BOL Avant Multi Functional Smart Battery Charger LiPO/LiFe/NiCd/NiMH

verified buyer

Product Information:
This charger is amazing, it can charge any kind of battery and can prep LiPo batteries for storage. It allows you to choose the amperage of the charging, and discharge rate, and allows you to check multiple types of information regarding the health of your battery. It also does battery checks first before charging so that you know if your battery is toast, and is unsafe to charge. It is a high priced investment for something you normally wouldn't want to spend a lot of money on, but let me tell you, this is worth every penny. You will never destroy a LiPo using this charger, and you can always expect it to safeguard your LiPo, and never cause any damage to it with proper use. It's still important to monitor the charging process and not leave a LiPo charging unattended, but I feel very safe using this charger and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to keep their LiPo batteries running for the long haul.

I would not recommend this to a new airsoft player, since it's very confusing to set up and comes with a CD with a website link that includes many different PDF files for all of BOL's products. Not that a new airsofter shouldn't use it, but I wouldn't recommend that a new airsofter use LiPo batteries to begin with, and would probably stick to nickel based batteries with a regular smart charger.

Took me a while to figure this charger out, so I would recommend watching a tutorial video online first to understand the basic function of this charger before diving into the endless pit of pages that is the instruction manual.

Other than that, I would highly recommend this to a friend and anyone who uses LiPo batteries frequently.

Pros:
Displays charging details and battery information in real time
Has a matrix dot screen that you can rotate with the press of a button
Comes with all kinds of connectors and cables, deans connectors, big and small tamiya, etc.
Has a fan to cool the unit down, and has a heatsink-like body for dissipating extra heat
Almost never heats up, unless draining a battery at a high amperage
Comes with a LiPo checker for checking your batteries without plugging them in
Beeps and/or buzzes if your LiPo has an issue

Cons:
Out of the box, every key stroke presents an ungodly annoying beep (Can change in user settings)
Is confusing to figure out, even with instruction manual (Look up an online tutorial for basic functionality)
Doesn't have a built in power supply, it is attached to the charge cable instead
Not new player friendly (if new to smart chargers in general)