Battery charging experts...

I need your brains/knowledge, please. I don’t claim to be an expert on charging. I’ve got some eneloops in the mail. I want to do it right, and take care of them. I know they can be charged in any Nimh charger. I want to know what is the best way to charge them. I’ve been told quick chargers are tough on nimh batteries. True?

I’ve already got two chargers:

1. My wife got this one a few years ago (sans my research and advice): Amazon.com. The batteries were junk, but its seems decent charging some good energizers I have. It claims to be “ultrafast charging”. Output: 2.4/5.6 V 700mA.

2. Is a Sony BC-CS2A. Output: 1.4V 400mA x 2 160mA x 2. This seems like it’s been a pretty good charger, but the one fall back it has is it will only charge two at a time.

What would you recommend, experts? Being “budget” type like I am I’d be happy if I don’t need to get another charger. Note: yes for now I’m only interested in AA and AAA chargers. But if I have to pick up another one, I don’t mind one that has the abililty to charge other sizes. Thanks in advance.

I use 4 Eneloops every day I ride my bike. I use this charger:BatterySpace.com/AA Portable Power Corp. Tel: 510-525-2328 - Powerizer Battery Official Site

What’s your budget? I use a maha powerex which I find superb but not really budget

If I don’t have to buy one I’d be happy. I don’t mind picking up another one or two of the Sony that I already got as I see you can get them pretty cheap on ebay. $20-ish is the most I’d like to go.

As I basically suggested above, what is best charging practice w/ eneloop/LSD batteries? AND can I do that with one of the chargers I already have? I want to take care of them so that they last a long time. Thanks again.

Intellicharge i4.

The best charger i can recommend is a lacrosse bc-700, from amazon for the best price. Smart chargers are the way to go, they fully charge without overcharging (they can miss a termination sometimes, but a dumb charger would always miss it). Hobby li ion chargers should be good too.
Eneloops are pretty tolerant of abuse compared to other batteries, but abuse would shorten their lives just like any battery, but your not paying hundreds of dollars a battery, so if you shorten its life 25% its not going to ruin you.
500-750ma charge currents won’t damage them, for smart chargers they may be the best charging current so they don’t miss the termination point. Rapid chargers charge very quickly but at the cost of reduced battery life.
If you use a dumb charger, the batteries will lose some service life, without knowing more about the exact charger i can’t give you much more info then that.

I'm using the Sony BCG-34HLD reviewd here by brted. Works outstanding and the kids can charge their Wii batteries with it (eneloop). Easier than showing them how to use the accucell (they're young).

its a smart charger and charges single batteries at that price, i’m very impressed!

Yeah I was going to recommend that Sony Match referred to (I don't own it though). Two things you want to look for are: 1) "Smart Charger" - means it monitors the battery and stops charging when it's completely charged (as opposed to the usual "dumb" chargers that are timer based and can "cook" cells after they are fully charged). And 2) Able to charge single batteries (i.e. single-channel) so you're not stuck charging in pairs. If you have a 3 cell device (3AA light, 3AAA light, etc . . .) it's tough to charge the batteries in a 2 or 4 cell dual-channel charger.

I bought the AccuPower IQ328 from Ebay (see thread here). I believe it's a BC-700 clone, however it does discharge tests at 500mA whereas the BC-700 only does 350mA (and only charges at 700mA max compared to 1000mA for the AccuPower). I really like mine. I also heard the BC-700 capacity tests come out higher than "true" (see the charts at the Ebay link - but I also read/saw this elsewhere).

If you don't want to discharge test your batteries, or don't need a high charge rate, go with the simple Sony. Only issue on the Sony is that there is only one LED, so you can't tell when individual cells are done charging.

-Garry

Wow…thanks for the good recommendations. So basically it’s better to get one that will charge smart, and individually, is what I’m hearing. The Sony look to be appealing. THanks!

The price is right too...~$10. It also comes with 2 LSD cells. They're only 1000mah, but could find a home in something...

If you think about it, it’s better to just use the charger you have. Because for $20 for a charger, you could buy almost 2 more sets of eneloops! So you might lose 100 cycles on the whole life, you’ll get more total cycles for the money buy just buying more eneloops.

Proper charging of NiMH requires a smart charger as said but do you realise what the seller classes as ‘smart’ and what the manufacturers advise?

The Maha I believe complys with all below, the BC-700/900/1000 also does afaik but there have been reports of it missing termination. There is a good thread on CPF but that’s no help as the sites down lol

I was gonna write about it but Wikipedia does a far better job than I ever could

Since no-one seems to have mentioned it, Sanyo actually make a USB charger (MDU01) which complies with the recommended delta V charging method. Here in Australia, I picked up two of them, supplied with 2AA cells in each pack for about $17 each. I'd imagine a US vendor such as Thomas Distributing would have them even cheaper.

You can see it here http://www.eneloop.info/products/chargers.html

I have a couple of these and they perform quite well. Unlike some of the standard cheapie Eneloop chargers, which are timer-based, this little unit is capable of charging 1 or 2 AA or AAA cells independently. It charges at 850mA for one cell, 450mA for two. The only problem I've had with them is when trying to power them from a solar panel on a cloudy day - they do seem to need the full 500mA USB input.

Personally, my preferred charger is the MAHA C9000 but as mentioned, this is hardly budget. What you might like to consider though, is that the C9000 can analyse each cell for actual capacity. This may be important if using your Eneloops in multiple cell devices (2AA or 4AA, etc) so that you can match them for capacity. Cell reversal is never good and can happen if you are in the habit of running down your multi-cell light to the point where it turns off completely.

As to rapid chargers and charge currents:

A charge current of up to 1000mA for AAs or 500mA for AAAs should be no problem at all. Even 2000mA & 1000mA shouldn't cause undue problems for an Eneloop.

Once you start getting into the "15min" variety of fast chargers though, you run the risk of overheating and shortening the life of your cells. Best not to go down this path too often.

Thanks for the info! I can rarely see a time where I need a 15min recharge…

+1 on the MAHA C9000.

It's THE best AA/AAA smart charger out there IMO!

You think like I do, sintro…I mostly wanted to make sure that I could charge LSD w/ a regular charger, and if there’s a smart charger for less than $10 I’d think it was worth it, but I haven’t found one yet. The sony mentioned above is about $10 and I might try that. THere’s also a similar sony w/ 2500mah LSD batteries that I need to look into for ~$18.

I have bought several chargers over the years … I didn’t want to spend all that money on a Maha C9000 or similar … Looking back over the years , I have spent well over the price of a C9000 on several ordinary chargers … Some only lasted a year or two and one charged at too high a current and heated the cells up … Recently , I bought a C9000 and it is amazing … I won’t go into all the good points of the C9000 , but I wish that I had bought one years ago … It would have saved me the trouble of researching other less satisfactory chargers and throwing some duff ones out … My other (now un-necessary but still OK) chargers have been given to other members of the family who are not as fussy (?) as me … I have kept two of my better oldies though , in case I need to charge more cells than four.

The LCD display on the C9000 is worth the money as it tells you everything you need to know … If you follow the handbook , you will have fully charged cells with no problems.

I wish I could wind the clock back a few years.
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