DealExtreme: Battery Charger UltraFire 3.6/3.7V (UltraFire 3.6/3.7V Battery Charger)

Today I will talk about the Battery Charger UltraFire 3.6/3.7V (UltraFire 3.6/3.7V Battery Charger), that came in last package I received from DealExtreme, and is for charging Lithium batteries 14500. I bought batteries and ordered the charger using my DX Points, after all no use having rechargeable batteries without a charger, and NiMH batteries is not for lithium batteries 14500, because despite having an equal format, the voltage and the internal components are totally different. What good charger and batteries 14500? To The searchlight, but is entirely optional, since it also uses rechargeable AA battery or common.

The battery charger 3.6 / 3.7V is the Chinese brand UltraFire, trade mark owned by company Wha Fat Technological Co., Ltd.. Ultrafire is also the mark of flashlight where batteries are used. The charger model is the WF-139, accepts as input any voltage between 100 e 240 (alternating current – AC) or 12V (direct current – DC), it is useful to use it in car, but the 12V cable is not included, only the AC power cord is included. The plug is in the good old US standard, compatible with most manufactured Brazilian taken before 2009, before Inmetro oblige all Brazilians to adopt an idiot standard proposed by the seller of ABNT (had to be) which makes it incompatible with Brazilian taken virtually everything manufactured outside Brazil, in which case you must use an adapter. The output is DC (DC) de 4.2V and 450mA (I can not tell if it is broken when using the two channels), but the channels are independent.

Lithium battery charger 3.7V UltraFire

Bottom of the charger, with specifications

The charger can be used to carry various types of lithium batteries beyond 14500, they are: 17500, 17670, 18500 and 18650, because the contacts of the negative pole has springs that allow you to adjust various battery sizes. CR123A and CR2 batteries can also be charged, but require the spacer to be smaller, a paper clip seems to get the job done. Interestingly there are specific contacts in charger for these batteries, but reports are that they are off internally (I did not open my to verify), the specifications and says nothing about this type of batteries, This can not be considered a defect.

Attach the power cord 100-240V (even)

Fit for a 12V DC plug, ideal for cars (não even)

The charger has a pair of LEDs that indicate the status of each of the individual channels, Red indicates that the battery is charging and green indicates that charging is complete, or that there is no battery (is not a failure, as the charger can not know if it is out of battery or was the battery protection circuit that opened the circuit for charging is complete). The charging time for battery 14500 is specified as 2 a 4 hours by DealExtreme, which seems correct, since I bought batteries has capacity 900mAh, and so take about 2 hours for loading 450mA which is the charger output, or 4 hours if they are two batteries and the voltage is divided by the two channels. The batteries that had already received some charge, and so the time to complete them was slightly larger than 1 time, I have not done any full charge. As my batteries are protected can not tell if who cut the load when the battery was already fully charged was the battery protection circuit or the charger itself, but the charger should also have its own circuit for detecting full charge, especially considering the danger of a possible overload.

Green LEDs indicate full charge (also light up when no battery)

Red LEDs indicate that the batteries are charging

The packaging is sturdy plastic, It has the mark of the Ultrafire and below says “Battery charger for NiMH rechargeable batteries / NiCD / lithium”, which can cause some confusion, because the WF-139 model should in no way be used in NiMH or NiCd batteries, which has lower voltage and could explode or easily damaged if placed in 4.2V voltage charger. What happens is that the same package is used for the WF-138 chargers, WF-168, WF-170 e WF-105, the first was specific for CR123A batteries and the other three AA and AAA batteries (and the latter also for 9V batteries). Should be marked on the packaging which is the model that is there, but apparently forgot to schedule, But the label on the back of the charger leaves no doubt that he is a WF-139.

The package that serves a number of connectable models of TrustFire

Packing back to the specifications of each model

And I'm ending here, information about the package, etc. have been placed in a previous article here on Skooter Blog, so I will not repeat them again. If you also want to shop in DealExtreme, directly from Hong Kong, click here and good shopping.

Update (11/05/2011): Included Video Battery Charger UltraFire 3.6/3.7V (UltraFire 3.6/3.7V Battery Charger) operation: