Do Eneloops require a special charger? Best AAA/AA travel charger

[mountainwalker]

Will any old standard NiMH AAA/AA charger do for Eneloop AAA and AA?

If a standard charger will work fine, I have some super light folding 4 AAA/AA radio shack chargers that are excellent for travel, and some desktop chargers for 8 batteries.

If a special charger is required, can anyone recommend a good light and compact travel charger and a good desktop charger?

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Mountainwalker,

Most of your questions can be answered by using the search feature. Searching on "Eneloop charging" I found this thread. You may also want to search on "Eneloop break in" for some additional results.

Battery manufacturers recommend charging NiMh cells at either 0.1C for 16 hours, or in the range of 0.5 - 1.0C. You will have to search on the various charger specifications that meet these recommendations.

C refers to the cells capacity. The Eneloop cell is 2000 mAh, so 0.1C would be 200 mA, and 0.5 - 1.0C would be in the range of 1000 - 2000 mA.

The Eneloop charger does not follow the manufacturers recommendations. It is under study as we try to figure out just how it works. You can also find those comments with a search.

You need to research the various charger specifications, pick a few that seem to be "suitable" for your use, and then ask questions about them.

Tom