Quickest charge for eneloops?

[AutoTech]

When buying my eneloops (AA and AAA) I noticed sanyo said they must be charged in their official slow charger. I bought one at the time but it takes forever, 16 hrs or something?

I'm getting through my batteries now and would like something that can charge them faster safely (for the sake of battery longevity)

Does anyone know the shortest time to charge them properly?

Or can someone recommend battery charger that can safely charge them? even 6 hours would be better than 16! I have a 30min charger but I'm certainly not going to stick them in there!

 

[samgab]

I often charge at 1C, or if I have more time, .5C. In most of Sanyo's eneloop charts giving discharge curves, they have charged at 1C (2A) with -10mV as -ΔV. So I do as Sanyo does.

E.G: In this chart here, from Sanyo, about their eneloops:

Notice where it states how they charged it, it is 2000mA with a -ΔV of 10mV. That is 1C. Almost all of their charts show them using that charge rate.

If you want to stick to an official Sanyo charger, their MQR06 is much faster than the slow model you have. It does 2 AA's at a ~.5C rate, in about 2 hours, or 4AA's at a ~.25C rate, 4 hours, or 1 AA in 75 Mins. AAA rates are fairly comparable. Or you could spend a little bit more and get the excellent Maha C9000 charger/analyser, and then you will have full control over the charge rates, and be able to check the cells' actual capacity.