Fast charger

[Huib]

I have been reading a lot of threads on the CPF but this is my first post.
I am looking for low self discharge batteries and I think about buying Eneloops. The rechargebles are also ment to be used in a Petzl headlamp wich uses three AAA cells. This is normally a problem because most chargers charge two or four batteries. I found three chargers that can charge three batteries: GP ReCyko Fastcharger, Hapé NV90 and Hapé NV70 (Hapé is a Dutch firm wich may not be available outside the Netherlands). All those chargers are fast chargers. Now I would like to know if fast chargers are good for NiMH batteries. Fast charging sounds nice, but I want to keep my batteries good. Can anyone tell me anything about this?

About Hapé: I have 2600mAh NiMh cells from them wich are very good. They are in my camera and I charged them more than two months ago. Today I made a hundred pictures and the batteries are still oké. Hapé also has low self discharge batteries. They claim 2200mAh though the capacity after a year will be 70-85% en they can be used 500-1000 times (Eneloop says 2000mAh, 85% capacity after a year and 1000 times of use). Unfortunately I don't have equipment to test this.

Huib

 

[sweetlight]

From what I've read fast chargers will shorten the life of your batts.

 

[shadowjk]

The 15-minute chargers can be a bit hard on the batteries, but I think all of those that you mentioned are 1+ hour chargers? So you should be fine... Silverfox tested eneloops in 15-minute charger and it didn't look too bad, eneloop is a good battery

 

[Alan_P]

The Maha MH-C401FS charger has four independent slots so it can handle 3 batteries. You can also select fast or slow charging.


Alan

 

[Mr Happy]

The better chargers can charge from 1 to 4 batteries individually. Any of those chargers can charge three batteries while leaving the fourth slot empty.

Two more suggestions for you to consider are the Duracell CEF21 or CEF23 chargers. Both of those can charge 3 batteries at a time.

Eneloops are good. You cannot go wrong with those.

 

[scottaw]

a 15 minute charger will shorten battery life from hundreds of cycles down to 100ish, but it's VERY nice to have dead batteries ready to go in 15 minutes. I figure if i get 50 solid charges out of a set of batteries, i'm still getting a deal and i'm gonna be happy in the end.

 

[Huib]

Thank you for all the answers so far. The chargers I mentioned are indeed 1+ hour chargers and not 15 min. chargers. So they could be fine.
I also have been looking at the Maha MH-C401FS but on CPF I read good and less good reviews about this one.
I have also been looking further for other chargers now and the Ansmann Powerline 5 LCD seems to be a good one too.

Some more expensive chargers have 'refresh' and discharge functions. Are those functions useful for Eneloops or only for 'traditional' NiMH batteries?