best battery/charger setup for high drain leds/cameras

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jasonsmaglites

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Feb 15, 2007
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i was searching for sanyo 2700's and can't find a deal on them anywhere.
i think this would be a better battery for me than the eneloops cause i'm always freshening my batteries anyways.
anyone know where i can find a deal on these, or are these even the best for what i want.
i want a high capacity under heavy drain, especially if i can get them 4 for $10 or so.
would walmarts duracell 2650s be better (not even sure mine carries them)

what's the best 4 pack aa's for around $10.
i may not mind spending a few more for the sanyo if they are the best for my fenix l2d on turbo, my mte seoul/ultrafire c2, and my digital cameras!

also, what is this charger?
La Crosse BC-900 Charger (copy and paste)
will this actually rate the batteries i own based on different discharge rates? that would be awesome! i love battery gadgets like this.
can i actually test the amperage of batteries with this thing!
how much is it?
anyone know of a good link to battery or charger info?

thanks,
jason
 
I have the La Crosse BC-900 charger, and quite a few others. It is a very interesting charger, with lots of features. It will rate each cell for capacity, and in fact it has a mode where it cycles each cell until they stop improving, which is the way to get them in shape and see how good they really are.

The drawbacks to this charger are that it does not operate from 12VDC, using AC only with a low voltage high current adapter (appears to be a switcher, fairly small and light but prongs don't fold), and the user interface is a bit complex, but not hard to learn. The documentation is okay.

I have been using this charger to characterize the old NiMH sets I have, and it is very interesting to see the cell matching and capacity of the old cells.

The charger is also fairly small so would be appropriate for travel.

I recommend this charger.

On to batteries. Cells over 2500 mah are often larger diameter and can be problematic to fit in some devices. Also, cells over 2500 mah are often not up to their specifications. My suggestion is to stick with 2500 mah cells, the extra 10% is not worth the cost, trouble, and in most cases not even 10% extra capacity. Do check a few of them in your devices before buying too many, in any case.

-- Alan B
 
battery at this price is probably some chinese battery like GP. i've been using GP for like 7 years. i think it's best bang for the buck
 
I got my BC-900 at ThomasDistributing. They have like 3 different deals, some with the LaCrosse batteries, and another combo pack with Eneloops, and one with Nexcell LSD cells. Watch out, there is also a BC-700, which is a couple dollars more, and doesn't charge at the higher rates compared to the BC900. Not sure why they released the BC-700, at a higher price.

BC-900 Priced $38.97 - $57.97

According to their site:

"BC-700 is capable of charge rates of either 200, 500, or 700 mA. This means that the BC-700 will charge 2500 mAh batteries in about 4 hrs at the 700mA charge rate. Slower charge rates often mean longer battery life. (** The BC 900 has charge rates of either 200, 500, 700, 1000, 1500, or 1800 mA. ) Other than the slower charge rates the BC-700 is identical in performance to the BC-900. The BC-700 is Black in color."

Steve
 
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I have a question on this topic. Is it true that the quicker the charge time (say 15 min - 1 hr) as opposed to a longer charge time (6 hrs or more) degrades the batteries? If so, is it just not a good practice? And, what would be a recommended charge time? With what batteries... Thanks!
 
Hello Roymail,

The battery manufactures generally recommend two charge rates. 0.1C for 16 hours and in the range of 0.5 - 1.0C with proper charge termination. The 0.5 - 1.0C charge rates charge in about 1 - 2 hours.

If you charge with a charger that charges in 1 - 2 hours, and your charger does not catch the charge termination signal, you will damage your cells. If you charge with a charger that charges in 6 hours and your charger does not catch the termination signal, you will damage your cells, but not as fast as charging at higher rates. If you use a charger that charges at 0.1C and is timed controlled and a power outage causes the timer to reset and you end up charging for 32 hours instead of 16 hours, you will also do a very small amount of damage to your cells, but it is difficult to measure.

Your batteries will last longer when charged at 0.1C, or when charged on a charger that properly terminates the charge. Temperature is a good indication of proper charge termination.

15 minute charging, even with proper charge termination, does damage cells. With higher capacity cells you may only get 150 charge/discharge cycles on a 15 minute charger, and with 2000 mAh cells, you may get up to twice that.

Tom
 
Tom, Thanks for the good information (not that I'm tech enough to understand it all). So those chargers that come with dept store batteries made by duracell or energizer, etc... are they just junk and should be avoided? I know several people that use them for their camera batteries.
 
Hello Roymail,

Today's cells seem to be robust enough to handle some abuse, however keep in mind that the same people that use those chargers also complain that they never seem to get their 500 cycles from their cells.

Tom
 
SilverFox said:
...keep in mind that the same people that use those chargers also complain that they never seem to get their 500 cycles from their cells.
Click to expand...

If a consumer buys a pack that contains a charger and cells, I think it's understandable why he would expect to get 500-1000 cycles when that's what's advertised on the packaging and he is using everything as directed.
 
SilverFox said:
Hello Roymail,

The battery manufactures generally recommend two charge rates. 0.1C for 16 hours and in the range of 0.5 - 1.0C with proper charge termination. The 0.5 - 1.0C charge rates charge in about 1 - 2 hours.

If you charge with a charger that charges in 1 - 2 hours, and your charger does not catch the charge termination signal, you will damage your cells. If you charge with a charger that charges in 6 hours and your charger does not catch the termination signal, you will damage your cells, but not as fast as charging at higher rates. If you use a charger that charges at 0.1C and is timed controlled and a power outage causes the timer to reset and you end up charging for 32 hours instead of 16 hours, you will also do a very small amount of damage to your cells, but it is difficult to measure.

Your batteries will last longer when charged at 0.1C, or when charged on a charger that properly terminates the charge. Temperature is a good indication of proper charge termination.

15 minute charging, even with proper charge termination, does damage cells. With higher capacity cells you may only get 150 charge/discharge cycles on a 15 minute charger, and with 2000 mAh cells, you may get up to twice that.

Tom
Click to expand...

SilverFox,

So what chargers do you know of that have end charge termination? Can you provide a list so others can seek thse chargers? Also could you provide your top picks of the list? Thanks.
 
Hello Zero Enigma,

There is a charger comparison thread that I started. It can be found in the sticky at the top of this forum. Unfortunately, it seems that there are more brands and types of chargers than there are batteries. As a result, the comparison is far from complete.

The best advice I can give is to find a charger that charges at a rate that is in the 0.5 - 1.0C range for the cells you are using. Next you need to closely monitor your chosen charger to observe the cell temperature during the charge. Finally, you need to check to see if your cells are being fully charged.

My top pick is the Schulze chargers, followed by the C-9000 and I often use the C-808M for C and D cells.

The 808M charges at a lower than optimal rate, but seems to terminate properly with C and D cells. I have, and use, very few C and D cells compared to AA and AAA cells, so I have limited experience with them. It does a very good job with AAA and AA cells.

When I am in a hurry, I use both the Duracell and Energizer 15 minute chargers.

This is where I am now... A few years ago I used a Vanson BC-1HU, but it had some termination issues with C and D cells. I upgraded to the BC-2HU and it does a little better, but still has some issues. The BC-900 offered a lot of advanced features and I still use mine, but reliability issues and a lack of features made me move on to the C-9000. The C-9000 isn't perfect either, but does a very good job. It gets quite hot when charging 4 cells at 2000 mA, so I generally limit 4 cell charging to 1800 mA.

Before that, I used a variety of 4 - 6 hour and "overnight" chargers.

The Schulze is the best charger I have, but my search for the "perfect" charger still continues...

Tom
 
So the Maha C-401 has fallen from favor? At some point I remember it being said to be the best.

Even it is double the price I'd like for recommending to others, though.

I noticed there's a new thread about the Sanyo eneloop chargers I'll have to read, as my most recent convert will be using the 4-cell one.
 
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i bought the lacrosse 4aa/aaa charger with the test mode.
boy is it awesome.
it called out my walmart "digital" cells for what they really are. crap.
2200mah checked out at 1600
2000mah 1400
800mah aaa checked out at 550mah
no name 600mah aaa was 350mah (what a con!)

but my shining star was my brand new duracell 2650s checked out averaging 2.7 amps!!!
it even had to use a different scale to rate them, no longer in mah, lol.

there is my charger/battery combo.
what you guys think i should step up to for d cells.
is there a charger/tester for them?
i have 16 tenergy's 10000mah.
do they usually test out at their rated capacity?
 
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