Customer Reviews

Wii InCharge Dual Charge Station

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I looked at the other 2 reviews when I bought this item and since they were positive I figure this had to be a good product. Well I should have taken into account the casualness of most Wii users.

One of the main reasons I bought this item is because I was using rechargable duracells which would last me a good 2-3 weeks of playing before I needed to recharge them. The recharge for the duracells is about 1 hour. But I prefer to leave the sleave on my remotes and having to pull it off every time to recharge was a pain. Main selling point for this item. Anyways there is no listed charge time in the instructions for this product but I can say that it took well over 12 hours to charge 1 remote. I thought maybe this was due to being the first time charging but this seems to be the case for every charge. I am assuming due to the rubber sleave that it would slow down the charging since theres a little resistance being added. Testing that theory now.

The item claims to have 25 hours of play time. I havent tested this fact but I do know that I havent put in more than 10 hours over the week since I got the device and the charge is already completely drained.

Also there is no low battery warning. I have gone from playing a game and the home screen saying the battery is full to the remote not even blinking when I press a button.

So in short

Pros:

- Can charge with sleave on though this seems to slowing down charging which would make sense considering resistance.

Cons:

- Low battery life. Maybe half the life span as product is advertised to have
- Long charge times. At least 6 hours without the sleave about double with it.
- Wii cant detect how much power is left in the batteries so no low battery warnings

The item functions as stated.

What I find odd:
*The lights flashing when full is distracting and will continue until pack is removed from charger.
*The packs took 16 hours for initial charge not 5-6 as stated
*The reset button should be moved/fixed! When I play Mario Kart with the remote in "wheel" position without using the actual wheel the reset button gets triggered too easily. A small piece of duct tape did not fix it & it is not removable.
*Tight fit, almost felt too tight when attaching it to remote
*After 4 Hours of play they were still showing 4 bars of charge on the Wii Menu


What I love:
*They are lighter
*No more waiting for unreliable rechargable batteries
*Can charge with skin & wrist strap in place
*Barely warm after charging, heat goes away within minutes.
*Pack can be charged without the remote attached
*No contact points to break, nothing clicks into place for a charge!

UPDATE 1: The reset button turned out to be a HUGE problem for my aggressive Mario Kart driving. It has reset during online play many times. My fix was to remove an area of the red button from the outside of each pack using a dremel bit on a drill. Now an ink pen or sharp item will be needed to press reset. This was done by a professional at a computer chip manufactures shop. Will void warranty! Now it works and NEVER resets accidentally.

UPDATE 2: December 2009 Still working like new! I purchased another one too. I need to remove my Wii Motion Plus before charging.

Received this product earlier in the week and worked like a charm. No more hassles with the batteries. Must get for any Wii owner.

Package included the charging stand and two lithium battery pack.

The most wonderful thing about this new product is the no more metal contact between the remote and the base. I hate having to align the metal contacts in the other chargers out there. Now I can simply sit the remote down once the gaming is done with no hassle.

Also, it is so innovative that this base worked with my silicon skinned remotes. I haven't seen any other charging station out there with this yet.

There are blue led lights that tells you when the remotes are charging. I think mine were fully charged in 10-15 hours and haven't need to be recharged yet after 3 days.

Simply a must get wii accessory.

I bought two of these units two months ago and absolutely love them. The ability for kids to just set the controller down in roughly the right place and still have it charge is fantastic.

I have had NO issues with charge life. I've seen the kids play for many hours with hardly any loss of charge.

I have had NO issues with the reset button, even when using the Mario Kart wheel.

My ONLY complaint is with the very bright flashing lights. With the new battery pack, each remote gains a blue LED which flashes whenever it is "docked" in the induction field. In addition, the base has two bright blue LEDs that glow steady when each remote is charging and flashes whenever each is charged. Who thought of that backwards logic???

I took some well-cut electric tape and completely covered the front panel lights. Then I used some thin strips of electric tape and covered 80% of the LED on each remote. This allows me to (barely) confirm the remote is "docked", and I don't care to see the charge indicator.

Overall, I *highly* recommend this product.

Overall a really cool product that's easy to use. Recommend this for anyone who wants to save on batteries and wants a simple easy to use product without the hassles of removing sleeves or connecting wires!!!

Pro's
*Lithium ion battery so it doesn't have that battery memory problem like other types of rechargeable batteries that are nickel cadium.
*Charges with the sleeves on which I find really amazing. Just drop it right on top of the charger even with the sleeve and it'll charge...nothing to connect except the inital connection of the base charger to the outlet. Wish they would do this with cell phones
*Charge time was 6 hours for me. I just leave it on the charger once a week. Easy since there is nothing to plug in.

Con's
*When a product is charged, the light blinks. I would have preferred if they just made the color change.

I am very pleased with this product!! I've had it for a month now. I don't have to remove the silicon jacket to charge my wiimotes. You just place it in the cradle, the magnetic charging is similar to that of a Sonicare toothbrush charger. They are no contacts to wear down, rust, or corrode. I researched this pretty hard and this was the only solution that I would accept. Worth every single penny...BELIEVE ME!!

There is no better alternative.

Bought this charger for my nieces. It is easy to use, no contacts that can break, and chargers with the controller skins on. Great!!!!!!!

I'm so happy I found this gift for my husband! We've only had it for 3 weeks, so I can't comment on durability.

We tried using rechargable batteries for our controllers, but it was a bit of a pain keeping them charged and ready to play. This charger is wonderful because there's no contacts to line up and the rubber grippy covers can be left on, so you just throw them on the base and go.

My only complaints are 1. you have to take the nunchuck off to charge (not a big deal, really) and 2. the full charge indicator is an extremely bright, blinking light. We had to hide the charger in our entertainment unit to hide that annoying blink! Wish they had just made the light go off when fully charged.

It's still the best charger we've found and would definately recommmend it to other Wii-ers.

I previously had Wii contact rechargeables with a USB-powered charging station so my feedback comes from that perspective. Below are a couple of items of note for prospective owners. This info is also covered in other reviews, I am just consolidating here from my experience:

- When fully charged the lights blink vs. steady on - this is counter-intuitive to me - and is also annoying to me. I had to hide the charging station in a cabinet to mask the blinking lights.
- The initial charge took much longer than expected (24+ hours to get the blinking blue lights).
- The vibration feature feels somewhat different than what I was used to. Not better or worse (that is subjective), but definitely different.
- The new battery pack is definitely lighter than my previous rechargeables. I don't know if it is lighter that AAs.
- The charging station has to be plugged into an outlet, it is not USB connected. I would have preferred a USB connection so that I could plug it into the Wii.
- The batteries seemed to last a reasonable amount of time. I did not time them but I am not a heavy user and they lasted just fine for me.
- When the batteries DO drain down you won't get any warning from the Wii on the battery state. From the Wii's perspective they go from 100% to 0%.
- I do really like the contact-less induction charging. This is a "good thing".

Net: Good buy and I am overall happy with this purchase.

People kept telling me to purchase the Nyko charger but after a few weeks we realized it was defective and NOT how we were using it.

The left charger station NEVER worked properly and the pins looked fine. People kept saying it was us but I beg to differ. Even their support NEVER responded to our calls and emails. NEVER!

Then we checked and found these guys. The InCharge Station will astound you. We already bought one and after a few weeks realized we should have two. After all, we have 4 wii-motes :-)

But alas none were available on Amazon or anywhere else it was advertised. So I emailed the companies sales asking what was going on. They were awesome!

I received an email from their sales (name withheld) saying they sold out everywhere and were working hard to get them back out there. If I didn't have one in two weeks to call him directly and he's take care of me.

About two weeks later I learned Amazon had them again and purchased it as fast as I could. We couldn't be happier. This charger does just the job and does it better than the Nyko. Not just in reliability BUT also in battery life. The Nyko would always run out of juice quickly. Usually within several hours however the InCharge was still going strong and was quickly recharged compared to the Nyko.

Yeah, you need this. Don't bother with the Nyko. It will drive you crazy and this charger will take good care of you all around.