Enlighten A Dummy

I was going to get a charger for my Apple products (mainly keyboard & mouse), but also want to use it for other things. I was considering the Apple charger until I ran across the Sanyo charger/battery package.

Anyway, as you probably know, these are Ni-MH chargers. That's about all I know, though. I'm very confused. Can I use Ni-MH batteries in my Preon 2 (which I have backordered)? I ask because I saw a post about 4Seven's new charger, which I believe is for Li-Ion batteries. What the heck is the difference?

As you can tell, I've never used rechargeables, but want to start. I just need a quick lesson. Can anybody school me? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

The Sanyo Eneloops are great batteries, but the charger they include charges batteries in pairs only. There are some Sony Cycle Energy chargers that also have low self-discharge batteries like the Eneloops (2000mAh capacity) that will charge batteries individually. That's a better system. The Preon will work fine on NiMH batteries.

Lithium ion batteries are a different type of battery. You can read up:

http://flashlightwiki.com/Rechargeable

http://flashlightwiki.com/Chargers

brted,

Thanks a bunch. I'm going to get one of the recommended chargers. :thumbsup:

The only thing I'm still confused about is which rechargeable type is better (in general). Ni-MH? Would Li-Ion cells work better in the Preon 2? Can you give me any opinions (or anyone else)?

ccf said:

The only thing I'm still confused about is which rechargeable type is better (in general). Ni-MH? Would Li-Ion cells work better in the Preon 2? Can you give me any opinions (or anyone else)?

Click to expand...

For normal consumer use in the AA or AAA size, the standard type of rechargeable battery is NiMH. If any battery says "rechargeable" on it, it almost certainly is NiMH inside. The only exceptions are that sometimes garden solar lighting uses NiCd, and PowerGenix recently tested the market with high voltage NiZn. But you can pretty much ignore those and just assume rechargeable batteries are NiMH. The best of the breed is the Sanyo Eneloop, but some other brands also have decent performance.

Li-ion cells are highly special cells and are not something you will come across unless you go out of your way to obtain them, or hang around here. They absolutely are not an alternative to NiMH, and if you are just getting familiar with rechargeable batteries you can (and should) ignore them for the time being.

The li-ion batteries are 3.6V instead of 1.5 for alkaline or 1.2 for NiMH's. Some single cell lights can use a li-ion instead of an AA or AAA battery and will be much brighter. The Preon 2 can not handle 7.2V though, so you will want to stick to AAA.

Actually, after further reading, I'm going to stick with Ni-MH. I want to be able to leave while charging & not have to worry about the Li-Ions.
I think I'm going to get the Maha WizardOne.

I made my last post before reading the last two replies, but sounds like I made the right choice.

Thanks, guys.