Server charger mini review

[Planemo]

I know there are loads of YT reviews out there now about these but just thought I’d put a few of my own comments out there for anyone considering.

I picked this up from Ali, charger cost £123.33, the additional 134v lead was an extra £13.33. Both prices shipped to my door, no additional taxes. Took about 2 weeks to arrive to the UK.

I have no connection to the vendor and it is the first time I have ordered from them but everything went smoothly, no issues whatsoever.

Charger link:  Teswatts V4 Charger 4 Preset Voltage 90v 120v 0- 20A 15A 140v 126v 134v Quick Switch Adjust Power Supply XT60 GX16 V3 roger - AliExpress

Lead link:   Male Female XT60 cable to GX12 GX16 GX20 2 3 4 5 6 Pin Docking Aviator Aviation Plug Socket Circular Connector - AliExpress

I particularly liked the lead they offered as it was the only one I found that actually came with 2 output plugs which I prefer when using GX plugs at anything over 8A. GX (aviation) plugs were never intended for high current use, they were designed for low current comms links etc so personally I like to use both sockets if available. I know many are happy to run 10A+ through a single GX but I don’t, even if it’s the bigger GX20.

With that out of the way, I picked this particular charger because it came with the 4 voltage pots on the rear and a 4-way switching knob which I think is similar to the ‘Roger’ V3 charger? I set these 4 pots to 134.4v, 126v, 100.8v and 67.2v. I only have a 134v wheel but thought it handy to have the other pre-sets ready to go in case a riding buddy needed a quick top up after I had finished. The vendor above does sell all the different leads but I only ordered the 134v one as I was able to build up a 100.8v one at home for about 7 quid. No one in my riding group has a 126v wheel at the moment but it’s likely to happen so I will make up one of those when needed. I also made up my own XT60>MR60 lead so I can charge a single pack on the EX30 at 67.2v if needed.

For reference, the 134.4v GX20 4 pin leads use 1&2 positive, 3&4 negative. The 100.8v GX16 5 pin leads use 1&2 positive, 4&5 negative.

Dimensions are 28cm (including the knobs) x 12.5cm x 4cm.

The charger holds its voltage setting really well, I’ve messed around with it loads and it hasn’t budged from the initial settings I did. On my meter I found the charger shows 135v at 134.4v, 126v at 126v, 101v at 100.8 and 67.2v at 67.2v. So the onboard meter is pretty accurate I’d say. I also ran amperage outputs, again on my meter, and again the charger was very close to what it said it was doing on the onboard ammeter. Results as follows, left figure is charger reading, right is meter:

2A-----1.94A
3A-----2.92A
4A-----3.94A
5A-----4.93A
6A-----5.92A
7A-----6.84A
8A-----7.75A
9A-----8.88A
10A---9.88A
11A---11.01A

I didn’t go higher than 11A as I was using my EX30 for testing but for sure the charger wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Of note though is that I was expecting the charger to be much more noisy than it was. From 0 to 10A the fan speed remained the same, the noise being about the same as I got from my old 100.8v 6A charger (which was a YZ charger IIRC). It was only when I went to 11A that the fans ramped up and yes it does shift a fair bit of air = noise. But I doubt I will be going over 10A generally so I’m really happy with the fan noise at that charge rate which IMO will easily get lost in a busy pub/coffee shop. Prior to ordering the noise was the only thing I was concerned about with this charger but actually it’s much better than I thought it would be.

The other little thing I like is that when you power off the charger it ramps up the fans (to about the same level as the 11A rate I would say) which I presume is in order to blow out as much residual heat as possible before everything shuts down. Nice little touch I thought.

I guess the only downside is that it’s heavy (relatively). At 2kg it’s double that of my 5A charger but theres no question that these server chargers are properly made bits of kit. It just feels right, a re-assuring weight I would say, like high-quality audio amps and the like. ‘Dense and solid’ is another descriptive I would use. It just seems ‘proper’ compared to the usual cheap Chinese chargers which when opened up never seem to be ‘man’ enough for the work they are doing.

Another note – the current control has a VERY small resolution. A small rotation can make a big difference in amp output so be careful. I found it probably wasn’t even a quarter turn between minimum and 11A. Also of note, on minimum current setting the charger will not provide a stable voltage output. So the current knob needs to be *slightly* turned up, just enough until you see your desired voltage. But you don’t want it turned up too much so that it’s outputting 10A+ on connection, and remember you can’t see the current output until you plug into the wheel…

So as has also been said, users need to exercise a certain amount of caution with these chargers. 1^st check needs to be that you are on the correct voltage setting, 2^nd check needs to be that you have backed off the current output to zero, then brought it forward just enough to give a stable reading. In other words, not strictly plug and play.

Also, remember that ALL these chargers are used. They have been removed from data centres most likely because they are nearing/have reached their service hours. This figure is likely to be conservative as they would rather swop in a new unit than have an old unit fail but the fact remains that it is unknown how long your particular charger will last. Could fail in a month, could go for years. Who knows. But thats the gamble you take.

But given all that, I am over the moon with this charger. It will be excellent for mobile use and I will live with the extra 1kg over my 5A charger. Just to tart it up a bit I wrapped it in 3M carbon (it was supplied with a grey wrap), added one of my old Predator stickers, put a bit of tint film over the LCD and a bit of silicone rubber pipe over the metal bracket that sticks out under the meter (which all these chargers have). Just a shame that the riding season is all but over here in the UK… ☹