18650 Battery Charger XTAR 2023 PB2S USB C Charger (NOT Included Battery)

The good, use your own batteries if you have them ( 18650's or 21700's or whatever lithium rechargeables you have )the Good:Both ports appear to be QC 3.0 ports. Routinely see up around 15 to 18 watt output going to devices.XTAR is a company that does things with chargers, rechargeable batteries, etc; the unit itself is well built; the magnetic cover is highly convenient. The strap to pull out the batteries is quite convenient. The texture of the case FEELS great in the hand; a rubbery texture. It does not slide around. The unit is very well constructed. The display is easily readable.The Bad: the voltage /amp display seems to be "off" a fair bit. Good enough, but, not quite accurate.18650's have a lot of room inside; you'll want to pad the inside so the batteries don't shift around while moving the powerbank.The ugly: With 18650's, the "slop" between where the battery sits and the cover sometimes results in the battery getting temporarily disconnected while moving around. You can pad the door, or better yet, switch over to 21700's which don't seem to have this issue. You can only see the individual battery voltage levels WHILE charging; not in use.Overall: the display is "good" although every meter I have says it's off 0.1 to 0.3 Amps. Voltage appears off by that amount as well .. too bad that there is not a 4 or 6 battery version of this; with two 5000 mAH 21700's, it's a compact, replaceable, 10,000 mAH powerbank. With a modern phone, 18 Watts is pretty good output and charges quickly; but being limited to two batteries - does limit usefulness to a degree. Still, I still use it to charge a phone quickly , on the go. the powerbank can easily slip into a pocket with a cable to the phone to give it a charge while on the go.The advantage to a unit like this - is that one can carry a few spare batteries in another plastic case, and swap out batteries when needed.This unit is very well built, and very well sorted out; If you are looking for a small light 10K battery bank, this is probably not the route; If you want something you can swap batteries out, or to re-use existing batteries you have, this might be for you. For those that need JUST a compact charger for their rechargeable batteries, this unit could ALSO be for you.

First the good. The power bank has a very nice look and feel and appears very well constructed. I knew, when I purchased it that it was capable of fast charging - a point that is not important to me.Now the bad. I connected it to my phone and it was charging at 1.0A ±0.2A and 9.0v ±4v. The back of the phone and the end of the charger where the cable plugs in got very warm. The instructions describe a button which can be used to change the display as well as having the charge set to a lower rate for devices not capable of fast charging. I took a 10 year old phone and tried both plugging it in default mode and again after pressing the button when off. Pressing the button when off made the display blink on and off with 5.0v and 1.0A showing. I plugged in the old phone again and it was outputting 8.8v at 1.5A after multiple attempts. The photos of this charger show 5.0v output. I plugged in an inline tester and it showed me the same voltage and amperage as was showing on the device's display. The pictures are taken with the default charging mode and after the unit was off (no display) and nothing connected - pushed the button and plugged in the phone. It started at 4.3v with flashing display and quickly went to 8.8. Default mode had charging at 8.9I think I simply got a bad unit. Will return.Again, very nice build and much more elegant than my other power banks which look cheap in comparison.

I have a bunch of older (3 to 7 years old) 18650 batteries laying around. This was the perfect use for them. 18650 batteries hold a decent charge for a year or so. 1 set of batteries at 80% will easily fully charge a galaxy note 10 with some charge to spare. When they are spent just pop in another charged set and you are ready to go. Good batteries cost about $6.00ea. Don't know about long term reliability yet.

If you enjoy fumbling with the batteries so it sits just right so it actually charges, then by all means go for it. Maybe I'm just dumb and should've bought a dedicated 18650 charger to charge my batteries, but I enjoyed the idea of a multi-functional device. However, I do not enjoy leaving the charger there for a few hours charging and seeing that it actually never charged in the first place. Wished it worked out, sad it didnt.

This is for the revised 2023 version of the XTAR PB2S battery bank/charger.The photos for the 2023 version show pretty clearly that the unit now has:1) a removeable spacer to adapt the length of both charging slots to 18650 length;2) a turnable spacer attached to the cover to adapts to 18650 diameter.This is clearly in response to customer complaints about battery fit in the charger.With these two new features the device has:1) never lost contact with an attached device during long walks;2) never lost contanct with a battery during charging.We now have two. One goes with us on short outings. The other remains available to charge batteries while we drain the batteries in the first one.Very pleased with the updates to this device. Nice to see a manufacture listening to its customers!

The volts and amps displayed on the screen are pretty inaccurate when charging a device. Also an 18650 really has some movement left and right in the case.

Excellent charger and storage for 18650 batteries. It also doubles as a battery bank. That is a nice bonus feature. The LED display shows the voltage, charging percentage and amperage out while in use. Highly recommended.

I got this charger to keep in my truck in case I need to charge my 18650 batteries for my vape device. It's compact, convenient and even works as a power bank in emergencies. I wanted one that charges via USB-C and this one does just that. Overall great!