big question.
there are chargers of all sorts, that do different speeds, use different methods, charge as SINGLE cells or multiples, and provide more or less INFO.
the top 3 additions to chargers that i totally love
Single cells are treated as single units
because each battery can be at a different state of charge, IMO no battery should be charged in seires, especially when its already a loose item that your recharging. look for a charger that has individual channels.
that is often indicated when they say HOW MANY batteries you can charge with it. 1-4 or 2&4 <-- see the differeance?
Stop at the end and trickle charge
Some of the battery chargers keep a battery topped off-without destroying it also, by doing a very small pulse trickle at the end of the charge, that is well below the overcharge rate, this keeps them ready to go, without playing with them
INFO
some of the latest stuff, can not only provide info on the charge, but it can provide simple info on the state of the battery. when you use rechargables enough, and are hard on them, and need them to be perfect, things like that la-cro$$ charger that can even Test the battery are awesome.
things i wish they would do, but dont usually
50% pulse charging
selectable dumb slow, & selectable Fast smart
Cost less
Speed - i dont care, why torture a battery when you can instead have a second set ready to go, so i dont really worrry about excessive speed, IMO there is nothing to be gained by it with the present chemistries, they aint capacitors. if it charges dumb in a day, or smart charges in 2-4hours, thats ok.
Manufacturers chargers:
the chargers that COME WITH the batteries are ok, they are easy, they are sometimes Specifically designed for the battery type and technology, and its thier fault if anything goes wrong. on the other hand they are usually to simple, uncontrollable, and dont do fun things like discharge or charge 10 at a time, and often they dont do Single individual care.
Discharge cycling
if your using them in series, dont drain the whole thing to nothing because you think it will help, that will cause "reverse charging" and be a bad thing.
as far as cycling all of these rechargables like to be cycled relative to thier self discharge rate (sorta). and they all prefer to be used, as opposed to parked.
so there is no real NEED to cycle it, it needs to be cycled way less than ni-cd to remain vibrant, but unlike what they tell us, it does still enjoy a cycle.
Incadescent -
umm why? leds rule
yes rechrgables rule too
ni-??? and Li-ion rechargables do well under the conditions of heavy discharge rates, incadescent has a tendancy to be a higher discharge rate, and so it works very well.
the only caveat, is the incadescent wire will drain a SERIES set into reverse charge. that caveat is fixed by recharging when the light goes down, or when one cell in the series is fully depleated. in other words, when the light acts like there is one less cell in it, then recharge it.
