Newbie Charger Questions

[GlowWorm]

Just purchased this Uniross charger (model UO148542).

It's my first charger, so wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm surprised at the lack of sophistication, regarding monitoring/regulating the charging. Maybe some sort of gauge to show charging progress? Nope. Or auto cut-off as soon as any one battery is fully charged? Nope. All there appears to be is an auto cut-off, 10 hours after the charger was switched on, no matter what type of battery, or it's capacity, or it's existing state of charge that any one battery is already storing.

Are you wasting electricity if a battery is fully charged but the charger continues to attempt to charge, and can there be any safety concerns over this?

Are there better UK chargers on the market that are more sophisticated in this regard? I've checked the Uniross website and found these models:

U0148603 'Intelligent charge control' (doesn't explain what that means)
U0148665 'Intelligent charging with end of charge detections (based on voltage & temperature measurements)..'

 

[Mr Happy]

Well sorry, this is going to sound a bit harsh, but you bought a cheap charger, possibly overpriced, from eBay, without first being informed about what you were buying?

Yes indeed, there are much better chargers out there.

'Intelligent charging with end of charge detections (based on voltage & temperature measurements)..' is absolutely something to look for in good chargers.

Maybe you should put this down to experience and make a better purchase next time. You can get loads of info here if you read around. What you need to look for is a 'smart' or 'intelligent' charger, with ability to charge from 1-4 batteries individually, and individual progress indicators are nice to have. They are out there, you just have to look for them.

(Also, look into 'low self-discharge' batteries like the Uniross Hybrio. They have many advantages over the '2700' cells that sound so impressive on the outside.)

Remember, an informed buyer is a happy buyer :thumbsup:

 

[crofty]

The BL-700 and some hybrios will serve you well.

eneloops are considered slightly better than the hybrios. My personal preference after owning both is eneloops, even more so after reading all the data you can find here.

I got my BL-700 and hybrios from Batterylogic about a year ago and still going strong.

Get my eneloops from component-shop shortly after and again very happy.

Recently found batterycity after looking round for a good deal to buy more eneloops, not bought from there yet but others have with no problems and depending on how many you want their cheaper than the component-shop.

 

[jerry i h]

My judgement is rather less "harsh" than Mr Happy, but I come to the same conclusion. What you have is a simple, budget timer charger; OK, but if you are going to spend ₤ or €, why not get something good? Humbly suggest you immediately move to the head of the class and get either La Crosse BC-900 or Maha MH-C9000.
Put "charger" into the search box at the top of the page, and you will get literally hundreds of threads discussing various chargers, some in extreme depth.
Permit me to get up on my soapbox for a moment. Most people make the mistake of buying really good NiMH batts, but then try to economize by buying cheap*ss chargers, figuring the charger does not really make that much difference. Beg to differ big time: this is exactly opposite. Get a super-duper, ultra-smart charger. Then, you can successfully use any number of NiMH's, even stupid, generic, cr*ppy ones. Your smart charger will give you maximum capacity and life cycle that the batt will give. Then, when tired, you chuck it.
I have all 4 types of chargers from Energizer (no, I have them because a local B/M had them on close-out): timed, trickle, 15 min, smart. The timer is the only one I refuse to use. It is the only one that will probably give the batts the wrong amount of charge.

 

[yellow]

totally agree