Harbor Freight COMPUTER CONTROLLED NiMH CHARGER

[lanzarrule]

Looking for a battery charger for my kids toys and my Canon A540 camera, mostly AAA and AA's.
I have the Energizer set up now but a lot of his stuff use 3 batteries, So I have one odd ball battery all the time. The charger I have now only charges in pairs. After reading the Forums for awhile with all the over heating and burnt up batterys on the c-9000 and bc-900. I read someone had used the Harbor Freight charger. Looking for feedback. I got a flyer that has it for $19.99 thats half price. Any input would be great.

 

[jrmcferren]

How about the Accupower accumanager 20, it will charge between 1 and 4 cells and will automatically detect the type. It will charge AAA (nicd, nimh, RAM), AA (nicd, nimh, RAM), C (nicd, nimh, RAM), D (nicd, nimh, RAM), as well as 9volt (nicd and nimh Only). Important note with most chargers: 9V is usually a dumb charger, but the accumanager 20 is smarter than that. http://www.nimhbattery.com/ap-accupower20.htm is where you can get it. It is 48.97 plus shipping and includes a free battery tester.
I don't work for Thomas Distributing or Accupower.

 

[MrAl]

Hi there,

You may want to look at the 15 minute chargers instead. They do one to four
cells in 15 minutes. They run about 30 dollars.

 

[viorel00]

Interesting, I never heard before of RAM, is this a very new technology?
How many cycles, how long to recharge, what about performance in low temperatures?

I found a few links, but more info is always welcome

http://www.cetsolar.com/accuram.htm

 

[coppertrail]

Is this the charger you're referring to for $19.99? If so, that's a great price. All-battery.com sells them for $27.75. Looks like a re-branded BC1HU. I might have to pick one up, I don't have a C/D NiMH charger.

 

[elgarak]

Just to let you know: There's an inherent danger with all fast (read: high current) chargers. Sometimes the charger and batteries don't like each other.

Here's my story with the Accumanager 20: Bought a new 4-pack of Energizer AAA (750 mAh). Two bubbled the outer wrap during the first charge (15 min after start). Very hot. Pulled the plug and tossed the batteries after cool down. A third did the same during the 2nd cycle. So far, the 4th is still alive and well.

Problem is the charger? I don't think so. It's just something that can happen anytime once you go above, oh, let's say .2C IMO (the Accumanager uses 700 mA, roughly 1C on AAAs).

High current chargers are IMO not to be run unsupervised/by untrained people/without safety procedures set-up. Anything in the neighborhood of 1A is a high current, especially for small devices like the BC900 or C-9000.

 

[lanzarrule]

So no one has used this charger? Will have to check it out and post how it works then.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Lanzarrule,

Welcome to CPF.

That is the early version of the BC-1HU. It has been revised with what is sometimes refered to as the BC-2HU.

The major upgrade is that the newer units have 700 mA charging for AA cells, and the safety timer has increased from 11.5 hours to around 15 hours.

Tom

 

[Phlack]

The Accumanager's 9-volt charger is a semi-smart, semi-dumb charger at 30ma/h. This was pointed out by a Accupower representative, due to the varied makeups of 9-volt batteries.

-Mike