Fellowes FlexCharge 4, 4C and 4CX
- Grommet hole: 2.3 in minimum in the manual, 2.0 in in the brochure
- AC outlets: two, at 15A, 125V, 60Hz
- Warranty: five years in the manual, ten in Fellowes’ current terms
- 4C price range: $145.19 to $230.00 across four sellers
- Customer reviews: none, at any seller
Where to buy: the 4C runs $145.19 at EngineerSupply and $230.00 at Madison Liquidators, which is the one seller showing a live delivery window. Full table below.
Worth it if
Worth it if you clamp it to the desk edge, and if you buy a current Fellowes-badged unit. Neither condition has anything to do with the hardware. Both decide which warranty document you end up covered by, and whether the hole you cut is the right size. The module is UL and cUL listed, a mark plenty of powered desk furniture never publishes at all.
The hole in the desk is the problem
Fellowes gives the grommet size twice. The FlexCharge brochure lists “2.0” grommet” under every model in the range, and the 4CX cut sheet dated February 2025 repeats it word for word.
The assembly manual for the same product gives a different figure.
“Minimum diameter of the grommet hole is 2.3″.”
Three tenths of an inch sounds like nothing. It decides whether the module seats or sits on top of a hole you have already cut, and a worksurface does not un-drill. The 2.3 figure appears in the FlexCharge4 manual and again in the 4C manual, in the same position on the page, which rules out a typo in a single document.
Ordering a desk with the grommet already cut? Measure it before you buy the module. Cut your own at 2.3, not 2.0. The easier route, if the desk has a usable front edge, is to skip the hole entirely and clamp the module to the edge.
Which model is which
Four things carry the FlexCharge name and they are easy to mix up, partly because sellers mix them up themselves. EngineerSupply titles one page “ESI FlexCharge4” for a unit whose model number is FCH4C-BLK, and prints “MPN: FCH4C-WHT” on a page selling the FCH4-DSK. Order by SKU.
| Model | SKU | AC outlets | USB | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FlexCharge4 | FCH4-DSK | Two, 15A 125V 60Hz | Two, type and rating not published | 8 ft cord |
| FlexCharge4C | FCH4C | Two, rating not published | USB-A 3A 5V, USB-C 3.1A 5V | 8 ft cord |
| FlexCharge4CX | FCH4CX | Two, 15A 125V 60Hz | USB-A and USB-C | Six-outlet under-desk strip |
| FlexCharge 65W | FCH4C-65W | Two | USB-C at 20V 3.25A | Charges a laptop |
The brochure entry for the base FlexCharge4 says “(2) Two quick-charge USB outlets” and stops there. Every sibling model in the same document gets amps and volts. The 4C’s entry goes the other way and never mentions its AC outlets at all, though the assembly manual confirms they exist: “the two AC power outlets, one USB-A, and one USB-C charging ports on the FlexCharge4C.” Both gaps are Fellowes describing its own hardware.
The USB-C on the 4 and 4C runs at 5 volts. That charges a phone. It will not meaningfully charge a laptop, and if that is what you want, the 65W line launched in August 2025 is the one to look at.
Two warranties, five years apart
The assembly manual in the box carries an ESI warranty, and it runs for five years.
“ESI warrants this product to be free from defects in manufacturing for a period of five year from the date of original purchase.”
Fellowes’ current contract warranty names power products at ten years. That is a strong term, and power is one of the few categories Fellowes names at all. It applies only to purchases made after 5 June 2025, which is printed in the terms and easy to miss.
So the warranty you get depends on which box the dealer pulls off the shelf. Old ESI-badged stock carries the five-year term, and the manual tells you to claim it at esiergo.com, which has been an empty domain since at least last August. Ask the seller what they are shipping before you pay.
Where you can actually buy it
Not at Home Depot, Staples, Quill, Zoro, Global Industrial, Newegg or Walmart. I checked every one of them and none carries this line, because it sells through office-furniture dealers rather than through the big chains. That is most of why people cannot find it.
| Seller | Model | Price | Stock signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| EngineerSupply | FCH4C-BLK | $145.19 | Ships 2 to 4 business days |
| Applied Ergonomics | FCH4-DSK | $159.60 | Cart live, ships within 48 hours |
| WorkSmart | FlexCharge 4C | $201.00 | Cart live, page last edited 2023 |
| Ergo Experts | FlexCharge4C | $188.40 | Ships 3 to 5 business days |
| Madison Liquidators | FCH4C | $230.00 | Delivery window Aug 14 to Aug 28 |
| Madison Liquidators | FCH4CX-WHT | $355.00 | Delivery window Aug 14 to Aug 28 |
Seller prices and stock wording read by hand on 7 August 2026. Left exact because the 1.58x spread between sellers is the finding.
The same 4C runs from $145.19 to $230.00, a spread of 1.58x. Madison Liquidators is the most expensive and also the only seller quoting a delivery date calculated from today, which is the strongest evidence of a live listing rather than a page nobody has touched in three years. WorkSmart’s product page was last edited in May 2023, though its cart still works, so the price is live and the copy around it is three years stale.
Two more sellers look like options and are not. OfficeFurnitureDeals sends you to a homepage, and OfficeChairsUSA drops you in a category where FlexCharge appears nowhere among the 31 products. CDW, ODP Business and Office Furniture Center all list it, but none of their pages would open for me, so I cannot quote what they charge.
Nobody has reviewed it
Not one review, anywhere I could check. Madison Liquidators prints “No reviews written about this product yet.” Applied Ergonomics shows “Reviews (0)” and “There are no reviews yet.” The rest carry no review module at all.
EngineerSupply and OfficeAnything display merchant ratings, and those are about the shop, not this product. I have not counted them.
Normally I want 50 reviews and 3.9 stars before recommending anything. That bar does not apply to dealer-channel office furniture, which almost never accumulates reviews, so it is not held against this one. It does mean the drawbacks below come from documents rather than from buyers.
Drawbacks
- The grommet contradiction. 2.0 in advertised, 2.3 in required. Source: Fellowes brochure against the Fellowes assembly manual.
- No joule rating for the surge protection, on any model. Fellowes prints joules on its consumer surge protectors. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state.
- What happens when the surge protection is spent is never explained. The manual says only that an unlit indicator means call customer service. Whether the outlets keep passing power unprotected is not stated. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state.
- The warranty address in the manual is a dead domain. Source: esiergo.com, checked 5 and 7 August 2026.
- The base FlexCharge4’s USB ports have no published type or rating. Source: the FlexCharge Series brochure.
- No maximum desk thickness is published. The manual gives a bracket-position threshold at 0.9 in and no upper limit. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state.
- The 65W range is effectively single-sourced. One readable US listing across the whole tier. Source: availability.
In its favour
- UL and cUL listed, stated by Fellowes for the 4, 4C and 4CX. Several powered desk products I have looked at publish no safety mark at all.
- Power is one of the categories Fellowes names in its current contract warranty, at ten years.
- Three mounting options from one bracket: clamp, grommet, or under the worksurface.
- You can buy it today from at least four sellers, at a verified price.
- The 4CX adds a six-outlet strip under the desk, which is the version that replaces a power strip rather than supplementing one.
Where to buy
FlexCharge4C at EngineerSupply $145.19 FlexCharge4 at Applied Ergonomics $159.60 FlexCharge4C at Madison Liquidators $230.00
Questions
Is FlexCharge made by ESI or Fellowes?
Both, at different times. Fellowes acquired ESI Ergonomic Solutions in November 2017 and has since retired the ESI brand. Older units are badged ESI and carry ESI’s five-year warranty. Current ones are Fellowes Contract Interiors.
What size hole do I drill?
2.3 inches. The 2.0 figure in Fellowes’ brochure is smaller than the manual’s stated minimum.
Will it charge a laptop?
The 4 and 4C will not. Their USB-C runs at 5 volts, which is phone-class. The 65W models charge a laptop at 20V and 3.25A.
What is the difference between the 4C and the 4CX?
The 4CX is the same desktop module with a six-outlet power strip that mounts under the worksurface, connected by a 28.5 in cord.
Sources
- FlexCharge Series Power Solutions brochure, Fellowes, BRO-213, 2023. Grommet size, cord length, AC and USB ratings, UL and cUL statement.
- FlexCharge4CX Personal Desktop Power cut sheet, Fellowes, Rev 02/25. Model numbers, power strip outlet count, connection cord length.
- FlexCharge4 Series assembly and operation instructions, Fellowes. The 2.3 in grommet minimum and the 0.9 in bracket threshold.
- FlexCharge4C assembly instructions, Fellowes. Confirmation of two AC outlets.
- FlexCharge4CX assembly instructions, Fellowes. The five-year ESI warranty text and the surge indicator behaviour.
- Fellowes Contract Interiors warranty terms. Power named at ten years, purchases after 5 June 2025.
- Fellowes 65W power module launch announcement, 29 August 2025. The 20V 3.25A figure.
- Fellowes acquires ESI Ergonomic Solutions, November 2017, hosted by Fellowes.
- Prices and stock read 7 August 2026 at EngineerSupply, Applied Ergonomics, WorkSmart, Ergo Experts and Madison Liquidators. Review counts read at Madison Liquidators and Applied Ergonomics the same day.
- Chairlines and Solutions M3 list this product in Canadian dollars and are excluded from the price range above. CDW, ODP Business and Office Furniture Center list it but their pages could not be read.