AA Charger recomendations

[rideandshoot]

Re: something other than L2D
Quote:
Originally Posted by lumenal
A couple quick points.

Most 15 min. chargers are very hard on NiMH cells, especially higher capacity cells (above 2200 mAh).

The Energizer 15 min.charger, while it does a good job of fully charging the cells in 25 min. or less, is most notorious for heat. And cooking your cells can result in internal damage and lost cycles.

OTOH, the Duracell 15 min. charger is a little gentler on NiMH cells. But at a price.

Most cells are only about 65-70% charged using the Duracell 15 min. charger, after a normal 15 min . cycle ( and then waiting the 10 min. or so after the red LED has turned off for the fan to also turn off).

The Duracell 15 min. charger then goes into a trickle charge for about the next 2 hours, bringing the cells up to a complete charge. (You can hear the charger "clicking", when the "clicking" stops, the cells are done, 2 hours later :sigh.

Thats why the Duracell 15 min. charger should be called the Duracell 2 and 1/2 hour charger. :laughing:

EDIT- The current Duracell 15 min. charger now comes with 4 Duracell PreCharged AA cells. Lets hope the charger circuitry was tweaked.


My charger is actually an Energizer model. So your data indicates that it does achieve full charge but reduces the life do to the fast charging rate. That explains why I haven't had run time issues so far...

I don't mind going to a slower charging rate as long as it has an auto shut down and can charge 6 batteries in 4 hours.

I am a bit bummed that I have to buy a new charger. I just got this one:shakehead

I'll move this over to the Battery section (from LED section)

Calling all recomendations

 

[chewy78]

I recommend a maha 401fs charger. It will charge aa batteries in about 2 hours

 

[geek4christ]

SilverFox has a great charger comparison thread. There's a lot of data there for your reading pleasure.

 

[Anders]

Hello rideandshoot.

A lot of us here at CPF have Maha C-9000, probably the most recommended charger here.

Anders

 

[UnknownVT]

A lot of us here at CPF have Maha C-9000, probably the most recommended charger here.

The Maha C-9000 charger is one of the most recommended chargers here on CPF - for a good reason -
but it is a $60 charger -
and the original poster rideandshoot is "bummed" because the Energizer 15 minute charger (at about $30 with 4 NiMH) was only just purchased.

The other highly regarded charger here is the LaCrosse BC-900 - about $40 - a bit better priced.

If the recent purchase of the Energizer 15 minute charger was from somewhere like WalMart - see if it can be returned for a refund and then perhaps the purchase of a "better" charger would not be so unpalatable.

Also please take a look at -

Soshine SC-C3 Intelligent Rapid Charger

It's $13.98 shipped - (caveats) it's shipped from Hong Kong, does NOT have UL listing (but does claim CE mark) -
please read my review and follow up posts -
I like it a lot - because it's versatile, works well for me, and cheap.....

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Rideandshoot,

Here is another way to look at things...

Your Duracell 2650 mAh 4 pack of cells will cost you around $10 to replace.

If you run your cells all the way to empty every time before charging, and use the Energizer 15 minute charger for charging, you will probably get around 150 charge/discharge cycles from your cells.

That works out to around $0.02 per cell per charge. Can you afford that?

On the other hand, let's suppose that you get a $60 charger in the hopes of getting 500 cycles from your cells. This means that you have to add in the cost of the charger plus the cost of the cells, at least during the first set of batteries. Now, after 500 cycles, you find that it cost you around $0.04 per cell per charge.

This cost would be reduced if you were able to sell your 15 minute charger and applied the funds received to the cost of your $60 charger.

OK, we are playing around with numbers here, so let's just look at the charging cost for the $10 set of batteries.

500 cycles will see you paying around $0.005 per cell per charge. The difference in charging costs mean that when you have charged 4000 cells, you will be at a break even point concerning the price of your new $60 charger. Oops, this means that if you are charging 4 cells at a time, you will need to get to 1000 charges for your set of 4 cells, but your cells are only good for 500 cycles. Now we have to add the cost of another set of cells...

At any rate, I will let you decide if you feel the extra expensive is excessive and if you want to change anything at all. It is true that the 15 minute chargers are harder on your cells, but you spend less time charging, and these chargers quickly identify "crap" cells. If your cell will charge on a 15 minute charger, it is probably in good shape.

Tom

 

[rideandshoot]

Hello Rideandshoot,

Here is another way to look at things...

Your Duracell 2650 mAh 4 pack of cells will cost you around $10 to replace.

If you run your cells all the way to empty every time before charging, and use the Energizer 15 minute charger for charging, you will probably get around 150 charge/discharge cycles from your cells.

That works out to around $0.02 per cell per charge. Can you afford that?

On the other hand, let's suppose that you get a $60 charger in the hopes of getting 500 cycles from your cells. This means that you have to add in the cost of the charger plus the cost of the cells, at least during the first set of batteries. Now, after 500 cycles, you find that it cost you around $0.04 per cell per charge.

This cost would be reduced if you were able to sell your 15 minute charger and applied the funds received to the cost of your $60 charger.

OK, we are playing around with numbers here, so let's just look at the charging cost for the $10 set of batteries.

500 cycles will see you paying around $0.005 per cell per charge. The difference in charging costs mean that when you have charged 4000 cells, you will be at a break even point concerning the price of your new $60 charger. Oops, this means that if you are charging 4 cells at a time, you will need to get to 1000 charges for your set of 4 cells, but your cells are only good for 500 cycles. Now we have to add the cost of another set of cells...

At any rate, I will let you decide if you feel the extra expensive is excessive and if you want to change anything at all. It is true that the 15 minute chargers are harder on your cells, but you spend less time charging, and these chargers quickly identify "crap" cells. If your cell will charge on a 15 minute charger, it is probably in good shape.

Tom

Silver Fox... You rock. :rock:

I'm going to quit thinking about this now.

Other than calculating when I hit 150 cycles:wave:

I only ride at night once a week and once or twice a year at 24 hour races... so Hmmm

How will the charger tell me when I have a bad cell. Will I here it scream? What if I'm not there when it screams? I won't here itoo:

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Rideandshoot,

You get a flashing light, and the charger will refuse to charge your batteries. Since it only has one light, you have to fiddle around a little to figure out which is the bad cell, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to do.

Tom

 

[rideandshoot]

Hello Rideandshoot,

You get a flashing light, and the charger will refuse to charge your batteries. Since it only has one light, you have to fiddle around a little to figure out which is the bad cell, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to do.

Tom

Hmmm....

I have seen that flashing light on a couple of my older (25 half cycles) cells when I've put them on the charger to top them off. I've found that if I draw them down a little (L2D for 10 minutes on turbo) they charge normally. Would you say that these cells are dead or dying?

Thanks

 

[Mr Happy]

I have seen that flashing light on a couple of my older (25 half cycles) cells when I've put them on the charger to top them off. I've found that if I draw them down a little (L2D for 10 minutes on turbo) they charge normally. Would you say that these cells are dead or dying?

I'd say it's not a good idea to use a 15 minute charger for topping up cells. It will take the charger a little while to determine that the cell is almost fully charged, and during that time the cell will be getting overcharged at quite a high rate. If the charger flashes and refuses to charge partly charged cells you could take that as a good thing, safeguarding the cells.

It's best to use 15 minute chargers on empty cells, so that it can go through the whole 15 minute charging cycle according to plan.

 

[frasera]

Hello Rideandshoot,

Here is another way to look at things...

Your Duracell 2650 mAh 4 pack of cells will cost you around $10 to replace.

If you run your cells all the way to empty every time before charging, and use the Energizer 15 minute charger for charging, you will probably get around 150 charge/discharge cycles from your cells.

That works out to around $0.02 per cell per charge. Can you afford that?

On the other hand, let's suppose that you get a $60 charger in the hopes of getting 500 cycles from your cells. This means that you have to add in the cost of the charger plus the cost of the cells, at least during the first set of batteries. Now, after 500 cycles, you find that it cost you around $0.04 per cell per charge.

This cost would be reduced if you were able to sell your 15 minute charger and applied the funds received to the cost of your $60 charger.

OK, we are playing around with numbers here, so let's just look at the charging cost for the $10 set of batteries.

500 cycles will see you paying around $0.005 per cell per charge. The difference in charging costs mean that when you have charged 4000 cells, you will be at a break even point concerning the price of your new $60 charger. Oops, this means that if you are charging 4 cells at a time, you will need to get to 1000 charges for your set of 4 cells, but your cells are only good for 500 cycles. Now we have to add the cost of another set of cells...

At any rate, I will let you decide if you feel the extra expensive is excessive and if you want to change anything at all. It is true that the 15 minute chargers are harder on your cells, but you spend less time charging, and these chargers quickly identify "crap" cells. If your cell will charge on a 15 minute charger, it is probably in good shape.

Tom

yup, cost per use is so low its sometimes a waste of time to baby batteries.
whats more important is convenience. 15 minutes makes it a last moment possible type of thing, whereas hours is something you have to plan before hand. we've all had to run out the door and forgot to charge this or that..and that really sucks. so its one less thing to worry about.

i have the duracell 15min, it cools the batteries pretty decently actually. as for marginal cells that get rejected, we all have those free with batteries chargers.. youcan use those to get the last charges out of a set.

 

[Vikas Sontakke]

Tom put it so brilliantly! One thing he did NOT mention and IS relevant is that by the time you have gone through 150 cycles, you would not mind moving to the next generation of cells. They probably will have higher capacity, less resistance, ultra-low discharge or some combination thereof.

I still have 1800 and 1600 batteries which are more than 5 years old. They have seen nothing but 1-hr Rayovac charger. When that charger was first introduced, there were lot of concern about "fast charging" but I had used the same rationale. By the time the cells die, I would be buying higher capacity cells. *Unfortunately*, my cells are refusing to die On top of it, I had spent under a dollar per cell from MCM electronics (white DuraCell, made in Singapore).

- Vikas

 

[Flying Turtle]

Just tried one of the Duracell Power Gauge chargers, but it had to go back. Slot #1 would only half charge the battery before the lights started flashing indicating high temp. or a bad cell, and this was with the included new batteries. Tried another identical 1700 ma Duracell and the same thing happened. I suppose this was a bad unit, but I think I'll just get a LaCrosse. I was pleased that the Duracell had four independent channels, but the charge rate was only 400 ma. After all the recent discussion it appears a higher rate is better. I couldn't find a thing on the Duracell site about this charger, so maybe something better is in the works.

Geoff