Charger for Standard Alkaline Batteries

Hmm, interesting concept, I wouldnt mind buying such charger for 10$ shipped to Europe, not more, just to play with it :D!

However, looking for similar charger on Ebay I stumbled upon this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC05059-0001-IGO-Rechargeable-Alkaline-Batteries-AAA-4-pk-/360503852676

Alkaline rechargeable batteries?!
Anyone tried such type of batteries?

Yeah, I have a bunch of them. They are a different formula than normal aklalines so can be recharged. However they still aren’t as good as nimhs. They can’t supply high currents, they get around 100 cycles (less if fully discharged), and they require a special charger.

Yeah, just read wikipedia:
-hundreds of charges, Id rather say, top-up cycles if discharged for less than 25%
-few dozen charge/top-up cycles if discharged more than 50%
-if discharged empty, needs to be refreshed couple of times

And as mentioned by scaru - meant for really low drain devices.

So, not good for anything flashlight related :D!

and you’re dying to hear just one more classic Rolling Stone song outta of an MP3, yeah I can see where one of these might be worth $10 - or to give some life back to a sputtering shortwave radio in the middle of announcing another ICBM’s heading your way. :smiley:

It’s small enough to go into an extra not your main bug-out bag without too much bother. Maybe a half-way good barter item to trade something with peeps without any good rechargeables at all but have a crapload of alkies laying about.

They do at least top-out your existing alkies which is better than nuttin I suppose so I don’t think they’re necessarily completely idiotic in an end of the world common-sense sorta way. H)

If you can’t afford Alkalines, you can’t afford the charger.

This kind of reminds me of a charger that Radio Shack used to sell back in the 70s for ‘heavy duty’ zinc-carbon batteries. I always wondered how well THAT thing could have possibly worked.

Huh, so this sort of charger is still floating around out there. I remember I saw something like this years ago in the teaser items next to the cash register at a supermarket.

I just got it. And yes, it works. And it’s surprisingly well-made.

Funny how some folks jump to conclusions just because it sounds like it wouldn’t work, even when it does.

Now, is it NiMh/Li-ion charger effective? Of course not.

Does it raise the volts back up some on reasonably depleted alkalines? Yes, it does.

Could this be conceivably useful someday in a SHTF situation where ya might need 5 minutes or so of extra-power, talk-time, whatever? IMO, yes.

Is it therefore worth $10? You decide.

As for me my sentiments are that it’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. $10? C’mon.

I won’t ever “need” it because I have over 40 Eneloops in both AAA and AA flavors.

but whatever. This is $10’s worth of see-sawing on what-ifs, I absolutely know what the future holds under every circumstance, and other sundry I don’t need it because I haves.

Then yes, you’re prolly better off because you don’t have it. Everybody thinks differently about different things. 8)

“That sounds supper dangerous to me!”

You said a mouthful. I’ve had meals where lemme say unequivocally that supper was indeed dangerous. :open_mouth:

For $10 I can buy a crate of alkalines

you’re really good at missing the point. :smiley:

The point is…emergency….you don’t have any common cheap as dirt alkalines handy, but you have a charger with a cord and a wall outlet?

the AC charger it comes with outputs 7v DC @250mA.

Also let’s say that doesn’t fly, I have inverters that in a pinch I can plug into an SLA 12v battery, output 120v AC, and then plug the unit’s little charger brick into the inverter.

:cowboy_hat_face:

I guess you’re all set for the apocalypse then, good luck.

lol :smiley:

Got a alkaline/ NiMH/NiCAD charger from radio shak a couple years ago. It’s a piece of . Charge current is in the range of 60mA (which is supposed to be low) and the max voltage after removal is only around 1.5V as opposed to a fresh alkaline with OCV of 1.6V or greater. The recharged cells ALWAYS leak weather they are used or not. I would have thought that if they are recharged, ie similar capacity to a slightly used cell, the likelyhood of leakage would have been reduced… sigh

Others however think…….they are. I don’t claim the latter regardless of what any yokel sez. Some though do understand the differences. What does this have to do with me because I bought an alky charger and you think it’s stupid? I have no idea. Don’t take it personal but I honestly don’t care what you think. You do your thing. I’ll do mine. Otherwise, we’re done.

It’s a deal. Lets shake on it.