Luc V4 vs Nitecore D4

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

I have had 3 nitecore chargers. I2 I4 and a D4. All three had bay failures in less than a year of ownership.

I now use a VC4 Xstar. I'll only own Xstar or Opus from now on. Jon had commented to me before that he has never had that problem with all the Nitecores he has sold. You are the second person that had told me they have had the same problem.

I'll never buy another Nitecore product again.

Not saying they've never had a problem but the failure rate is very small and definitely acceptable. We see a little lower failure rate than Efest, but both are good. Did you guys have the newer I2/I4? Or the 2014 or earlier one. The new one seems higher quality so far.

 

[freemind]

Mine looked just like his. The last D4 I bought, I believe was in late 2015.

In any event, I know nothing is perfect and you are bound to get the occasional dud. However all three chargers I bought all died of the same cause. Dead bays. And Like Zaroba the I4 before it died, was having some issues with the springs in a few bays. Owning three of them in a row, has convinced me, that I can't trust their quality. My VC4 just works every time. The only issue I can complain about with it, is it just doesn't always automatically charge at .5 amps. Sometimes when you drop in a pair of batteries, you need to take them out and put them back in. Otherwise it will only charge them at .2 amps, like when you have 4 batteries in.

Lots of people seem happy with nitecore chargers. My experience just leads me to think of them otherwise.

 

[freemind]

P.S. Jon,
Your link in your signature is not correct. It takes you to a blank page.

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

Mine looked just like his. The last D4 I bought, I believe was in late 2015.

In any event, I know nothing is perfect and you are bound to get the occasional dud. However all three chargers I bought all died of the same cause. Dead bays. And Like Zaroba the I4 before it died, was having some issues with the springs in a few bays. Owning three of them in a row, has convinced me, that I can't trust their quality. My VC4 just works every time. The only issue I can complain about with it, is it just doesn't always automatically charge at .5 amps. Sometimes when you drop in a pair of batteries, you need to take them out and put them back in. Otherwise it will only charge them at .2 amps, like when you have 4 batteries in.

Lots of people seem happy with nitecore chargers. My experience just leads me to think of them otherwise.

OK yeah that's the older model, the newer one does seem better with the springs although it is pretty new so time will tell. But if you're happy with the XTAR then no reason to switch really. About your other message, I PMed you.

Edit: The D2/D4 are still the older design I think, I'm talking about the I2/I4

 

[dev199505]

Good review.

Some other things maybe you don't know about:
1) The Efest can charge at much faster rates than the D4 and is selectable. You can charge up to 2A if you're in a hurry. The D4 only does a setting comparable to the Efest's slowest setting.
2) The Efest can act as a portable power pack for a USB device like a cell phone. You can put one of your batteries in there and use it for portable USB power powered from the battery. Just one of those cool features that every now and then can be pretty handy.

Really? Shit i have a couple extra batteries i might have to do that lol

Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

Really? Shit i have a couple extra batteries i might have to do that lol

Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

Yep, really! I did that when we had a power outage once, had a bunch of LUC chargers with batteries in them powering stuff haha.

 

[Jim_MDP]

Yep, really! I did that when we had a power outage once, had a bunch of LUC chargers with batteries in them powering stuff haha.

I almost used that feature yesterday.

Had to sit in the kitchen watching a recipe but couldn't find an available extension cord, and this little tablet/convertible has a USB port for the charger.
Didn't need to do it... but I was ready to give it a go if it got low.

Do you know off hand what its charge rate in that mode is?

 

[dev199505]

Yep, really! I did that when we had a power outage once, had a bunch of LUC chargers with batteries in them powering stuff haha.

How do you activate it? I tried it and it didnt work

I almost used that feature yesterday.

Had to sit in the kitchen watching a recipe but couldn't find an available extension cord, and this little tablet/convertible has a USB port for the charger.
Didn't need to do it... but I was ready to give it a go if it got low.

Do you know off hand what its charge rate in that mode is?

Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

Do you know off hand what its charge rate in that mode is?

I don't know off-hand no, I believe it's 1A but it's possible it's 2A.

How do you activate it? I tried it and it didnt work

You have to have the charger not plugged in to the wall, then put a charged battery in the exact correct slot. It's slot 1 for the V2, slot 2 for the V4, and slot 3 for the V6 (why they made that so confusing I'll never know). Then plug in the USB cable to something and it should work. Depending on the model I think you have to hold the button for a few seconds after doing this so if it doesn't work at this point hold the button for a few seconds and it should work.

They definitely could have made it easier but it is nice in a pinch.

 

[zaroba]

Minor update after 6 months of using the two LUC V4s in my truck.
Both still work fine, use both almost daily, but don't monitor which is which. I just pull one out when I need to charge 4 batteries, and pull both out if I need to charge 8 batteries.

But, I did notice an issue with using them in a vehicle. If they are charging while my trucks generator turns on to charge the truck batteries, or if I start the trucks engine while they are charging, the slight decrease in power causes them to stop charging. The power loss isn't great enough to make them think they were completely unplugged, it just drops a bit low for them to operate causing the display to just flash. I then have to unplug and plug them back in so they resume charging the batteries. Not something 'game breaking', but an inconvenience.

The D4 did not have this issue, the decrease in power did effect them, but they would just reread the batteries and then resume charging them. I didn't have to do anything to 'fix' them.

 

[zaroba]

Update and a con for the Luc v4

Had bought the 2 luc v4 chargers in jan 2017 and put them on my truck.
Here it is April 2018 and both are having issues as well. Trashed one of them.

The power plug into the device is a small round plug and the socket in the device seems to wear out. I'd have to jiggle it and twist it for it to make an electrical connection and power the charger. 1 started acting up 3 months ago and has gotten worse, the other started acting up earlier this month.

The one that started first is now also having intermittent issues with charging batteries in the first slot.

Looking for another charger(s) now.

 

[Pastorfuzz]

Update and a con for the Luc v4

Had bought the 2 luc v4 chargers in jan 2017 and put them on my truck.
Here it is April 2018 and both are having issues as well. Trashed one of them.

The power plug into the device is a small round plug and the socket in the device seems to wear out. I'd have to jiggle it and twist it for it to make an electrical connection and power the charger. 1 started acting up 3 months ago and has gotten worse, the other started acting up earlier this month.

The one that started first is now also having intermittent issues with charging batteries in the first slot.

Looking for another charger(s) now.

Get some DEOXIT D5 and clean the female receptacle in the charger.
One of my Xtar's did the same thing but works fine now after cleaning.
I sprayed it on a QTIP and worked it around.
Hope that fixes yours.

 

[MWorthington]

I hope I didn't screw up. I ordered an efest luc4 charger that I'm expecting in the mail today. I got it for the 1 amp charging. My nitecore d2 is giving some trouble after a year of being used all day-every day for over a year. I guess from what I've read in this thread, it's really done a good job. If the efest charger will last me a year, I'll be happy with it.

 

[geoffd]

I've been using a LUC V4 charger for over a year and have had no issues.

I hope I didn't screw up. I ordered an efest luc4 charger that I'm expecting in the mail today. I got it for the 1 amp charging. My nitecore d2 is giving some trouble after a year of being used all day-every day for over a year. I guess from what I've read in this thread, it's really done a good job. If the efest charger will last me a year, I'll be happy with it.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[MWorthington]

I've been using a LUC V4 charger for over a year and have had no issues.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Cool! Like I said, if it'll last a year, I'll be happy. Chargers get heavy use around here so I know they won't last forever.

 

[Droogbc]

I had one of the early luc 4's and was also transporting it between car and home often. Had the same power connector failure. The female receptacle ended up with a bad solder joint to the board if my memory serves. I stopped moving my chargers around as much after that.

Replaced that with a nitecore D4 which is still working, but some of the bays have negative posts that are tight and crunchy and it's slow as hell if using more than 2 slots at a time. Even only using 2, it's pretty slow. It will charge nimh cells though, which is a big plus, though only one C sized cell at a time will fit, which sucks.

Also bought a Blu6. The Bluetooth functionally is essentially worthless as I couldn't even get it to connect and work last I tried, but otherwise it works well for charging. Allows multiple 1 amp charges simultaneously, the spring loaded connectors all move smoothly and with a reasonable amount of tension, and it's never given me a problem. This is lion only, so no nimh capability, though if memory serves (which it might not) the luc version does have that ability.

I'd buy another efest charger, but never their batteries. If I had to do it again I'd probably opt for the luc 6, but chances are I'd look at xtar or opus closely before buying another unit in the future.

 

[zaroba]

Had never updated after that April post. Shortly after making it I got two VRK X4 Pros from a vape shop.




After just 4 months they are already showing the same issues that the digichargers had. I only charge 4 batteries at a time in each one and despite all for slots having equal usage, the contacts on the outer slots are starting to show resistance to sliding.

 

[zaroba]

Side note. I also have 4 other chargers ready for testing after I give up on the VRK X4 Pros.

2x Nitecore Intellicharger V4s
2x Efast Pro C4s

I already don't have high hopes for the efasts since they have the same slide design as the digicharger d4 and vrk x4.

 

[Bigrick]

I know old thread. The Luc4 can charge 20700 & 21700. Tight but workable. Watch your wraps.

 

[zaroba]

One of my VRK X4 Pros died in October, just completely stopped working.
Couldn't even last 6 months. Other is still going.

 

[zaroba]

No updates for a while. Continued using that last VRK X4 Pro until May, then continued using it from September to the end of the year, so it has over a year on it now and is still working perfectly despite being the only charger I've been using in my truck.