Good NIMH charger (fast charger preferred)?

[safetyobc]

I am looking for a good charger to use my AA's in a digital camera, radio scanners and other small electronics. I have looked at several, like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817355008

I had an Energizer 15 minute charger that I got at Wal-Mart for $30. It does great as far as charging the batteries for the first couple of months, then my batteries are crapping out after only 3 or 4 months of use. The charger is heating the batteries too much and ruining them. The Energizer has a fan on it, but it doesn't seem to help too much.

I wouldn't mind having a charger take longer, but I don't want to wait 8 hours or more. 1 hour would be fine (as the one linked to indicates).

Any other suggestions. Not wanting to spend over $50 on one. And I want it to charge 1 to 4 batteries, meaning having different charging circuitry for each battery.

Also, I would like my batterie to last at least a year. I don't want to have to buy them every 4 months, and shouldn't have to.

thanks,

safetyobc

 

[ekincam]

That charger will not charge 4 AAs in an hour, depending on capacity.

If the capacity of your batteries is is over 2000mAH, it will take over one hour. The capacity divided by the charging rate is the time in hours it will take to charge the batteries. It says 100 minutes because back when that charger came out, batteries had lower capacity.

Another good one for slightly less is the La Crosse BC-900. It will charge at the same rate as the Maha MH-C401 that you linked to, as well as several slower rates. It can also condition your batteries. You can find this at http://www.thomasdistributing.com

 

[mdocod]

Welcome to CPF!

one way to improve your cycle life would be to switch to some more robust cells, which brand of cells are you using? See... cells like the energizer 2500NIMH cells are total garbage when it comes to cycle life, and slapping them on that 15 minute charger only speeds up the rate at which they deteriorate. In my experience even really cheap off-brand cells like tenergy and powerizer are better than the energizer cells.

Having said that, try eneloops for your next set. They seem to be more robust, able to handle at least a few hundred cycles without trouble. But I wouldn't suggest using the 15 minute charger on them. ~1 hour charge rates are usually the best compromise for cell health.

 

[donn_]

I've used a 401 charger for a few years now, and have been very happy with it. It's been charging 2000 and 2700 Powerex cells for my camera and wireless mice and keyboards.

Recently, my NiMH use has increased dramatically, so I stepped up to the 808, based largely on reviews in this forum. It's still new to me, but so far I like it. I've been getting a lot of unknown condition cells in flashlight purchases, so I'm conditioning them first, using the 808. Right now it's involved in conditioning a batch of 12,000mAH D cells, on the slow setting. It started at 2PM on Saturday, and is still discharging the cells. The instructions say it could take over 60 hours to complete, but it should be worth it.

 

[moldyoldy]

Hi SafetyOBC, welcome to CPF!

Another possible independent channel Ni-Mh AAA/AA charger for 120/240VAC would be the Sony charger as found here:

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/sony-lcd-rechargeable-battery-charger.htm

I provided that charger to several organizations and maintenance personnel as well as both of my daughters traveling/living in Europe. All units are still being used on 120VAC or 240VAC with no problems, and they do use it one channel at a time as well. As offered by Thomas Distributing, it comes with 8 AA cells, 4 Sony and 4 some other brand. It does not appear to trickle charge - shuts off at end of cycle. The display has a simple back-lit charge status display - nice. no wall-wart either, all self contained, small and light.

What do I use now? I have two LaCrosse BC-900 (latest OS rev) from T-D. I like them for the variable charge rate possibilities. I sent several Maha chargers out to friends and relatives, including a couple of the Maha C801D and Maha C800S, all who needed to charge lots of AAs. One is on a sail boat that started in Lake Superior and now somewhere on the SE coast of the US. I used to use the Maha C204W and gave up because of overheating the cells and charging only 2 AA cells at a time. I also had the C401FS and gave up on that because of irregularities during high-rate charge in US or Europe. Slow rate was fine. A C401FS seriously fried 4 cells on hi-rate charge for my older daughter in Austria. The big Maha C9000 is way too large for my traveling style (lightweight).