Test/review of Efest LUSH Q8 Charger 2018

[size=+3]Efest LUSH Q8 Charger 2018[/size]





This is a simple 8 cell mains powered LiIon charger without any settings.



It arrived in a cardboard box with specifications on it and a cartoon (Efest do that on all their charger boxes).



The box included the charger, a external power supply, a warranty card and the instruction sheet.



The charger has a DC socket for 12V input.



The power supply is a standard small 12V supply with a Efest label.



The only user interface is a led light for each channel, white when charging and blue when finished, on error it will flash.



Specifications are on the bottom, but not very easy to read.



The slots uses the classical slider construction and it works fine.
The slots can work from 27mm to 73mm. This means that it will handle just about all 18650/26650/21700 batteries, only exception is protected 21700.



The two 2A slots are marked, but it is not a very visible marking.







The charger can handle 73 mm long batteries including flat top cells.
The charger current is on the high side for many small cells.



[size=+2]Measurements[/size]

• Slot #1 and #8 can charge with 2A, all other slots are 1A
• When not connected to power it will discharges with about 0.14mA.
• Below 0.55V the charger will not detect a battery
• Between 0.55V and 1.3V the charger will charge with a few mA
• Between 1.3V and 1V the charger will charge with about 100mA
• Above 3V the charger will use regular charging.
• Charger can charge with 4A total and will adjust total charge current to fit, this means first it will drop to 1A on all slots, then 0.5A.
• When a cell is full, the others will be charged with the higher current.
• Charger will not restart silent if voltage drops.
• It will restart charging on reinsertion of the battery or power cycling if the battery is above 4.1V.
• Power consumptions when idle without battery is 0.4 watt

This is a fairly standard CC/CV voltage charge curve with about 110mA termination current.








These 6 slots will only charger with 1A, the termination is about the same.



And a final 2A slot.




No problem with other capacities.



This older cell is also charged fine.



A larger cell, that can better handle the 2A current.



Sometimes the charger failed, it did report it on the leds, but I never figured out why. It is not a big issue, just take the battery out and put it in again and the charger will charge it.



With 8 batteries in the charger all slots gets downgraded to 0.5A charge current



M1: 39.0°C, HS1: 46.4°C



M1: 35.2°C, M2: 37.5°C, M3: 37.8°C, M4: 37.4°C, M5: 37.4°C, M6: 37.3°C, M7: 35.9°C, M8: 33.7°C, HS1: 49.3°C




Sweeping the battery voltage from zero to 4.25 shows charge current at the different charge levels. The first curve is for a 2A slot, the second for a 1A slot.



The charger needs a few seconds to start.


Testing the power supply with 2830 volt and 4242 volt between mains and low volt side, did not show any safety problems.



[size=+2]Conclusion[/size]

This charger is a good and simple LiIon charger, but I am missing a better marking of the 2A slots and would have like two 0.5A slots for smaller batteries (Efest smaller high current batteries can be charged at 1A).



[size=+2]Notes[/size]

The charger was supplied by Efest for review.

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger

HKJ said:

Sometimes the charger failed, it did report it on the leds, but I never figured out why. It is not a big issue [...] This charger is a good and simple LiIon charger

Click to expand...

I continue to be baffled by your definition of a "good" charger. What good is a charger that randomly fails in ways that cannot be understood?

Such failures could indicate serious problems with the electronics or software - problems that could possibly lead to safety issues.

And what is going on with the large oscillations in the constant current phase?

Gauss163 said:

I continue to be baffled by your definition of a "good" charger. What good is a charger that randomly fails in ways that cannot be understood?

Such failures could indicate serious problems with the electronics or software - problems that could possibly lead to safety issues.

Click to expand...

Early termination is not a safety issue and it could be due to noise pickup from my sense connections.

Gauss163 said:

And what is going on with the large oscillations in the constant current phase?

Click to expand...

There is no oscillations, but obvious the regulation is done in fairly large steps under some conditions.

HKJ said:

There is no oscillations, but obvious the regulation is done in fairly large steps under some conditions.

Click to expand...

It's very poor / crude regulation - whatever moniker one employs. I'm surprised that you didn't critique that give how often you critique chargers that don't implement a perfectly smooth CC/CV curve. But at least it's (probably) not a safety issue.

HKJ said:

Early termination is not a safety issue and it could be due to noise pickup from my sense connections.

Click to expand...

Seriously? It's supposed to terminate at 4.2V but instead terminates at 3.65V in a strange manner - with a charge curve very different from its other charge curves. You wrote in the review that "I never figured out why". Without knowing why it is impossible to rule out a serious design flaw that could possibly lead to safety issues. Such problems should never be swept under the rug.

Why is it a "good" charger? Maybe you never call any charger "bad" and "good" is your lowest rating? It would really help if your site included a guide that explained the meaning of your ratings. Usually one can infer this with enough samples, but in this case the more I see the more I am perplexed. There seems to be little consistency in the ratings.

Would you please be less cofrontationable in your postings. Be polite.

Bill

Gauss163 said:

It's very poor / crude regulation - whatever moniker one employs. I'm surprised that you didn't critique that give how often you critique chargers that don't implement a perfectly smooth CC/CV curve. But at least it's (probably) not a safety issue.

Click to expand...

I do not critic this type of regulation, the average current is a constant current. Do you believe it will damage the battery?

Gauss163 said:

Seriously? It's supposed to terminate at 4.2V but instead terminates at 3.65V in a strange manner - with a charge curve very different from its other charge curves. You wrote in the review that "I never figured out why". Without knowing why it is impossible to rule out a serious design flaw that could possibly lead to safety issues. Such problems should never be swept under the rug.

Click to expand...

The charge curve is a standard CC curve, until the premature termination. I have only seen this behavior with my equipment connected, this is why I suspect it might be related and do not give it minus points for it.

Gauss163 said:

Why is it a "good" charger? Maybe you never call any charger "bad" and "good" is your lowest rating?

Click to expand...

Gauss163 said:

Click to expand...

Interesting conclusion, try reading a few more of my reviews.

Gauss163 said:

It would really help if your site included a guide that explained the meaning of your ratings. Usually one can infer this with enough samples, but in this case the more I see the more I am perplexed. There seems to be little consistency in the ratings.

Click to expand...

The ignore the rating and draw you own conclusions.

Thanks for the review. I am new to the hobby so this info is much appreciated.