! Mines done me very well thus far (bought after cheap chargers killing batteries.... a very wise investment).

Cheers,

m

[GothicGhost]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

I was also looking at the accucell 6 but I seen have many on the bay and other places and they never look the same.
How can you tell what ones are fake?

And do you need extra cables and such?
Thanks.

[KenIchikawa]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

I was also looking at the accucell 6 but I seen have many on the bay and other places and they never look the same.
How can you tell what ones are fake?

And do you need extra cables and such?
Thanks.

I saw the ones on ebay they were around £25-35 quid.

The thing is they might be copies. They also don't come with a power supply or a connector harness simply coming with an XT-60 as standard. You have to buy both these things separately.

So you have to shell out £10-15 for a power supply unit and £3 for a multi harness (for tamiya, and deans connectors).

I already had a power supply so I didn't need it. As I was paranoid about getting a fake. I went to a shop that sells electrical components in North Wales and bought it for £35+ £2 for the harness + £1.50 shipping.

The £50 or £45 price you can get them from non ebay shops is probably worth it as you won't get a fake and will get a compatible power supply.

[Fizzy]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

I also bought mine from the same shop in Wales and at the time they didn't do any with power supplies. I actually use an old IBM laptop power supply I had

It came with some cables, so was fine for charging Deans, but I used the croc clips for charging Tamiyas

I also bought a balance lead extension cable because the balance leads on the batteries aren't very long and I didn't want the battery and charger so close together when charging

Didn't know there was fake Accucels. I know there was a fair few iMax B6s that were fake though

[Tiercel]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

Is there any particular reason why it seems like none of these chargers come with power cables?! I bought a Turnigy something years ago and it only came with a car cigarette lighter plug for power! Having to fudge one of those into a car socket to EU 2 pin plug, into a EU to UK 3 pin adaptor plug looks ridiculous and hangs out about 6 inches from the wall Why does it seem hardly any come with a nice, 3-pin UK plug as standard?

[KenIchikawa]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

I also bought mine from the same shop in Wales and at the time they didn't do any with power supplies. I actually use an old IBM laptop power supply I had

It came with some cables, so was fine for charging Deans, but I used the croc clips for charging Tamiyas

I also bought a balance lead extension cable because the balance leads on the batteries aren't very long and I didn't want the battery and charger so close together when charging

Didn't know there was fake Accucels. I know there was a fair few iMax B6s that were fake though

Yeah I did a youtube search and there was a Dutch guy who showed how to spot ebay fakes. He ran it through various electrical testing gear and found them to kill batteries just as often as cheapo chargers.

There was also an Australian video where he took it to pieces and through the video said a fake one won't have this this and this.

So rather than save £5 and buy off 'bay I bought it from that shop you mentioned.

Is there any particular reason why it seems like none of these chargers come with power cables?! I bought a Turnigy something years ago and it only came with a car cigarette lighter plug for power! Having to fudge one of those into a car socket to EU 2 pin plug, into a EU to UK 3 pin adaptor plug looks ridiculous and hangs out about 6 inches from the wall Why does it seem hardly any come with a nice, 3-pin UK plug as standard?

Probably the same reason airsoft guns often don't come with batteries. It allows the end user to choose what battery they want in it.

Rather than spend money on putting in connectors for all types of users. They save money by just including one and having you buy the extra ones you want for input and output. Coz the rest of the world uses other plug types instead of the super UK 3 pin version. Which is great except when they are upturned and you step on them :D

[Tiercel]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

Im sure airsoft guns used to come with at the very least a cheapo chinese frag grenade/battery/molotov and charger! (bear in mind the last time I bought a gun brand new was about 4/5 years ago :P ) Though I have noticed since returning to airsoft they dont seem to come with batteries anymore.

I suppose that makes sense, but you would have thought that UK based sellers would slap a UK plug on it... its a proper pain in the ass trying to find a power lead that fits and has the right output etc.

[Fizzy]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

It was only ever the cheap Chinese stuff that came with batteries, no idea if they still do...

The shop will sell you a UK power supply with your Accucel for more £££ but it's not just an airsoft thing. Look at R/C shops and many of their lipo chargers don't come with a 3 pin plug/power supply. I presume it's because when you're in a field with your plane, or at some open tarmacked place, it's unlikely you'll have a socket, so cigarette lighter/croc clips are more useful

When messing around with R/C cars years ago we'd either charge off the car or take a spare car battery and charge from that (or both)

[KenIchikawa]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

I'm curious how do you turn it off?

Do you just unplug it or is there a sequence to turn it off?

Manual isn't helpful.

[Fizzy]

Re: Which charger? £50 or so ones?

After it's finished charging?

I just turn it off at the socket and unplug it