Quad chargers?
 

I'm looking for a quad charger because I have a lot of batteries to charge and charging one at a time with my current ac6 really sucks. I saw a guy at the track with one of the hitec quad charger which I liked because it didn't require a separate power supply. Any opinions on this charger or other quad chargers, I think there's some clones out there?

If you're going to do a multiple pack charger, go with the Hitech. You don't want a lower quality imitation product where if you lose one or two ports, you're stuck with that big thing functioning the same as just buying two chargers.

Although, that being said, you may find just buying another single charger and carrying two is the way to go. I sometimes race three classes in a single day and that's the route I went. Rarely will you see anyone needing or using all four ports on anything that will do more than two packs at a time anyway.

At the track, I don't really need a quad charger. Where I do need it is at home when I'm getting ready to go to the track. This is especially true while charging the batteries for my truggy, it takes many hours to charge up all those 4s packs (I have 4).

If you’re charging typical 4s packs you need more power per channel, to reduce the charge time for each battery. The AC powered quad charger only has 50 watts per channel if I’m not mistaken, that’s not enough.

Hitec does have a X4 Eighty that gets closer to what the typical 4S needs, 80W per channel. Does require a power supply, DC only.

But even better would be a more powerful dual channel charger, there are several brands that have a 200W – 10 amps per channel charger (or larger). Then charge times come way down, especially if your lipos are rated for higher than 1C charge rates and you are comfortable with that.

FYI, it’s a lot better for your lipos life and performance if you charge as you need them, instead of ahead of time. Lipos don’t like sitting at full charge, can lead to puffing and reduced performance, especially if there are temperature changes. A good sized dual charger makes it fairly easy.

I only charge them 1 maybe 2 days before I need them. Otherwise, I keep them at storage voltage. I guess I could make a dual charger work. Any recommendations? Built in power supply is a big plus if possible.

I started with a Tenergy 50w charger for Lipos...

Soon upgraded to a Hitec X2 200. I like the charger a lot, works well.

You aren't going to get a really quality charger with a built in power supply. I'd get two higher powered chargers than can pump out at least 20amps or one high powered charger like a Powerlab 6. I have a Powerlab 8 and can charge 6s pack in less than 15 minutes. If i push it up to 40amps, I can charge from LVC in about 8 minutes.

A higher powered charger allows for faster charging and therefore you don't really have a huge need for multi pack charging.

If I had to get a quad charger I'd consider no less than the HobbyKing 100x4 charger. It is 10 amps and 100 watts each port. A bit more money though.