Duracell rechargeable leaking in LaCrosse charger

superduty

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
18
I bought a pack of rechargeable duracell batteries from Sam's Club. Put them in my Lacrosse BC-900. My son used them in the controller for his video game. He said He grabbed a battery out of the charger and it was warm, then he said it was leaking and "burning" his hand. He threw it in trash. I then checked two AA batts that were sitting in the charger and both of them were leaking.

Is the BC-900 a bad charger for these Duracell batteries? https://www.samsclub.com/p/duracell...membership_purchase-history_order-details_pdp


Charger was set to the 200 charge rate. These batteries were on their first few charge cycles.

Any thoughts on this issue?

Photo of two of the batteries https://imgur.com/a/BwTCqAv

BwTCqAv
 

superduty

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
18
After reading this, I'd buy a new charger...
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?103802-La-Crosse-BC-900-Charger-Warning

There's a few others like that on here if you search.
P


I've had this charger for MANY years and was unaware of this issue. Thank you for pointing out this problem. I have used it successfuly many times with eneloops, but it seems it doesnt like the duracells.

Time to find a new charger. Any recommendations for a good reasonably priced charger.
 

bigburly912

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
3,361
Location
Virginia
I've had an xtar vc4 for years to charge nimh with no problems. I think skylumen.com has some misnamed ones for pretty cheap or at least he did.
 

xxo

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 30, 2015
Messages
2,993
For AA's and AAA's, it's hard to go wrong with the panasonic BQ CC 17 charger – slow but very dependable and won't over heat your cells.
 

Stefano

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
1,073
Location
Italy
I've had an xtar vc4 for years to charge nimh with no problems. I think skylumen.com has some misnamed ones for pretty cheap or at least he did.

I have previously bought two VC4.
They work but often the cable has some oddities, if you move the charger or touch the cable the charge can slow down or stop.
I asked for a replacement cable and the problem is the same on both chargers.
At this moment I would buy an Xtar X4 which is also more versatile (dual power supply option)
 

WalkIntoTheLight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
3,967
Location
Canada
Panasonic BQ-CC17 and Xtar X4 are my two most-used chargers. They are very simple chargers, with nothing to tweak. But they do a very good job. The BQ-CC17 is great for NiMH cells (such as Eneloops). The X4 can be used for both NiMH and 4.2v lithium-ion. Personally, I wouldn't use the X4 for AAA cells, since it charges a bit fast for them. But it's great for AA cells, especially when I don't want to wait as long as the BQ-CC17 takes.

Both those chargers are for people that just want plug & play. When I want more control (over things like charge rate and termination voltage), I use fancier chargers, but they're not as easy to use.
 

vadimax

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
2,270
Location
Vilnius, Lithuania
I prefer Xtar SV2. It is capable of 0.25A, 0.5A, 1A, 2A charging (user selectable). Never had an issue so far.

People complained of weak spring mount points, but I personally cannot confirm that. I am always careful with my equipment.
 
Last edited:

xxo

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 30, 2015
Messages
2,993
I prefer Xtar SV2. It is capable of 0.25A, 0.5A, 1A, 2A charging (user selectable). Never had an issue so far.

People complained of weak spring mount points, but I personally cannot confirm that. I am always careful with my equipment.

Unfortunately I can confirm that the posts do break with very light use. I had one break the first time I used it – put in a couple cells and about a minute later heard a pop and the spring had broken off one of the little plastic posts. A minute later another pop and another broken post. Got another SV2 that lasted a few months when one of the posts broke (light use only, never treated roughly) the other post on that charger broke soon after – really a poor design in regards to the method xtar uses to attach the springs.
 
Top