Charger Efest LUC V6 2017





This is one of the larger chargers from Efest with 6 slots.



The charger comes in a cardboard box.



In the box is the charger, a power supply, a car adapter, a instruction sheet and a warrant card.



The charger is powered from 12 volt and has an usb output. The usb output can only be activated when no power is connected to the input.



The charger has one button, it is used to select between 0.68A and 2A charging.



All segment on the display is shown during power on. The center symbol is the usb output active indicator.



Charging at 0.68A, when selecting 2A only the center two channels are displayed.



The sliders for the battery work smoothly and can accept batteries from 30mm to 69.5mm.







The charger is rated for 10440 batteries, but due to the charger current it is only recommended to charge IMR 10440. The 16340/14500 is only slightly to high.
Note: Using a bit too high charge current will usual not make the batteries explode, but will reduce lifetime of the batteries.



Measurements

• When not connected to power it will discharges with up to 0.08mA, except the USB out channel that will discharge with 0.4mA.
• Power cycling or reinsertion of the battery will restart charging.
• At about 0.6 volt the charger will detect a battery and start charging with 60mA
• The charger will silent keep the cell charged.
• The voltmeter is limited to 4.2 volt
• The voltmeter starts showing a value at about 0.6V, but it shows around 1V
• Generally the voltmeter is within 0.1V
• Power consumption when idle is 0.4 watt

This is a CC/CV charge curve with about 100mA termination current.







The other channels are fairly similar.




The two other cells also looks similar.



Even the old cell is charged nicely.



But this very old cell has termination problems, due to the voltage drop the charger keeps restarting.



This small cell is charged fine.



The charger can charge with 2A in slot #3 and #4.



6 batteries at once is not problem.



But it do require nearly 2A from a 12V power supply.



M1: 38,5°C, M2: 41,3°C, M3: 39,9°C, M4: 40,1°C, M5: 42,3°C, M6: 40,5°C, M7: 41,6°C, HS1: 54,6°C



M1: 46,1°C, HS1: 48,4°C




Sweeping the battery voltage from zero to 4.25 shows charge current at the different charge levels.
I did also add a curve to show how much heat is generated in the charger, most of the time the voltage will be between 3.5V and 4V, i.e. a bit above 4 watt with one cell at 2A.



The charger only need about 2 seconds to start.



It is possible to change current at any time.



USB output

• When using usb output, the symbol will flash when the battery is nearly empty
• Usb output turns off after about 15 seconds with a load below 55 mA.
• Usb output turns on when loaded.
• When mains power is connected, the usb output is off.
• Usb output is coded as Apple 1A
• Usb output will turn off when overloaded
• Usb output uses slot #3 for power.

It can deliver up to 1.4A before the overload kick in.



At 0.5A output the voltage is very stable.



It can also handle 1A, but output drops slightly when battery is near empty.



The noise at 0.5A is 57mV rms and 512mVpp



The noise at 1A is 77mV rms and 591mVpp


Testing with 2500 volt and 5000 volt between mains and low volt side, did not show any safety problems with the power supply.



Conclusion

This charge works fine, the available currents are a bit limited with only 0.68A and 2A. The usb output also works fine, but the coding is rather old style and will probably not work with all types of phones.

I will rate it as a good charger.



Notes

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

Read more about how I test USB power supplies and chargers

Compare to other chargers