Maha C9000 - must have?

[koala]

NOT.

My opinion after 3 months of use... The Maha C9000 is an absolutely cool charger. It has a nice easy to use interface and very well built but it has a few short coming.

The C9000 is only buddy buddy with new or high quality cells. Crap cells shows up HIGH no matter what I do. Ok I know I shouldn't buy(they were bundled free) crap cells BUT my other chargers are fine with the crap cells including the Maha C401FS (-$5). Some people may say it's a 'feature' but sorry I don't have this problem in other intelligent chargers, unless it's a really crap cell. The C9000 goes high whenever I feed it crap cells. Kinda like "ohhh I give up I can't handle it" (-$5).

HIGH cells are not always crap cells. They still work, only a little bit high in internal resistance. They work quite well in low power devices.

Don't get me started with AAA cells. The C9000 loves going high with AAA cells.(-$10) I also learned not to yank the cells which are done when the rest are near end of charge. This causes fluctuation in the voltage and trips the rest of the charging cells to terminate at the same time. It has happened a number of times but I couldn't replicate it on purpose. So now I shall wait till all cells are finished then I take them out.(-$5)

In my opinion, an 'Intelligent' charger works without hassle. A 'Manual' charger is like the Triton or ICE, the user has full control with extra bit of sensible safety limitation. The Maha C9000 is like a Semi-Manual charger. A manual charger has it's abilities bounded by a nosy baby sitter. I know this is about safety but isn't it terribly implemented? What is the temperature sensors for?(-$5)

The C9000 actually cost $30 after all the deduction. With that $30 you can buy an intelligent charger that can actually handle CRAP cells. :nana: So Maha I hope you can bundle a >$30 dumbest charger as long as it handles CRAP cells with that C9000. Otherwise fix your overly sensitive charger. I hope it's software based so it's like 10 minute code?!

Initially I wanted to replace all my chargers with the C9000. But to have the C9000 as your only charger is like having a 2 seater car. You can have lots of fun but you are somehow limited. You get what I mean? Maybe I got over expectation during the wait but that's my little rant from a $60 too 'Advance' charger.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Koala,

The main reason the C9000 rejects high impedance cells is to reject charging Alkaline cells.

With that in mind, I would suggest that you run a test. There is some risk involved in this test, so you may want to think about it first, and if you decide that it is worth the risk, make sure you keep an eye on things during the test.

Get yourself a premium (Duracell) alkaline cell that is roughly 30-50% used. Place it in your "crap cell" charger and see if the charger charges it.

Another test is to take your "crap" cells and charge them at the 1 amp setting on the 401 (this happens to be the default setting for the C9000). What happens?

These two tests should reveal why the C9000 rejects high impedance cells.

Tom

 

[macdude22]

To be honest I have over 100 cells and one of the original C9000 models (didn't really feel the need to get it swapped out) and I've never had it choke on one yet. I have some pretty old cells too, Panasonic 1400s that are at least 10 years old, Rayovac 1600s that are at least 5 years old. Other Generic cells that are of dubious quality. It's never failed to start charging one. Some of these cells are ones I thought were ready for the garbage pail and the C9000 cycled them back to reasonable health. Since I can't actually get my C9000 to kick out a cell because of high internal resistance I might not be the best source of info but I've run some pretty questionable cells through mine without any issue.


Watch as I go home tonight to have it kick out every cell I put in it now.

 

[koala]

Hi Tom,

Most people who understand English will not insert an Alkaline cell in to the C9000. The warning is written very clear on the labels of many Alkaline cells. It will be a lot more fun if C9000 let me charge my Alkalines

I don't quite understand what the second test does. The C401FS does charge the crap cells at 1A quite well, except for the temperature. I don't have a problem with it.

macdude22 you have a nice C9000 there, maybe mine has higher resistance in the circuit. Have you tried charging AAAs before?

 

[macdude22]

I only have half a dozen or so AAAs, they are used in frequently used flashlights (a.k.a probably cycled and in better condition than most my cells), I also had some duracell 900s in a remote that I was able to test out fine on my C9000. So mines seen limited AAA experience, I will state that none of my AAAs fit in the center two slots, they are too short I guess or the slots are too long. They only fit in the outer two slots. Since I have so few AAAs to start with I didn't really mind. I'm going to see if I can digg up any other AAAs from anywhere to run through it.