Customer Reviews

Wii Quad Dock

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I ordered this thinking that It would be a little better than the Nyko version that only charged two controllers at a time. I played for about 4 straight hours one day and the controllers were fully charged when I started. I had to stop to charge the controller I was using because it was almost dead. They said it would last 15 hours and I figured that was way more than I needed, but the 4 hours that I got out of it was a joke.

You have to remove the straps and even though I don't use them, other people like to use them and it's a pain to take the straps off and put them back on every time. The manual said it took 4 hours to charge 4 controllers (if I remember correctly), so your time to charge two would obviously take less time, but it isn't worth it because the batteries don't last long enough, especially if you are having a wii party. An hour of charge for an hour of gameplay isn't very good compared to other products out there, and that was the time I got out of the battery without the controller's sound or rumble features turned on. This is a terrible product in my opinion, and my friends thought so too. I would really recommend the Nyko charge station, but I don't want to sound like a spokesperson for their product. I also have Energizer rechargable batteries that work much better than the quad dock, so take your pick because there are many options out there that provide better results than this product.

While the Quad Dock does charge up to four wii-remote rechargeable battery packs at once, it does so very inconveniently. To place the remote in with the battery pack installed, the wriststrap MUST be removed. This is a bit of a pain. The best way to charge is by placing the batter pack solely into the charger; it is designed to work this way as well. HOWEVER, getting it into the right angle is difficult.

Another thing that is odd is that this charger draws power from your Wii console's AC adapter. That's right; you must plug your AC adapter into it, and then connect it to your Wii with a very short dongle. I would have preferred to have a separate 2 prong 110V AC cord.

Overall, it does work, batteries fit well into remote and 4x charging is possible, just some important oddities keep this product from really shining.

Very happy after owning the quad dock for close to 2 months now. Clever AC power adapter piggy backs on the Wii AC power cord, so you don't use a USB port or use up any outlets on your power strip. Drawing direct from AC also means faster charge times than USB models.
Another plus is the battery packs have a little extension button for the wireless connection. True, this is not a common use feature, but still shows what consideration went into product design and comes in real handy if you need to re-connect or you take your wiimote over to a different Wii. My friend has a different model charge station/battery packs that lacked this feature, and I had to put loose batteries in the wiimote and hold them in place while I pressed the connect button.
I have not tried putting my wiimote with the new battery packs into any kind of Wii accessory (e.g. wheel, gun, etc.) but to my eye the battery pack profile is exactly the same as the OEM battery covers, so my guess is these puppies will fit no problem.
Probably the coolest thing about this charging solution is that the battery packs fit securely into the charge station, even when seperated from the wiimote. This means, if you have less than 4 wiimotes, you can always have a fresh battery pack handy in case you drain one while playing.
My only complaint, and it is a small one, is the blue lights. Some may like them, but for me they are a bit too intense. I would have been happier with some small, subtle LEDs. My kids think it is pretty cool when they get up in the morning (before daylight) and all 4 charge docks are flashing cool, blue light (each recepticle has a ring of blue light that comes on when in contact with batteries and charging, and then switches to a slow flash when fully charged).
To summarize, if you are looking for a charging solution for the Wii, buy this one, even if you have only one wiimote at present. You won't regret it. For those concerned that blue lights flashing may detract from the appearance of your home (or make you think the cops are at your door), you can probably get some colored, semi-transparent tape to cover and subdue the lights.

As others have mentioned, this charger plugs into the Wii's power supply and then to the Wii. First of all, according to Nintendo, it is not an authorized accessory and using it may void your warranty.

Secondly, having it connected to the Wii will make some games freeze! That's what happened to my Fifa '08. At first I thought it was the game disc and ended up spending $15 for a replacement disc. Since it still didn't work, I ended up sending the Wii to Nintendo twice for repairs, without any luck (with the negative side effect of having to be without it for two or three weeks each time). Finally, speaking to tech support, they asked if anything not made by Nintendo was attached to the Wii. When I told them about this charger, they said to unplug it immediately, wipe all of the saved games and tournaments and restart the Wii. That did it and now the game runs fine; except that we lost all of the saved Fifa games and other related stuff. They only recommend using rechargeable NiMH batteries.

The Quad Dock is convenient for those who play a lot of Wii - those with kids, addictions, etc. However, within a week one of the metal contacts (prongs) inside the receiving compartments of the dock broke off rendering that dock unusable. VERY disappointing quality. What's more, there is little room for error in loading/unloading the controller if, like most people playing Wii, you have your wrist strap attached as that end of the controller is made to fit tight within the Quad Dock. With the added wrist strap attached it becomes very tight.

Overall, I'm disappointed with the quality, the actual manufacturing of this product and would research competing products to compare before purchasing again.

I thought this was a "Must Have" for us since we are a family of five and we have that many remotes in play most of the time.

Unfortunately, once getting this system set up and charging we realized the Wii no longer recognized the remotes. No problem, we synched them again. They charged overnight and in the morning, we set about to begin playing and WHOOPS! The remotes needed synched again. OK, no problem, we did it again.

About two hours into gameplay, the games began "not recognizing" the wiimotes, saying battery level was getting low. WHAT?!?! They charged for 8+ hours the first time and we don't even have the rumble or sound features on. Every time we switched games, guess what? MORE SYNCHING.

Yes, the remotes had all been synched with the Wii initially, so this constant synching is beyond explanation. After only a few hours of gameplay, two remotes were completely dead and the others were hanging by a thread and had to be synched every few minutes.

We gave up.

I am sending this product back to Amazon and writing this review in hopes that other large families like ours don't make the mistake of thinking this is an item of convenience, let alone a necessity like we did.

Yes, you have to remove the remote jackets and straps before charging, but, we thought that was acceptable for only doing it every 13 hours (which is how long the charge is SUPPOSED to last). However, every 2-3 hours was a bit too much.

If you are a single player or have an occasional guest or only play for less than an hour at a time, I suppose this product could meet your needs.

As long as you don't mind stopping to synch every so often every time you play.

When purchasing the wii we chose a bundled option, we researched all the accessories and decided that the quad station would best suit our needs.
We played the wii with the remotes using the batteries that came with it. No problems at all. We switched to the battery packs-nothing but frustration! The remotes stop working mid game EVERY time. You have to remove the skin, the strap and the battery pack at least 5 times during a game. We switched back to regular batteries and have no problems.
This is DEFINITELY going back to the store or the trash. Such a major disappointment.
Nintendo also has said it will void the warranty should we use it. I'm not willing to risk four remotes to save a few dollars on batteries.

I hope you have better luck than we did with this. A very frustrating and costly issue.

I thought this would be a great product, I liked the idea of being able to charge 4 remotes at a time. I cant say how long these held a charge, they were in my remotes for less than 5 minutes. The problem with them is because the battery pack is attached to the battery pack the sync button has to be extended onto the outside of the remote. We tried playing Mario Kart with the steering wheels, but any pressure on the remote and it would re-sync. We tried it with other games and we just had the same problem, so back into the box it went. Great idea, bad design.

This product does not fit our needs. It plugs into the Wii power cord jack in the back of the Wii instead of straight into a wall outlet. This won't work for us because we can't fit the charger (with remotes standing up in it) next to our system in our current TV cabinet. The cord is pretty short (about 1 or 1.5 feet with the by-pass for the actual power cord in the middle of that - I will try and add a picture) so the charger needs to be positioned pretty close to the Wii.
Also, I could not fit the remote completely into the dock without taking off the wrist strap, which is pretty inconvenient. I do like that you can charge just the battery packs without them being in the remotes, and we would probably use this feature if we kept this product because it will fit that way on our shelf. You have to be careful to fit them in just right, but then they have a nice, snug fit. I haven't actually plugged this in at all.
When I started looking at other chargers on Amazon, I found that if you look at the negative reviews for the Nyko product,Wii Charge Station, you will discover that Nintendo does NOT recommend ANY rechargable batteries for the remotes (using them voids the warranty?!) but that if you choose to do it anyway, it's best to use regular rechargable AA batteries because they are less likely to mess your remote up! I should have done better homework! I will most likely be returning this product without ever using it.

Update 02/09/2011: Supposedly there are now "Nintendo sanctioned" recharge stations. Do your homework and make sure to get something approved by Nintendo so that you don't void your warranty.

You're better off just using standard rechargeable Ni-MH "AA" batteries and a quick charger. When using this product the Wii lost contact with the remotes quite frequently, and you can't charge the batteries while they are on the remote if you A) are using the MotionPlus adapter, B) have the sleeve on, and C) have the wrist strap on the remote.