Old Energizer Charger

[dkelly]

I am giving my father a Fenix L2D for Father's Day. I have an old Energizer battery charger and I am thinking of giving him that in case he wants to use rechargeables. It obviously is not a great charger, but I don't think he will be charging batteries very often. Will this charger kill batteries? What about if he forgets and leaves them in for a week? He is in his 70s and will probably just use alkaline batteries but if this charger is adequate, I might buy him a pack of Kodak LSD anyway.

Thanks.

 

[Mr Happy]

Well, it seems usable for LSD cells. It has a timer of 14 hours at 170 mA for AA size, which will be just about a perfect charge for the typical 2000 mAh capacity. Assuming a reasonable interval between charges (like not every day), it will just be like the batteries are getting a forming charge every time.

Another point to watch for with the L2D and NiMH is not to let the light run right down to empty. This could lead to reverse charging and venting of one of the cells, which will shorten its life a bit. The trick is to recharge as soon as any loss of light output is noticed.

Edit: The trick with LSD cells would be to keep two in the light and two charged cells standing by. When the ones in the light run down swap them over with the charged ones and charge the empty ones for next time.