Battery charger quality

[Murphybarnes]

Afternoon. Just received my Vamo kit today. It is currently charging. Does anyone else have slight issues regarding the quality of the charger and plug, I mean does anyone feel comfortable leaving the house with it switched on and not feel the slight pang that their abode may be a pile of ash when they return?
I am thinking there must be more substantial chargers around without Cantonese inscriptions and "export only" stamped on them.
Any recommendations or am I being unduly paranoid?
cheers.

 

[Gilliandrea]

Murphybarnes I would never leave any battery charging while no-one was around

Have you got a picture of your charger, there are so many types, unfortunately some are sub-standard

 

[Murphybarnes]

View attachment 18037Sliding springy things that hold different size batteries in place, (just) and two flat prongs at the rear that flip up and connect to three pin plug.....excuse the tiles, I do not live in a doss house, the pic merely suggests I do.

 

[Gilliandrea]

Unfortunately I can't see the pic Murphybarnes

Is it one of these?


I have never used these as they don't come with a fitted UK plug, go straight in the bin

 

[Murphybarnes]

Unfortunately I can't see the pic @Murphybarnes

Is it one of these?
View attachment 18039

I have never used these as they don't come with a fitted UK plug, go straight in the bin

Yes that is very similar, the two prongs go into a cheapo three pin travel adaptor leaving one free, and then into the socket, no leads involved. Soon as I unpacked it I said WTF!!

 

[Gilliandrea]

Murphybarnes can't blame you, not heard good stories about those types of chargers and the couple that came in kits I have bought were never used.
When charging using your one keep an eye on it for overheating

After researching and recommendations from other members on POTV I bought a Nitecore i4 charger, but there are some really good options available. Xtar, Efest etc
I'm sure other members will offer some advice on this too

 

[Murphybarnes]

Ok thanks for that, just had my first ever menthol vape. Nice. Suppose it takes a while to discern between quality of vapes. Lots of fiddling with the Output and new flavours to try. Hopefully that's me analog free. Battery dependant of course.

 

[Rexer]

I got one of these chargers with a k100 from fasttech. Been using it for months now and no problems so far, never gets hot and gets my 18350's to just under 4.2v, 18650's seem to read just over. Will get a decent charger soon though......

 

[VaperCaper]

It is illegal to supply any electrical item in the UK without a proper UK 3-pin plug fitted to it that meets the BS 1363. CE marks on plugs don't mean anything. It must have the BS 1363 kite mark or it's not legal.

Obviously if you got your kit from FastTech or overseas then they don't care about such minor details, but if you got it from a UK vendor write to them and ask them why they are breaking the law.

the problem comes from 2 places. 1 the charger with the 2 prongs is designed to be used on either a European mains voltage, or the US mains voltage. US is 110V and EU is 230V If you put 230V through an item designed for 110V that's not good. If it's a EU power rated charger then this isn't that bad.

The 2nd and biggest problem is the travel adapter IS NOT FUSED. In the unlikely event of something going wrong there's nothing to cut off the power flow if it all gets too high, and if the adapter looks like the one on the top left of this page, then it's also possible to touch the metal connecting bits for earth and live while plugging unplugging it. you don't want that. You extra especially don't want that if you have children running about your house.

That said it'll probably work OK, but whatever you do don't leave it charging unattended, ever. (It's good advice to not leave any batteries charging overnight or unattended regardless of how good the charger is.)

The biggest safety risk from e-cigs comes from badly charging batteries starting a house fire. I'd really recommend getting a good quality charger like an XTar or a NiteCore as soon as you can. The largest 4bay NiteCore is about £20 and will last you years, lots of vendors sell them.

 

[EntropicVapes]

You can pick up a nitecore charger to ease your mind if you like. They are solid and pretty cheap. That said, never leaving a battery (of any kind) on charge unattended is good advice.