Double Charge Station for Wii Review
Do you find yourself spending money on batteries for your Wii? Rechargeable batteries are a great solution for gaming systems, but they’re usually rather expensive.
Today for review I’ve got an inexpensive product from CTA Digital called the Double Charge Station. What it entails is two battery packs for your Wii Remotes and a charging base to charge them while they are in your remotes. The Charge Station retails for about $15, and that’s not bad considering how much batteries cost and how much you could save using rechargeable batteries. The charge station is compatible with the Wii MotionPlus too, so you can charge the batteries with it on, but you can’t charge with the rubber covers on the controllers. So read on to learn more about this product…
Info:
Product Name: Double Charge Station for Wii
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Provider: CTA Digital
MSRP: $14.99
UPC:: 656777000004
PART # WI-DDC
Recharge two Wii Remotes simultaneously with the Dual Charger Station from CTA Digital. This charge station contains a two-space cradle that allows you to charge and rest two remotes, with or without Wii MotionPlus adapters connected, in an upright position. Also included are two sets of rechargeable 1800 mAh batteries, which are enclosed in a mold that you can attach to the back of your Wii Remote™. The Dual Charger Station is powered by a USB cable that attaches from the AC adaptor connection (located on the back of the device) to a USB port on the Wii Console.
Features:
-Charges one or two Wii Remotes
-LED charge indicator light
-Wii MotionPlus compatible
Specs:
-Capacity: 1800 mAh
-Game play after charge: approximately 13-20 hours
-Charging time: 7 hours
Pack includes:
-30 inch USB cable included
-Two 1800 mAh Rechargeable Batteries
-One base Station to recharge one or two Wii Remotes
(This review was originally posted on my other site, Wii Digest)
The Review::
The Charge Station comes in a sealed plastic clamshell style case that you’ll need to fight to get open.
Once open you’ll find a brief instruction page, along with the base, two batteries and a USB charging cable.
The USB cable is nice and long at 30 inches so it should reach most anywhere you need to put it.
The Charge Base itself is plastic and lightweight but it feels well made and sturdy. On the front you’ll find two places for your Wii Remotes, which both have two sets of charging contacts. There’s also two LEDs between the charge spaces to indicate charging and charged status.
On the back you’ll find the power connection for the USB cable and an on/off switch.
The batteries are actually battery packs basically, they are incorporated into the battery compartment cover. This is nice as you don’t have to worry about losing them, but you can’t replace the batteries either.
Here’s a couple examples of the batteries and the Wii Remote with and with the MotionPlus attachment:
And here are my remotes in the stand itself, again with and without the MotionPlus:
Using the Charge Station is simple, just plug it into your Wii, turn both the Wii and the Charge Station on then put your remotes into it to charge. of course you’ll have to put the batteries into the remotes though..
When the remotes are charging the LEDs are red, once they are complete the LEDs will turn blue:
As you can see from all of the pictures my remotes are not in their rubber cases, yes you must remove the Wii remotes from the cases to charge. Is it worth the hassle? maybe, maybe not as the batteries don’t seem to last very long.
I use my Wii maybe once, twice per week and I found that usually, if left alone, the batteries will be dead if you don’t use them for a week. If you leave them on the charger that’s not an issue but you’ll need to leave your Wi on or in standby mode to keep power to the remotes.
Yes this will work in most situations as most people will just leave their Wii in standby mode, but I don’t. I use a power saving device called the the TV TrickleSaver and how it works is that you connect you TV to one part of it, then connect a power strip or other devices to the other port, it senses when you turn you TV off and fully cuts the power to the other devices, then when you turn your TV on it turns the power back on. What it does is kill ‘energy vampires’ and not let your devices go into standby mode thus saving power. So essentially my Wii does not go into standby mode, it just fully powers off and won’t be charging the Wii remotes.
As far as charge time, it takes about 7 hours for a charge from a dead battery, and I got about 15 hours play time, which is right in the middle of the 13-20 hours that they claim you should get. You can just put it back on the charger when you’re done playing and it will just re-charge, basically a maintenance charge so you’ll always have a full remote battery, but again you need to leave power on to the Wii and cannot turn it off fully.
That time i got though for playing was without the MotionPlus, you can cut it down by about 3 hours if you’re using the the MotionPlus attachment. Still though you should get about 12 hours of play, which is most likely more than enough, not many people play the Wii for 12 hours straight or over that I’m sure.
So it depends on your usage and how you use your Wii if this is a product that might be good for you.
For about $15 though, I think this could save you quite a bit of money in batteries in the long run though.
Conclusion:
So is this product worth it? For the price I’d have to most certainly say yes. For $15 you can get the two batteries and the bas station and you should be able to save yourself quite a bit of money in batteries in the process.
The downside though is that you can’t charge with the rubber sleeves on the remotes, and you must leaver power on to the Wii to charge the batteries and to make sure they keep their charge.
| PROS | CONS |
| – Includes two batteries – Compatible with Wii MotionPlus – Inexpensive for what you get – Batteries and cover are one piece |
– Batteries don’t seem to last too long when not being charged – Must leave power on to Wii to charge – Can’t charge with covers on |
| Scores:: | 7 out of 10 |
| Overall: |  |
| Aesthetic: |  |
| Quality: | |
| Usability: | |
Disclosure:This product was given to Review the Tech for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products. This product may have also been bought by us for review purposes and does not influence the review.