Charger recomendations?

[Cpt. Thomas]

Hi everyone,

As a noob to CPF & lights in general, I need a good charger (or two?). That said, I was hoping to get a soild recomendation for the top 5-6. Do to the fact that there are about a zillion chargers on the market, I just don't know what is good or not. What is important to me is:

1. Quaility of the charger, I don't mind paying good money for good equipment..... no juncky low end stuff.

2. Not having to have 5 chargers to charge different types of batteries. (two would be fine, three would be stretching it!)

3. Independant channel charging from 1 to 6 (??) batteries of AAA-AA-C-D-9v-123 and the other popular sizes, Enloop / Nimh and the Li on's as well.

4. Other bells and whistles? I'm open to suggestions as to what is really useful vs. what is just hype.

Thanks for the help and recommendations in advance :thumbsup:.

Cpt. Thomas

 

[vali]

For NiMH and NiCd nothing beats the Powerex MH-C9000 if you take in account price, build quality and ease of use all together. Unfortunately it can only charge AA and AAA.

For lithium the best you can get is a good hobby charger (but I dont have a clue about these) and use it to charge the 9V, D and C NiMH or NiCd cells too.

 

[aim54x]

For NiMH and NiCd nothing beats the Powerex MH-C9000 if you take in account price, build quality and ease of use all together. Unfortunately it can only charge AA and AAA.

I agree with the C9000...beautiful charger for AA/AAA

 

[Cpt. Thomas]

Ok thanks, I'll look up the C9000. What about for other series of batteries?

Cpt. Thomas

 

[Mr Happy]

3. Independant channel charging from 1 to 6 (??) batteries of AAA-AA-C-D-9v-123 and the other popular sizes, Enloop / Nimh and the Li on's as well.

There is no simple "slot in" charger available that can do that. (Actually there is no charger available at any price that can do all of it.) That is partly because Li-ion batteries (including RCR123) are not generally sold to the public for consumer use, so there is no need for chargers to charge them.

To meet your requirement for an all-in-one charger you will need to consider the kind of charger used for radio controlled toys. This will not be perfect either because you will need to rig up charging cradles or magnet leads to connect to the cells, and you won't get the independent channel charging for NiMH with that setup.

Possibly you will want a C9000 for AA/AAA cells, or perhaps the C808M to charge C and D cells as well, then something like the Pila IBC and some different sized spacers for lithium ion cells. NiMH rechargeable 9 V cells are not all that good and are perhaps best avoided.

 

[McAllan]

NiMH rechargeable 9 V cells are not all that good and are perhaps best avoided.

I've used them in the past. They're quite OK if you understand them and have a decent charger. The problem with NiMH is that mostly 9V are used for low power applications but they have high self discharge. However - read below:


To the OP:
If you want a charger capable of taking everything from AAA to D and 9V and 6 or more at the time then look no further than the Charge Manager 2020. It's as good as the C9000 - I'd even say better although it misses the break in mode - IMHO no big deal - just give the cells a couple of cycles before actual use.

If you want a "C9000 like" charger for your 9 volts alone then you can get this.

Since you want 9V rechargeables you'd probably want some with low self discharge for the reasons above. That's true - you can get even 9V as LSD! Here's a Varta and here's Conrad's own house brand.
So 9V rechargeables isn't as bad as they once were ;)

Or you can even go LiIon - that right - 9V as LiIons! However you're then limited to that charger. The Charge Managers can only charge NiMH. Same same is true for CR123A - they have those as rechargeables too and chargers.

Or just browse the batteries and chargers yourself. Only drawback is that you'll have so have it sent from Europe with probably import duty and all that.

 

[blkcamarozr28]

I run the Maha 808M. It has can do 8 AAA/AA/C/D and is ranked up there with the top 10 chargers. Only thing it cant do is 9v. I have the Maha 808M and the Maha C9000. I like the Maha 808M as you cant hear the hissing sound from the charger like the C9000.

 

[dfischer]

Capt:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=260923


Good luck.

 

[Linger]

A charger that can do all of it:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

Gives you 1 charger that can do nihm/nicd/li-po/pb. It can do single, series, parralel.
Thing is, it's not 'drop-in' anything.
It gives slots and leads. You could charge any/every cell singly very simple, just connect + and -'ve lead and let it go. If you want to be charging 2-15 cells at once, you need to creat a charging cradle for the various cells.