Battery charger under $40 ?

[metlarules]

I need a battery charger for nicad/nimh batteries(aaa.aa.c.d.9v).
What is the best one out their for under 40 dollars?

 

[VegasF6]

I am sure many will pipe up with other solutions, but a couple to look at in your price range are the bc1hu and the bc2hu made by Vanson but sold under many brand names. Harbor Freight occasionaly lists the bc1hu for 19.99, but it is 24.99 right now (plus shipping of course).
I am very close to biting the bullet on this one:
http://batteryjunction.com/v1ec-bc2hu.html

For about 89$, this is a wonderfull charger, or so I have read at least.
Maha MH-C808M. I know that is quite abit above your budget, but you would have it a long long time, and the added feature of balancing your cells and such would probably greatly extend the life of your expensive batteries.

La Crosse makes a very nice charger for the money, but to the best of my knowledge, they are limited to AA and AAA.

 

[metlarules]

I am sure many will pipe up with other solutions, but a couple to look at in your price range are the bc1hu and the bc2hu made by Vanson but sold under many brand names. Harbor Freight occasionaly lists the bc1hu for 19.99, but it is 24.99 right now (plus shipping of course).
I am very close to biting the bullet on this one:
http://batteryjunction.com/v1ec-bc2hu.html

For about 89$, this is a wonderfull charger, or so I have read at least.
Maha MH-C808M. I know that is quite abit above your budget, but you would have it a long long time, and the added feature of balancing your cells and such would probably greatly extend the life of your expensive batteries.

La Crosse makes a very nice charger for the money, but to the best of my knowledge, they are limited to AA and AAA.

Is there any difference between the vanson & titanium brands? They both look the same.

 

[Raymond]

That housing is also used by the accupower brand, but I think the electronics are a little different.

Edit: I saw that I made a mistake in my earlier post
I think the only difference is the extra car adapter, for $5.

When you're looking at chargers under $40, I think the vanson/titanium chargers are very nice chargers. As a bonus over the accupower charger, they also have a discharge function.

When looking at $90 chargers, I'd choose the maha c808m over the accupower or ansmann chargers, but that's more of a personal preference and could very well be wrong .

You can check silverfox's comparison here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=70935.

 

[VegasF6]

The BC2hu has both the car adapter, and world voltage power supply. Other than that, I am pretty sure they are the same.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Metlarules,

I happen to have both the BC1HU and the BC2HU. There are differences...

The BC1HU charges:

AAA cells at 300 mA
AA cells at 500 mA
C cells at 700 mA
D cells at 700 mA
9V batteries at 20 mA
and trickle charges at 1/10 of the charging current, except for 9V batteries which are timer controlled then shut off with no trickle charge.

Discharge current is
350 mA for AA, C, and D cells and
150 mA for AAA cells.

Safety timer shuts the charge off after:

3.5 hours when charging AAA cells
5 hours when charging AA cells
6 hours when charging C cells
and 11.5 hours when charging D cells and 9V batteries.

The BC2HU charges:

AAA cells at 350 mA
AA cells at 700 mA
C cells at 700 mA
D cells at 700 mA
9V batteries at 20 mA
and trickle charges at 1/10 of the charging current, except for 9V batteries which are timer controlled then shut off with no trickle charge.

Discharge current is
350 mA for AA, C, and D cells and
125 mA for AAA cells.

Safety timer shuts the charge off after:

3 hours when charging AAA cells
3.5 hours when charging AA cells
7 hours when charging C cells
and 14 hours when charging D cells and 9V batteries.

I don't believe the BC1HU comes with a 12 volt adaptor for your car, but it is usually included with the BC2HU.

If you are choosing between these two, I would point you toward the BC2HU.

Tom

 

[Raymond]

If the safety timer of the bch2u shuts the charger off after 3.5 hours when charging AA's, isn't that cutting a little close?

if it charges at 700ma, it will have put in less than 2500mah, which is not enough for today's AA's.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Raymond,

I believe this charger came out before there were 2500 mAh or higher batteries.

At any rate, since most people know that it is better not to completely drain their cells before recharging, the only time this would be an issue is when conditioning cells. In this case, you would either have to leave them on the charger to trickle charge to full, or restart the timer halfway through the charge.

Tom

 

[metlarules]

How does the Tenergy T-6278 charger stack up against the Titanium BC2-HU?http://www.batteryjunction.com/uninbachwilc.html

 

[metlarules]

I noticed that the Vanson BC1-HU from Batteryspace is shipped with a 1a input transformer and list the charge time for aa,c,and d's at 820 mah. The BC1-HU shipped from BatteryJunction is shipped with a 800ma transformer and list charge times of 700mah for aa,c,and d's. I wonder if there is any difference with the internals. Anyone know?