Battery Rant

[USACelt]

I spent several hours today and more over the past weeks reading reviews of chargers and batteries. I had decided on Eneloops and a Titanium MD-3000 charger. I then found a comment someone made that the md-3000 will fry eneloops. I have a bad headache. This of course getting over the thought that rechargable batteries may burn my freaking house down.
Maybe I'm dense, but why is this so hard, what am I missing. I don't expect anyone to some to my rescue. I just wanted to vent to people that wont roll their eys and sigh as my gf does. :sigh:
Thanks folks

 

[Mr Happy]

It's OK, rant away. There is no good charger you can conveniently buy in shops today. This is because the marketing people think consumers will be confused why anything like a battery charger should cost more than about $10 -- and anyway if a $10 charger shortens the life of batteries so people have to buy more of them more often, that's all to the good, no?

 

[MarNav1]

http://www.batteryjunction.com/v7988.html I use this charger all the time, no problems at all. It is rated for Eneloops (I don't have any) and I'm real happy with it. I got rid of my $10 charger afterwards.

 

[Julian Holtz]

Nevermind.

 

[PeAK]

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.I had decided on Eneloops and a Titanium MD-3000 charger. I then found a comment someone made that the md-3000 will fry eneloops. I have a bad headache. This of course getting over the thought that rechargable batteries may burn my freaking house down.
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Not to worry, Celtic. The MD-3000 has a thermal shutdown according to the literature:
Product Description

Titanium MD3000 AA/AAA/C/D/9V Universal Rapid Charger The MD3000 is one of the finest Universal Smart Chargers in the world. Utilizing highly advanced circuitry to maximize your battery investment the MD3000 will safely and quickly charge todays high capacity batteries. Features and Benefits * State of the art Features: The MD-3000 is FAST. Most 'fast' chargers will take 4-6 hours to charge a 2700mah AA battery and 14-16 to charge a 10000mah D cell; the MD-3000 will charge the same AA about 1.5 hours and the D cell in about 6 hours. * Precision Microprocessor controller accurate to within .001V keeps battery temperatures low while charging fast. * Backlit LCD display indicates charge level. * Integrated Battery Conditioning; discharge and charges your batteries at the press of a button restoring your batteries to their optimal condition and elinating any memory effect. Six Independent Charge Channels Charge just about any combination of AA/AAA/C/D and 9V batteries regardless of capacity. Works on yesterdays batteries, today's batteries and tomorrow's batteries! LCD and LED charge status display each channel has it's own status display. An elegant, indigo backlit LCD displays charge status for the AA/AAA/C & D battery channels using a series of 4 'bars' (25/50/75/100%) to indicate charge percentage. and red/green LED indication for the 9V channels. Genius Battery Protection - better than smart * Negative Delta V (-V) Voltage Charger Termination * Fail Safe Timer & Thermal Protection Charge Termination < * Short Circuit & Input Voltage Detection/Protection * Reverse Polarity, Alkaline Battery & Defective Battery Detection/Protection Ready to Travel * 100-240 50/60 Hz Autoswitching AC Power Adaptor * 12VDC Car Cord * CE & ETL certified. RoHs & FCC Compliant.
​

Since your MD-3000 has a integrated discharge function, you can run this modified sanity check by just discharging batteries for 5 minutes, removing battteries, and then seeing how long it takes the unit to finish chargng them. Sleep well.

P.S. Any idea what the discharge rate is in the "Refresh mode" ?

PeAK

 

[shuter]

USACelt - For all NiMH batteries I highly recommend the Maha C-9000. Simple and safe. Your batteries will love you for it.

For Li-Ion rechargeable you will need something else and that is where it got complicated and frustrating for me. While there are many smart and informed people here on CPF, IMHO you can just listen to Silverfox. He has written about pretty near everything you need to know about batteries and chargers right here on CPF.

For general education and reference use Battery University. http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

If you just stick to these two sources and tune out everything else, your headaches and frustration will disappear and you will not go wrong.

 

[Norbert815]

shuter: appreciate the good info, thanks! The PowerEx is indeed worth the money. Most people have had disappointing results from cheap chargers and rechargeables (myself included) They just need to get educated!

 

[USACelt]

Thanks for the help guys.
I read about the Maha C-9000, guess I'll go back and look again.

 

[Vikas Sontakke]

If Maha is too expensive, then settle for La Crosse Technology BC-700 Alpha Power Battery Charger (shipped $30 from Amazon). It has 83 reviews on Amazon! Seriously, either buy el cheapo charger or stick with Maha and/or La Crosse and skip other unknown chargers without substantial reviews.

- Vikas

 

[TorchBoy]

It's the Maha MH-C9000, and it's great. Those La Crosse chargers are reasonably popular too.

 

[WDG]

After much reading and searching CPF, I concluded the answer was a very simple one: Eneloop & MH-C9000. I've been completely satisfied with that answer for the last couple years, and see no reason it would change anytime soon.

 

[TakeTheActive]

I spent several hours today and more over the past weeks reading reviews of chargers and batteries... ...I have a bad headache... ...Maybe I'm dense, but why is this so hard, what am I missing...

Good for you! :thumbsup:

You have to figure out for yourself how to separate the wheat from the chaff, and it takes time. :tinfoil:

There are:

• Right answers
• Wrong answers
• Incomplete answers
• Opinions
• Etc...

But eventually, (after a FEW MONTHS! ) you start forming your own 'picture' from the knowledge you've gained and the experiments you've tried. You learn what works and you learn what doesn't work. *AND* you learn why.

...I had decided on Eneloops and a Titanium MD-3000 charger. I then found a comment someone made that the md-3000 will fry eneloops...

I've seen the Titanium MD-3000 mentioned a few times, but, no one has yet put a review together. Do you need the C/D/9V capability? Please post the LINK with the 'fried Eneloops'.

For me, the BREAK-IN Function, IMPEDANCE CHECK VOLTAGE and CHARGE CURRENT / DISCHARGE CAPACITY (at *MANY* different current levels) on the MH-C9000 are *VERY* useful. Without DISCHARGE CAPACITY, MATCHING CELLs is 'hit-or-miss'. Without IMPEDANCE CHECK VOLTAGE, you don't know why your cells are overheating when charging or pooping out early when discharging.

It boils done to ROI. How many cells are you going to maintain with 'this' new charger? :thinking:

Good luck with whichever one you choose!

 

[shuter]

After much reading and searching CPF, I concluded the answer was a very simple one: Eneloop & MH-C9000. I've been completely satisfied with that answer for the last couple years, and see no reason it would change anytime soon.

If the question is AA & AAA NiMH... BINGO