Help with Charger

Im looking for a charger that is fairly idiot proof in terms of charging rechargeable 3.7V cells. Ive purchased numerous lights for RCMP friends here, and no matter how many times i explain to them about recharging Li-ion cells, within 2 months they always seem to fry, explode, or ruin in some fashion the batteries by leaving the batteries in the charger for an entire shift (12 hrs or so).

Is there any charger out there that can handle a wide range of cell types, mainly RCR123's and 17670's that will have an auto shut off etc to prevent the cells from going poof?

I know youll ask... all the cells are AW batteries anf the charger(s) in question are the WF138 and WF139 that have been used standard. The WF138 seems to be more troublesome... but they both still cause issues.

Any thoughts?

You ask for thoughts, so I say this: Don't use lights that need Li-ion, use lights that can use NiMH. Certainly don't give lights that use Li-ion to other people as gifts or recommendations unless they have a good appreciation of what it's all about. Li-ion is really not for ordinary consumers -- that's why the B&M shops do not routinely sell Li-ion batteries or chargers for them. You can easily be doing people a disservice by putting Li-ion lights in their hands when they are not familiar with all the issues.

I'm not being funny here. There is a huge gulf between techies who can understand what those batteries are about, and the ordinary person who just wants a foolproof light that works reliably.

In the climate we live, there is an average 8 months a year where anything other than straight primary Cr123 batteries just wont work. Temperatures reach too low for NiCad of NiMh batteries to function properly... so most of them were running lights with Cr123 tossable batteries that i purchased them... Well the RCR's etc are used during the periods when temperatures are not an issue and the ability to run their lights in rechargeable mode is of importance.

Once again they are given every bit of instruction as to the dangers etc (most are pretty decent techies that cam to me because of the 'gadget' component'... they just often cant amply supervise their lights when charging... like having the lights on charger in the station while doing paperwork and suddenly being called out to a vehicle rollover that will occupy 7 hrs of their time.

I was hoping for info on a charger that (all things being equal in skill and knowledge of Li-Ions) would compensate for not being able to get back to take the cells off the charger.

OK, then most people here suggest the WF-138 has shortcomings and should not be left unattended. The common recommendation for reliability is the Pila IBC charger.

would the pila ibc work with all 3.7V sizes (RCR123-17500-17670-18650)?

Take a look at this thread. It has lots of info.

hm, I was running an outdoor IR sensor light on nimh last winter. I really didn't expect them to come on anymore when the temperature dropped below -20C, but they did and didn't seem worse in brightness.

The leaking battery compartment and constant -10 ... +10 cycles in temperature and rain-ice-rain on the lights was hard and the light itself failed before the batteries, though the failure mode of light seemed to be to eat all the power it could get and reverse charge the batteries as result..