How do the smart battery chargers on ebay perform?

[johnny13oi]

Hey guys, I got myself some RayOVac Hybrid batteries and the charger that comes with it. I have 6AA and 2AAA. I heard that the charger it comes with is really bad. I was wondering how do the smart battery chargers on Ebay perform? They seem to have some Delta V cutoff I'm guessing it cuts off after a certain voltage and thermal protection to cut it off when it gets too hot. Is there anything else I need ... and there are also some with an independent channel per cell which I plan on getting. http://cgi.ebay.com/Universal-Smart...3QQihZ014QQcategoryZ50603QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That is one of them that seems to be okay. I'm trying to find one for about $30 total to get in on the $15 off $30 for Paypal deal.

This one is only like $13 after shipping and it appears to have independent channels for each cell with thermal and delta V cut off and can charge 4AA and 4AAA at the same time..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Smart-AA-AAA-9V...7QQihZ002QQcategoryZ48618QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[johnny13oi]

can anyone help me?

 

[jrmcferren]

I don't see too many details on the second charger (ie. minimum number of cells to charge) so I would stick with the first one out of the two. The first one requires a charge in sets of two like a lot of timer chargers, but has the -dV/dT cutoff. The cells alone might be worth the cost of the first set alone.

 

[johnny13oi]

I don't see too many details on the second charger (ie. minimum number of cells to charge) so I would stick with the first one out of the two. The first one requires a charge in sets of two like a lot of timer chargers, but has the -dV/dT cutoff. The cells alone might be worth the cost of the first set alone.

The first one actually says that it has 4 independent charging channels and it says that it can charge 1-2 or 3-4 meaning it can charge a single cell not in pairs I think. I saw another charger being sold elsewhere that looks the same with 4 independent channels. And would a -dV/dT cutoff and temp protection be good enough for everyday use?

 

[VidPro]

i wouldnt have either of them. why cant you do AA and AAA IF its fully independant channels?

me thinks there should be a seperate LED for each channel, so you know what is going on, some sort of discharge function , even if you use it only once a year, although that isnt a nessisity.

they arent telling what the actual MA rate is for the charge, or if its different for AAAs
it has timeout, which can be an issue when the capacities change, unless its a long time, time out.
OLD stuff made for 1800ma batteries became problematic because of timeout.

most all of this stuff has thermal protections, yet its so poorly connected , and never kicks in when needed.

they always pack some super cruddy batteries with them, because they cant unload them any other way

those are things to watch out for when making your choices.

you know thomas distributing will take paypal now, i need to cash in on my 15$ off deal too, before the time runs out. i am not sure if it applies to only e-bay stores, i never got an answer about that.

at any rate all chargers are stupid putting in a microcontroller (computer) hasnt made them much smarter. pretty much any of the fully independant channel ones will work just fine..

the older MAHA chargers (from what i read here) have been some of the best, i wont mention Maha battereis :-(

 

[VidPro]

check out this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...K:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=3071846941&rd=1&rd=1
(cheaper elsewhere)

its SLOW though, take all day to charge 2500s. at its 250ma rate, but it has the discharge, fully seperated channels, AA or AAA at the same time, has a LOW rate topping charge, and would be very hard to start a fire or melt things.
the low rate topping means you can leave batteries in for Days, and they are not ruined (although it would be wise to cycle them if you leave it for months)
has a led for each item, and will discharge some cells while topping off others, while charging others.

the only problem with it is, at that rate, some durable cells will not show the V-drop, because they CAN handle the overcharge rate, so it misses termination, and then times out, but it does not end up baking the batts or ruining them.

its the best cheap thoughtless charger that we use here. and it has been problem free for years.

is not Multivoltage , so it wont work for 220v european power.