AA/AAA 8 Cell Battery Charger Experiences?

[Carabidae]

I'm in the market for an 8 cell battery charger and have seen 2 that I like so far, however there is a bit of a difference in price, so I'm wondering if anyone has had good or bad experiences with either.

The first is the T-6280 from Battery junction here:
http://batteryjunction.com/tic8chniandn.html

The second is the maha MH-c800S from thomas distributing here:
http://www.nimhbattery.com/maha-mh-c800s-battery-charger.htm

Other than the bells and whistles of the maha, I'm wondering if anyone has either of these and if you like them. Or if you recommend a different one.
Thanks

 

[MIKES250R]

I have the Maha MHC-801D and abslolutley love it. It is very similar to Maha you have in question the only difference being it will do one hour charge. I have some old batteries that would not charge in either of my other two chargers and after conditioning them with the Maha they are good as new. If you do some research and google up some professional reviews the Maha is hard to beat. The other charger you mentioned might be a good one as well but I have not had any first hand experience with it. Good luck!

Michael

 

[saildude]

I have a maha MH-c800S and so far so good - seems to work fine - like the part about it that has the 500 ma charge rate - so far it has put a charge on everything that I put in it, but I have not done any evaluation type testing - I got it so that I could charge individual cells -

 

[macdude22]

I have an 808M and I can attest to the Maha quality. They cost a bit more but well worth it, they seem to take excellent care of my batteries.

 

[RobertD]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm in the same situation. I'm looking for an 8-cell charger (or maybe two good 4-cell chargers) to use instead of my Energizer 15min charger. My camera flash uses 5 AAs, my 4 R/C transmitters each use 8 AAs, kid's MP3 players have AAAs, GPS uses AAs, etc. While the Energizer seems to work great, I'd like to treat the cells a little better. Especially since I plan on switching out my NiMH (and a few older NiCD) cells for Eneloops/Hybrids soon.

I'm down to picking from the 3 Maha units: 800S, 801D, 808M.
I also considered two BC-900 ($50ea) but I'm worried on missing a peak detection. Two C9000s at $63ea goes beyond my budget. Maybe I'm treating the cells OK with the Energizer and should just pick up a 2nd one?

800S: Cheapest at $53, but charges too slow for me. If I need to charge 32 AAs the night before a race, this isn't going to cut it. With the 15min charger, I can be done in about 2 hours if I pay attention to the time.

801D: Reasonable at $70, a well-recommended unit here according to the search. An hour for a set of 8 isn't that bad for charging time.

808M: Priced at $90, so only $20 more than the 801D. If I ever get C or D cells, guess I'm set. Is the extra cash worth the backlight and better battery contact system? Most threads said a $30 difference was still worth it.

Thanks for your invaluable wisdom...

 

[half-watt]

accidental double-post.

 

[half-watt]

801D: Reasonable at $70, a well-recommended unit here according to the search. An hour for a set of 8 isn't that bad for charging time.

808M: Priced at $90, so only $20 more than the 801D. If I ever get C or D cells, guess I'm set. Is the extra cash worth the backlight and better battery contact system? Most threads said a $30 difference was still worth it.

i have both of these chargers (since either late last year or Jan, or so this year). only use the 808M for C & D, lightening the load on it by using the 801D for AA & AAA cells.


both are great chargers, IMO. you can't go wrong with either.

however, having said all that, other than the very first time, i've never used these chargers to FAST charge any cells. i always use the manually selected SOFT CHARGE function to preserve the charge-cycle life of the cells.

if you think that you're going to want to fast/rapid charge your cells always or occasionally, then go with either. otherwise, stick to soft charging which should prolong the life of your cells and go with the 800S. i don't own and have no first-hand experience with the 800S.

remember, if you find that you need to fast charge some cells, you have your Energizer 15min charger for those, hopefully rare, occasions. think how many more cells you could purchase with the money saved by going for the 800S. just a thought. you know your needs best.

my two shekels.

 

[RobertD]

half-watt - So is that a sheckel per post, or 4 sheckels total?

Seriously, thanks for the advice. That actually made me think of another option I hadn't considered. I could buy two 800S units to get the slower charging rate (.5A/1A), but would be able to charge 16 cells in the same amount of time. Most of the time I'm not in a crunch for charging time, except the night before a racing event. That is when I have 32 AAs to charge up (and also do my discharge/equalize/charge on the 12 sub-C packs).

True - I would still be able to fast charge 4 cells on the Energizer for those 'emergencies' when the kids are close to walking out the door and they need juiced up batteries. It's just that they have some older Energizer cells that won't always charge up unless I stick them in my older Duracell 1-hour charger for a few minutes to warm them up and get their voltage up a bit.

I guess it just depends on whether I want .5A or 2A charging, huh? All 3 Mahas give me 1A capability (either as the Normal or Soft mode). The 800S gives me .5A capability for real slow charging, where the 801D/808M gives me faster 2A capability. I charge indoors, under 80*F.

If my 3 RC PitBull X3 chargers weren't so busy, I could just toss the transmitter pack of 8AAs on each of them and charge them as a group. Not really good for the batteries, but it would get them charged.

 

[half-watt]

half-watt - So is that a sheckel per post, or 4 sheckels total?

Seriously, thanks for the advice. That actually made me think of another option I hadn't considered. I could buy two 800S units to get the slower charging rate (.5A/1A), but would be able to charge 16 cells in the same amount of time. Most of the time I'm not in a crunch for charging time, except the night before a racing event. That is when I have 32 AAs to charge up (and also do my discharge/equalize/charge on the 12 sub-C packs).

True - I would still be able to fast charge 4 cells on the Energizer for those 'emergencies' when the kids are close to walking out the door and they need juiced up batteries. It's just that they have some older Energizer cells that won't always charge up unless I stick them in my older Duracell 1-hour charger for a few minutes to warm them up and get their voltage up a bit.

I guess it just depends on whether I want .5A or 2A charging, huh? All 3 Mahas give me 1A capability (either as the Normal or Soft mode). The 800S gives me .5A capability for real slow charging, where the 801D/808M gives me faster 2A capability. I charge indoors, under 80*F.

If my 3 RC PitBull X3 chargers weren't so busy, I could just toss the transmitter pack of 8AAs on each of them and charge them as a group. Not really good for the batteries, but it would get them charged.

your first comment perplexed me, so i scrolled back. double-post! wonder how that happens?? could i have refreshed my Browser window and caused it??? (it does on one particular backpacking board) don't remember hitting F5 or ^R.

anyone have any ideas what causes the dbl-Post? would like to know so i can avoid it in the future.


Admin/Moderator: feel free to delete either of the Dups, leaving the other intact for the sake of Thread continuity. Many thanks for your assistance.

 

[RobertD]

If you delete a post, kill the first of the two. The 2nd one has an extra sentence and paragraph at the end! It's like the first one is a draft, and the 2nd one is the submitted one.

half-watt - So you're thinking the 801D is the better choice, since you have one and seem to like it? I don't see a need for C/D charging, just thought the 808M might be better built and designed for the extra $20. No matter which of the 3 I get, just do 1A charging then for the AAs?

 

[half-watt]

If you delete a post, kill the first of the two. The 2nd one has an extra sentence and paragraph at the end! It's like the first one is a draft, and the 2nd one is the submitted one.

half-watt - So you're thinking the 801D is the better choice, since you have one and seem to like it? I don't see a need for C/D charging, just thought the 808M might be better built and designed for the extra $20. No matter which of the 3 I get, just do 1A charging then for the AAs?

If you delete a post, kill the first of the two. The 2nd one has an extra sentence and paragraph at the end! It's like the first one is a draft, and the 2nd one is the submitted one.

half-watt - So you're thinking the 801D is the better choice, since you have one and seem to like it? I don't see a need for C/D charging, just thought the 808M might be better built and designed for the extra $20. No matter which of the 3 I get, just do 1A charging then for the AAs?

hadn't noticed that the two Posts were a bit different. bet they were identical at one time and i know i went back and edited the last one (which i thought was the only one at that time) to add that paragraph on your 15min charger.

i have both the 801D and 808M. if you're sure that you're only going to be charging AA's (and AAA's) go with the 801D. save some money, plus the "bays" on the 808M are quite deep and, while NOT difficult to get AA's, and especially AAA's, in & out of the bays, it is no where as easy as doing so in the 801D.

it's much easier to insert, remove, and ensure good contact with the two smaller size cells in the 801D than it is in the 808M. i've thought about it a bit and i purchased the 808M first, and then a couple of months later purchased the 801D. it's a bit more convenient for me to use when charging AA's and AAA's. plus it's significantly smaller in its overall dimensions than the 808M, so it's easier to store on a shelf and use.

hope this info helps.

my one or two shekels (you do the math!!).



EDIT:

SO HOW DID THE POST TO WHICH I'M REPLYING GET STUCK IN THERE TWICE??? I CLICKED QUOTE AND TYPED MY REPLY AND THEN CLICKED SAVE. ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS? [at this point, i'm going to close FireFox and clear the cache - hope that helps.]

 

[SilverFox]

Hello RobertD,

Welcome to CPF.

I am not sure what cells you have, but all of the major brands recommend charging in the 0.5C - 1.0C range for fast charging. The standard slow charge is 16 hours at 0.1C.

I would recommend picking a charger that allows you to charge at a minimum of 0.5C for your cells.

Tom

 

[paulr]

I have a Vanson V-6988 10-cell charger that I bought to charge the cells of my 9-cell mag85. It's a relatively slow charger (5 hours) but with 10 independent channels and a discharge function, and is quite inexpensive, like $30 or so. Its drawback (at least the revision I got) was a limit of something like 2300 mah of fast charging, followed by trickle charge, not so good with 2500 and higher capacity cells I was using at the time. But I've switched just about entirely to 2000 mah eneloops, so I guess this charger can fast charge them.

 

[Bullseye00]

About the 801D vs. 808M. I have an 801D and the display is pretty hard for me to read.(small, fairly dim print on the LCD) In addition to the ability to charge C & D cells, you get a back-lit display with the 808M. One clear disadvantage of the 808M is it's *much* larger than the other two.

Reviews of all three Maha 8 slot units here:

http://www.digitaldingus.com/reviews/maha/mhc800s/index.php
http://www.digitaldingus.com/reviews/maha/mhc801d/mhc801d.php
http://www.digitaldingus.com/reviews/maha/mhc808m/index.php

(not affiliated w/ DD, but it's the one site I know where the same person reviewed all three units)