Recommend a dead simple, inexpensive AA NiMH charger

I've tried doing a bunch of searching of both google and CPF, but I think I need to ask here.

I'm looking for a charger for a friend who I've recently gifted a 2 AA light with eneloops. This charger needs to be quite simple. Just put in batteries and take them out when there's some indication to do so. I'd prefer that the charger have independent channels so each battery will get the optimum charge. He's going to buy this charger himself, so I'm trying to keep it inexpensive.

I have VERY few options in mind. This one from Titanium seems like a good one, but I can't find any reviews on it. It's right at $20, and for $12 more, he could by a Lacrosse BC-700, which is supposed to be a great charger. The only problem with this guy and the BC-700 is that he'd have to set the charging current each time. He can learn how to use it, but he'd be WAY better off with something that simply defaults to the right charging rate for eneloops.

I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

Thanks guys.

Brian.

The lacrosse will charge the batteries if you just put them in, it will display "full" when done. Doesn't get any easier unless you want to do other things like discharging and refreshing. Also those are easy too after you learn it. But for just charging, I could give this charger to my grandmother and she could use it.

I don't trust "Titanium" chargers. I have the 3000 and it makes even D batteries hot and does not give a full charge.
The sysmax I4 is great at $25.00
There are dozens of wall warts at 12 dollars or similar that work just fine.

BC-700 is very easy to use. Just put eneloops in and it will charge or like Sara said, other modes are easy to learn. Another charger that is getting good reviews is the NiteCore Intellicharge i4 v2. Never used it myself but looks good. If just using eneloops I would get the BC-700 if you can find it for $30. The price on that varies week to week

blgentry said:

I've tried doing a bunch of searching of both google and CPF, but I think I need to ask here.

I'm looking for a charger for a friend who I've recently gifted a 2 AA light with eneloops. This charger needs to be quite simple. Just put in batteries and take them out when there's some indication to do so. I'd prefer that the charger have independent channels so each battery will get the optimum charge. He's going to buy this charger himself, so I'm trying to keep it inexpensive.

I have VERY few options in mind. This one from Titanium seems like a good one, but I can't find any reviews on it. It's right at $20, and for $12 more, he could by a Lacrosse BC-700, which is supposed to be a great charger. The only problem with this guy and the BC-700 is that he'd have to set the charging current each time. He can learn how to use it, but he'd be WAY better off with something that simply defaults to the right charging rate for eneloops.

I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

Thanks guys.

Brian.

Click to expand...

Just my two cents: If you're going to spend $20, I would go $5 more for a Sysmax i4 v2. Dead simple operation --> Selfbuilt's review here

Sanyo MQR06, inexpensive, individual charging, eneloop quality too

duracell CEF23AU

this might be useful if you buy a few

http://www.iteminfo.com/ItemInfoFiles/extras/rebate/dur-q4-25giftcard.pdf

tatasal said:

Sanyo MQR06, inexpensive, individual charging, eneloop quality too

Click to expand...

+1. Have one, dead simple and AFAIK top of the Eneloop line of chargers.

Cheers

tatasal said:

Sanyo MQR06, inexpensive, individual charging, eneloop quality too

Click to expand...

On Amazon the MQR06 seems to be sold with the 2500mah Eneloops. The consensus on CPF that I read is that if the user does not need the higher capacity, the so-called 2000mah Eneloops (1900mah minimum) with 1500 claimed cycles are more cost effective.

For super simple low-cost chargers, I prefer the Sanyo NC-MDR02NU for $12.45 on Amazon which is a 2 cell charger for AA/AAA with flip-out AC wall plug. I have had almost a dozen of these pass thru my hands and none have been returned or complained about. They are a "smart" charger and cut off all current at the end of a charge.

blgentry said:

I've tried doing a bunch of searching of both google and CPF, but I think I need to ask here.

I'm looking for a charger for a friend who I've recently gifted a 2 AA light with eneloops. This charger needs to be quite simple. Just put in batteries and take them out when there's some indication to do so. I'd prefer that the charger have independent channels so each battery will get the optimum charge. He's going to buy this charger himself, so I'm trying to keep it inexpensive.

I have VERY few options in mind. This one from Titanium seems like a good one, but I can't find any reviews on it. It's right at $20, and for $12 more, he could by a Lacrosse BC-700, which is supposed to be a great charger. The only problem with this guy and the BC-700 is that he'd have to set the charging current each time. He can learn how to use it, but he'd be WAY better off with something that simply defaults to the right charging rate for eneloops.

I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

Thanks guys.

Brian.

Click to expand...

That Titanium charger that you referenced was tested by SilverFox in the charger compendium at the top of the forum. I read somewhere that Silverfox uses his copy during travel. I have a copy myself. It charges correctly and is compact, although the discharge function is rather slow - below 200ma discharge current.

tam17 said:

+1. Have one, dead simple and AFAIK top of the Eneloop line of chargers.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Another +1

moldyoldy said:

On Amazon the MQR06 seems to be sold with the 2500mah Eneloops. The consensus on CPF that I read is that if the user does not need the higher capacity, the so-called 2000mah Eneloops (1900mah minimum) with 1500 claimed cycles are more cost effective.

Click to expand...

It may be very true but the additional mAh can come in very handy for certain applications where you'd need longer runtime without necessarily having additional cells on you: pretty much depends on your needs and what you use your light for. For camping and or hiking the 2500 mAh version could be a better choice.

Thanks for all the help. Quickly...

The BC-700 does have a default charge mode. I didn't remember that. But it's so low... it's only 200 mA. So like 12 or 13 hours to charge an eneloop. That seems like a waste of a great charger. *Perhaps* I could train this guy to set it to 700 mA and get a reasonable charge time. He'd never use the other functions unless I did it for him though.

Sysmax I4: I actually have one of these. I use it only for LiIons. For fun, I just topped off two already charged eneloops. One in the I4, one in my C9000. I'm discharging them both now to see if there's any difference. There probably won't be.

Sanyo charger: This might be the ticket. DEAD simple. Individual channels. Seems to be about $12 on amazon.

Here's a data point... earlier today I tried to charge an old abused rayovac 2500 mAh AA. The C9000 rejected it three times in a row saying "HIGH". The I4 happily charged it, like it did a previous bad cell. That previous cell got HOT HOT HOT and was still junk when it was done. This one I only ran for about 5 minutes and in the end I trashed it. The C9000 wouldn't even touch it, which is nice for not wasting time and not getting the battery smoking hot.

I'm wondering if the Sanyo charger will "badly" charge high resistance cells. The eneloops should last for a really long time, so I don't know what I'm concerned about.

Thanks again.

Brian.

not sure about the Sanyo MQR charger, but the Sanyo MDR 2-slot charger does have a bad-cell rejection feature. The Titanium T2800 does have the bad cell feature and did trigger on a couple of my cells, yet not in the MDR charger. Normally if the bad-cell feature is triggered, the charger will not initiate a charge, at least in my experience with several different brands of chargers.

MQR06 seems to have crappy-cell protection too - I've put a very old almost-dead GP AAA in it (which self-discharges in under a day, and can't keep >1V even at just 0.5A load), and it refused to charge it (charging indicator went out after ~5 seconds).

I really like the word "full" on the display of the BC 700 because you don't have to remember what color the light should turn when the battery is full. The word full leaves no questions asked and you always know when the battery is done. You can also put mismatched batteries in, and they will charge properly, so you don't have to match cells or worry about blowing up your house if you put the wrong battery in. This is good for someone who doesn't know about batteries. The default charge current is 200 but it will charge a battery, just takes longer.

SaraAB87 said:

I really like the word "full" on the display of the BC 700 because you don't have to remember what color the light should turn when the battery is full. The word full leaves no questions asked and you always know when the battery is done. You can also put mismatched batteries in, and they will charge properly, so you don't have to match cells or worry about blowing up your house if you put the wrong battery in. This is good for someone who doesn't know about batteries. The default charge current is 200 but it will charge a battery, just takes longer.

Click to expand...

It doesn't just "takes longer", it is also low enough for missed termination to be realistic possibility. 0.3C (which for Eneloops is 600mA) is minimum required for stable delta-V cut-off.

blgentry said:

Sysmax I4: I actually have one of these. I use it only for LiIons. For fun, I just topped off two already charged eneloops. One in the I4, one in my C9000. I'm discharging them both now to see if there's any difference. There probably won't be.

Click to expand...

After just a "top off" of maybe 100 mAh each, and then a discharge, they both had around 1825 to 1830 of capacity. I charged them both, one on the C9000, one on the I4, and left them. When I woke up, they had fully charged and sat trickle charging for at least 3 or 4 hours. So I put them both in the C9000 and discharged them again. This time there was a difference:

AA from C9000: 1847 mAh
AA from I4: 1775 mAh

Not much of a difference (~4%). I should break in both and try again.

Brian.

I'd also say the Sysmax/Nitecore I4 Intellicharger for $25 is the best cheap, easy charger because it not only charges AA and AAA in NiMh and Ni Cd, but it also charges Li Ion batteries in RCR123, 16340, 18350, 14500, 17670, 18500, 18650, etc. I am probably forgetting one or two! I have one and I use it regularly, and it works great. Super easy too.

blgentry said:

After just a "top off" of maybe 100 mAh each, and then a discharge, they both had around 1825 to 1830 of capacity. I charged them both, one on the C9000, one on the I4, and left them. When I woke up, they had fully charged and sat trickle charging for at least 3 or 4 hours. So I put them both in the C9000 and discharged them again. This time there was a difference:

AA from C9000: 1847 mAh
AA from I4: 1775 mAh

Not much of a difference (~4%). I should break in both and try again.

Brian.

Click to expand...

I recharge 2200mah 18650's on my Sysmax I4 at least every other day for my e-cigarette, and each time I test the voltage on my DMM, and they always come out around 4.29v. About right where they are supposed to be.

blgentry said:

I have VERY few options in mind. This one from Titanium seems like a good one, but I can't find any reviews on it. It's right at $20,

Click to expand...

I have this driver. It is OK. Does not warm the cells at all.Does what simple functions have to be done.
Though I cannot discount the enelop chargers suggestions