Xtar LC4, LC8 and 1.5 v lithium rechargeable battery

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Xtar charger specifications

Brand/model	Xtar LC4	Xtar LC8
Input	USB-C	USB-C
Input Voltage	5V 2A	5V 3A
Max charging current	4.9V (0.5A x4 avg.)	5V (Max 0.5A x 8) (Max 13.5W)
Number of slots	4	8
Features:
– Powerbank feature	No	No
– Capacity testing	No	No
– Battery storage	No	No
Battery chemistries	Only Xtar 1.5V Li-ion with LED indicator (can’t use other batteries)	Only Xtar 1.5V Li-ion with LED indicator (can’t use other batteries)
Cell compatibility	Only Xtar 1.5V Li-ion with LED indicator AA and AAA (can’t use it with other batteries)	Only Xtar 1.5V Li-ion with LED indicator AA and AAA (can’t use it with other batteries)
Review date	January 2023	January 2023

When you look at AA and AAA batteries, you normally choose between primaries 1.5V (Alkaline, Zinc Carbon) and rechargeable batteries 1.2V (NiMH, NiCad). But you also have non-rechargeable lithium batteries like the Energizer Lithium L91, that are rated at 1.5V.

From all the NiMH batteries, Eneloop have been the most impressive and probably most popular. They are LSD batteries (low self discharge) and don’t lose much capacity over time. The ‘problem’ with NiMH batteries is that they have an average voltage of 1.2V while discharging. This means that the output of flashlights (and other devices) might be reduced. And if you use multiple Eneloop batteries simultaneously, you don’t get the same voltage as Alkaline batteries. That might mean that there is not enough voltage for the device to work the same, compared to Alkaline batteries.

Of course, Alkaline batteries are still a lot weaker than Eneloops for example, so they don’t have the ‘power’, but they do have the higher voltage.

And only in the last couple of years have we heard about rechargeable Lithium batteries at 1.5V.

No, they aren’t really 1.5V lithium batteries, but Lithium-Ion batteries at 3.7V, but with a converter built-in, so it steps down to 1.5V. And that has some great benefits. You can’t charge them in a normal 18650 charger, nor in a normal AA battery charger!

Package quality.

Both chargers are sent in a similar package. It includes a picture of the charger at the front, and specifications at the back.

Inside the box you get:

• Xtar LC4 / LC8 charger
• USB-C cable
• Manual in 11 languages

That’s all you need, and that’s all you get. The LC4 came with 4 AA Xtar batteries, and there were 4AAA added to the LC8 package.

Both chargers are missing any buttons or switches. You pop the batteries in, connect the USB cable to a USB power supply (with enough Amps) and you can start charging.

The charger has a large hold in the middle which makes it easy to pop the batteries out. With some chargers that it rather difficult to do, especially with AAA batteries, which are thin and short.

The charger are black, and very light weight. I don’t think you should worry about it. For the price, they are adequate.

Warranty:

Nor the packaging, nor the manual mentions anything about the warranty. So I went to their website and found the following information:

1. within the seller warranty period of 15 days, we offer free replacement and pay the two-way return shipping costs for you.
2. after 15 days of receiving your order, meanwhile within the warranty period, we offer free repairment and pay the shipping cost of sending the product back to you. And you will need pay the shipping cost of sending the product to us. Usually it takes about 1-3 months including the delivery time sending back to customer.

For the products out of warranty:
We offer lifetime repairment, and only charge the replacing part costs. The two-way shipping fee is paid by yourself.

Keep in mind that Batteries have no warranty, seems like.

Both chargers are very simple and easy to use. They don’t have any buttons or switches, so you just connect the charger to a USB power supply and you are good to go. The charger has a green LED to show that you get enough power to start charging. This green LED does NOT show whether the batteries are charging or fully charged.
The only way that you see whether the batteries are charging is via the built-in LED indicator. There is a green indicator LED that blinks while charging, and is solid when finished.

BTW. You do need to make sure that the power supply can at least provide the required Amperage. If you charge 4AA batteries in the LC4, you need at least 2Amps.

The LC8 shows that you need at least 3Amps for 8 batteries, and that the maximum charger current is 0.5A. That means, that the more batteries you charge at the same time, the slower the charging is.

I measured the Voltage and Charging current on the LC4:

• Charging voltage: 3.5V
• Charge current 1 AA: 0.5A (500mA~530mA)
• Charge current 1 AAA: 0.26A (260mA)

As you can see, this is too high Voltage to charge normal NiMH or NiCad batteries. Therefore it is NOT allowed to charge any other batteries than the ones included. There is also a warning on the packaging that says: Apply to Xtar AA / AAA 1.5V Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries with LED indicator LED.

You can not, and should not try to charge any other batteries! Not even ones that are made by Xatar.

Xtar gives a very, very short list of batteries that work with the LC4 and LC8 charger

• Xtar 1.5V AAA, AA, lithium-ion batteries with LED indicator.

That means that you can’t use the other Xtar 1.5 Lithium Ion batteries they have. I don’t have any, so I can’t try them.

Charging currents and times

LC4

Cell	Charging current	Charge time	End voltage
1 AAA	260~278mA	1h 26min	1.51~1.52V
1 AA	500~530mA	1h 39min	1.51~1.52V

Charging of AA was done after running a flashlight till it turned down till it dropped output…

LC8 with 8 batteries

Cells	Charge time
4 AAA + 4AA	1h 58min

The AAA batteries finished earlier, but the last battery changed to solid green after 1h and 58 minutes.

AA Xtar 1.5V Capacity test

I used the Opus SKYRC MC3000 and set it to NiMH discharge test.. Lithium-Ion doesn’t work because of the voltage.

I set the discharge current at 500mA for both the AA and AAA battery. Both times, the SkyRC MC3000 would just flip and pretend the battery connection failed.. and start blinking. All the data is lost when this happens. I took a screenshot of the AA capacity less than 1 minute before it tripped. That was kind of a coincidence.

The AAA discharging was also done at 500mA, and after 1h29min I noticed a capacity of 730mAh, but soon after that it also tripped, but it could be like 10 minutes later. So I’m pretty confident about the AA, but the AAA could have been around 750mAh. I just wrote the number down without a screen shot.

Cell	Spec	Discharge current	Discharge time	Capacity measured	Measured energy*
1 AAA	1200 mWh	500 mA	1h 29min	730 mAh+	1,109 mWh+
1 AA	2700 mWh	500 mA	3h 20min	1670 mAh	2,538 mWh

*The batteries are not labeled with mAh, but with mWh instead. So I multiplied the capacity with 1.52V. 730*1.52 and 1670*1.52.

First I tested Lumens…

AA Xtar 1.5V flashlight test

Xtar AA 1.5V batteries with single cell flashlights

Flashlight	Xtar turn on	Xtar 30sec	Eneloop Turn on	Eneloop 30sec
Convoy T2	210	215	201	207
Lumintop EDC AA	214	170	189	151
Reylight Pineapple AA	247	203	310	212
Manker E05	140	140	142	142
Olight i5R EOS	167	158	230	230
Lumintop Tool AA 2.0	345	248	179	133
Lumintop EDC05	332	280	361	355
Fenix E12	152	151	151	149

It’s not so interesting to just know these numbers… It’s a bit more important to actually look at how they behave. Here are the runtime tests… of all these AA flashlights

Conclusion: sometimes the Xtar AA performed better, but sometimes the flashlight drew too much and turned the light off. It’s possible that the Xtars don’t really use high amp batteries. Or it just trips.

I then also tested it with 2 double AA flashlights

Flashlight	Xtar turn on	Xtar 30sec	Eneloops Turn on	Eneloops 30 sec
Acebeam Pokelit 2AA	239	240	223	233
Olight i5T Plus WW	505	501	489	482

Although I tested only 2 2*AA flashlights, it’s possible that the Xtar fits these better.

AAA Xtar 1.5V flashlight test

Most of the tests I’ve done is with single AA flashlights.

Flashlight	Xtar turn on	Xtar 30sec	Eneloop turn on	Eneloop 30sec
Reylight Pineapple Mini Ti	73	65	81	94
Lumintop EDC01	111	111	109	107

I stopped the Reylight test early with the Xtar because I thought that it already tripped.. But as you can see the output is just ridiculously low. With the Lumintop EDC01, you see the strange Turn on/off behavior.

Conclusion: with AAA flashlights it might be performing a bit better, but it could also be worse. So it depends on the flashlight.

I then also tested it with 2*AAA flashlights

Flashlight	Xtar turn on	Xtar 30sec	2*Eneloop turn on	2*Eneloop 30sec
Olight i3T plus	263	261	253	251
Wuben E19	189	185	180	175

And the runtime graphs again

Conclusion: The Xtar might work better in 2AAA flashlights, but these tests can’t say they are a clear winner either.

XTAR LC4 charger

Dimensions: 

Xtar LC4	Millimeters	Inches
Length	76 mm	3 in
Height	77 mm	3 in
Width	27 mm	1.1 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight: 

Xtar LC4	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Empty charger	50 grams	1.76 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram, and to the nearest tenth of an Oz.

XTAR LC8 charger

Dimensions: 

Xtart LC8	Millimeters	Inches
Length	153 mm	6 in
Height	77 mm	3 in
Width	27 mm	1.1 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight: 

Xtart LC8	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Empty charger	100 grams	3.53 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram, and to the nearest tenth of an Oz.

XTAR 1.5V batteries

Xtar 1.5 battery dimensions: 

Xtar AA	Millimeters	Inches
Length	50.5 mm	1.98 in
Diameter	14.2 mm	0.56 in

Xtar AAA	Millimeters	Inches
Length	44.72 mm	1.76 in
Diameter	10.3 mm	0.40 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Xtar 1.5 V battery weight: 

Xtar AA	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Weight	18.9 grams	0.67 oz

Xtar AA	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Weight	8.8 grams	0.31 oz

Charger comparison

Size compared to other chargers.

Image 1, from left to right: Yonii Y2, Nitecore UMS2, Nitecore Digicharger D4, SkyRC MC3000, Xtar LC8, Xtar LC4

Image 2, Yonii Y2, Nitecore UMS2, Nitecore Digicharger D4, SkyRC MC3000, Xtar LC8

Image 3, Yonii Y2, Nitecore UMS2, Nitecore Digicharger D4, SkyRC MC3000, Xtar LC4

Disclaimer: This charger was sent to me for review at no cost by Xtar. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.