Avoid these chargers

[bully78]

Hi guys just thought I'd warn anyone thinking of buying one of the Nuprol lipo balance chargers to not bother, I picked one up from Patrol Base as a spare and tried using it last night as soon as I plugged the battery in it shorted and stopped working. Good job I never leave a charging battery as the charger started smoking and I believe if this had happened while I was not there a fire would surely have been caused. 

I emailed Patrol Base this morning and I'm waiting on a reply

View attachment 45279

 

[Rogerborg]

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/

You should report a company to Trading Standards if, for example:

• they sold you unsafe or dangerous items
  

Not even remotely joking.  We've had several reports of cheap chargers fire-sploding.  It has to end.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I second this, there was a different type of 3-led charger that is known to kill batteries but not in an unsafe way.

That is flat out unnacceptable.

 

[Yukarin]

The solution is to flat out avoid Nuprol, except maybe their gas...

 

[Craigmc1983]

Wasn't there a recall on nuprol chargers a little while ago?

Might one that slipped through?

 

[L3wisD]

Wasn't there a recall on nuprol chargers a little while ago?

Might one that slipped through?

That was the SM4.





But still, I'd never buy a Nuprol charger.

 

[Too0ld]

I had an ASG NiMH charger from Patrol Base do a similar thing, plugged it in, puff of smoke and tripped power off in the whole house but thankfully no further smoke/fire. I'm local to Patrol Base so I took it back and I cannot fault their service. They were very apologetic and asked if there was any harm done by it tripping the power (thankfully there wasn’t) and provided me with a new one which they checked in the shop to make sure it was working. What it did teach me was not to cheap out on chargers and I’ve since replaced it with a higher quality charger for my own peace of mind. Also taught me to check any electrical item in shop before purchase but obviously this is not possible when purchasing online.

 

[Druid799]

 I'm local to Patrol Base so I took it back and I cannot fault their service. They were very apologetic and asked if there was any harm done by it tripping the power (thankfully there wasn’t)

School boy error ! ?‍

You were charging the cranestock battery in your TM recoil sopmod still in the stock and the gun blew up so you needed a new gun ! ?

missed your chance there bud ?

 

[Mad Rag]

School boy error ! ?‍

You were charging the cranestock battery in your TM recoil sopmod still in the stock and the gun blew up so you needed a new gun ! ?

missed your chance there bud ?

any excuse for a new gun .................................  

in all seriousness thats bad and should not be for sale. make sure to get some compo too 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

 thats bad and should not be for sale. make sure to get some compo too 

At least for the battery it killed.

 

[Mad Rag]

At least for the battery it killed.

well yes but i would be pushing for more than the battery, i mean okay fair enough accidents can happen but this could have been so so much worse, but there needs to be some QC and this item should not have been on sale. i guess its easy for me to say with being in a customer service team aha.  at least no one was hurt. 

 

[Too0ld]

School boy error ! ?‍

You were charging the cranestock battery in your TM recoil sopmod still in the stock and the gun blew up so you needed a new gun ! ?

missed your chance there bud ?

D'oh! God dammit you're right ?

Might have also been able to get my house rewired too?

any excuse for a new gun .................................  

in all seriousness thats bad and should not be for sale. make sure to get some compo too 

They did seem genuinely mortified and they sorted it out straight away but not a whiff of compo.

I've had a fair bit of experience with dodgy electrical items (who hasn't) but this has taught me to not go for the cheapest option and test everything before you leave the shop. Many moons ago I used to work in the reptile/aquarium trade and we used to test everything before it left the shop, even if the customer wasn't bothered, and lo and behold I'd say we had issues with 20-30% of the lower priced equipment we stocked. In fact I left that job due to the manager insisting we still stocked said items even though we all knew they were crap and could end up causing a disaster.

 

[Rogerborg]

I had an ASG NiMH charger from Patrol Base

I very much hope that it's not this one that they're still selling:

https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/asg-intelligent-auto-stop-nicd-nimh-battery-charger

If it is, then see above.  This has to stop.  If not you, who?  If not now, when?

 

[Alexharris246]

I had this charger and it did the exact same thing on Saturday when I was charging my batteries, all my batteries work fine still though (I think). Definitely going to buy a new charger 

 

[Too0ld]

I very much hope that it's not this one that they're still selling:

https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/asg-intelligent-auto-stop-nicd-nimh-battery-charger

If it is, then see above.  This has to stop.  If not you, who?  If not now, when?

Holy crap it is that charger! I can't believe they're still selling them and it's 6 months ago when mine went tits up.

If this is happening with cheap NiMH chargers then I'd be terrified to think what could potentially happen with cheap lipo chargers, OP was lucky that he was there to stop a dangerous situation turning into a potentially disastrous one if the lipo went up.

 

[Sitting Duck]

The original charger is referred to as a B4 charger as it is similar to the old Imax B4 charger

240v transformer built in, charges through balance lead blah blah blah

Had 2 B4 types and they were both shit

1st one made a loud buzzing when plugged in - yeah fuck that went straight in the bin

2nd one the LED's and charging had a mind of its own, sometimes failed to charge

othertimes only 2 out 3 LED's wanted to work or recognise a 3 cell LiPo

(a workaround was to plug it together, no good - turn off at plug, wait & switch on - 3 LED's and she starts to charge)

naaaahhhhh - best thing would be a GENUINE B6 and be done with it

charge anything (if you got the correct leads & RTFM if needing to adjust settings for LiFe's or whatever)

Clone B6's are everywhere, I've got clone B6's but I recommend people obtain a legit genuine B6

anything else, you run the risk of it being cheap nasty and/or fucking dangerous

not saying there are not good cost effective chargers out there - but there are a lot of shit/dangerous ones too

Forget B4's - they take much longer to charge through just the balance lead the night before game

B6 - charge anything with the right leads/settings and if genuine will serve you well (and safely) for yonks

 

[Philby21]

+1 for the B6, charges batteries for my guns, RC cars, Phantom, all sorts.  Even considering switching the batteries in my electric drum mag to some sort of Rx pack so that can be rechargeable and will use the B6 for that too.

Only (minor) drawback is that I can only charge one battery at a time (too many toys).

Bearing in mind what can go wrong with batteries it's really not worth buying cheap.

 

[Rogerborg]

I can't believe they're still selling them

They'll sell them until they're made to stop selling them.