I tell you hwaht.
This is the FOURSEVENS Flex Charger. I use this pretty regularly to charge my 18650 cells for my flashlights as I fall down the enthusiast rabbit hole.
The two things I like the most about this are first, its size – it fits almost anywhere and has very little bulk to it, and second, the fact that it’s USB powered – as USB outlets become ubiquitous even in wall outlets now, I’m almost never without a way to use this charger, even if it’s the only thing I bring along.
It also has this handy-dandy little light built in to indicate charge status.
This charger is so simple to use it’s virtually idiot proof (virtually). The biggest issue you could encounter with it is trying to use it with the wrong battery – either a non-rechargeable battery or a proprietary one with both positive and negative terminals on the same end of the cell.
Regardless, for my needs this charger is about perfect – it’ll only do one battery at a time, but as all of my flashlights (currently) only use one battery, that’s a non-issue for me.
Full disclosure: I do have a 2 battery “bank” charger at home as well, but I almost never use it.
Now, as for the cell, it’s a Samsung 30Q 18650 cell, with a 3000mAh capacity and a 15A current draw rating. For the uninitiated, this means it has a lot of storage capacity while allowing for a rapid draw, which enables things like the slightly absurd “turbo” mode on the light I reviewed in my last post.
I bought this guy from 18650batterystore.com and had a perfectly fine experience, but I’ve only purchased batteries like this once, and only from them, so I have no real authority on the matter. This battery is the one that was recommended to pair with the FW3A, so it’s just what I went with – as I do more research I’ll continue to report back on batteries and battery features, but for now that’s all I’ve got!
-T