BLF top picks in batteries and chargers

To aid the newcomers and to ease the burden to go through searching whats the safe pick in the most obscure, often misleading and disinformative specifications from many resellers about batteries and chargers.

We should make a nice easily browsable (admin - HELP!) data from blf members great knowledgebase experience regarding what they think is best.

Unsure how to start this came up...

My experience:

Good li-ion chargers:

XTAR MP1, WP2 possbily WP6 - Does provide (with minimal testing the CC/CV charging standard for li-ion batteries)

More info - http://www.miracle-store.de/index.php?cat=c58_Chargers-Chargers.html

Good Li-ion batteries (18650-18670 i don't own other sizes)

hi-max (formerly known as WOW) 2600mAh protected 18650 - close to the specs protection works - Bought on ebay

XTAR 18700 2200mAh protected - close to the specs protection works

XTAR 18700 2400mAh protected - close to the specs protection works

Good NiMh Charger:

IPC 1L - http://www.ciao.de/Voltcraft_IPC_1L_Ladegerat__2532339 - Intelligent, with refresh function 4 individual channels and test capability. A bit expensive. Commonly sold in conrad stores through europe. Also known as LaCrosse IBC 900.

Good NiMh batteries:

AA Sanyo 2700mAh - Very high capacity, high discharge rate, high self discharge (thats a con)

AA Sanyo eneloop 2000mAh - High capacity, high discharge rate, low self discharge - LSD (the biggest plus)

Personally I would not recommend any 2700mAh NiMH cells. They tend to be delicate, and are often too large to fit in many things that take AAs. I'd only recommend LSD NiMH cells in AA.

For high-current applications, Tenergy C cells hold up well - but like most high-current capable cells they tend to be of lower capacity and often self-discharge faster. My Varapower pulls up to 15A from the cells.

Eneloops are excellent for draws of up to 5-6A.

I'd pay for any Sanyo-made cell other than 2700mAh NiMH cells.

For larger cells, the Maha C808M charger is very good. It'll charge AAA, AA, C and D at either 2A or 1A. But it charges at a bit too high a rate than Sanyo recommends for Eneloop AAs (950mA).

If you can find one, the Angeleyes charger offers most of the features of the Maha C9000 at a third of the price.

The genuine flame Trustfire 2400mAh protected cells are very, very good. But there are fakes around. The DX ones are genuine.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20392

The flame 14500s are also very good.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26124

The old Shekor Lithium charger was very good if a bit slow in charge rate. Apparently it is not now a good charger.

Best bet, if you only want to get one charger is to get one of the Imax B6 clone hobby chargers, and either run them off a car battery or buy a 12V 5A PSU.

12V 5A 110/240V 50/60Hz Power Supply

I have two of the DX ones and one of these from HobbyKing.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

They can be calibrated, mine all had minor voltage errors. The DX ones have a far better manual than the HobbyKing one, but cost around twice as much. I can scan the manual if anyone wants one.

I took the time to find my caliper and measured my sanyo's 2700. Apparently my version is identical to eneloops size wise. My charger says they hold 2695 mAh +- 2-5mA between the 4 i got (guess i'm lucky).

I usually don't hammer my cells (especially Li-ions) but i probably have yet to find the true meaning of "delicate" on batteries. I used them extensively for around 6 months (well not me but wife) with 0 issues. Might not last a few years but i can live with that. Capacity is great, self discharge also unfrtunately. Goes to 5-10% in a month on shelf.

What about a good (simple ) charger, by that i mean one that doesn't require an extra power supply for AAA,AA,C,D PP3 that i can get here in the uk

7dayshop do (Or at least did do - I've bought several for various people) a rebadged Vanson BC1-HU, my most used charger.

Maplin used to do a rebadged one, but don't now.

It's about the only Vanson charger I'd recommend, but it is a good charger.

By "delicate" I mean:

Won't supply high currents (Say more than 2A)

Self-discharge like crazy

Drop in capacity from Day 1.

The Sanyo ones probably are better than the others but the variously branded ones I had were all recycled when my chargers would reject them - or if I put them in a dumb enough charger till they would charge in the better chargers - would give me less than half their rated capacity.

Good post here! Suggestion for formatting below, I copied and pasted...

Good li-ion chargers:

XTAR MP1, WP2 possbily WP6 - Does provide (with minimal testing the CC/CV charging standard for li-ion batteries)

More info - http://www.miracle-store.de/index.php?cat=c58_Chargers-Chargers.html


Good Li-ion batteries (18650-18670 i don't own other sizes)

hi-max (formerly known as WOW) 2600mAh protected 18650 - close to the specs protection works - Bought on ebay

XTAR 18700 2200mAh protected - close to the specs protection works

XTAR 18700 2400mAh protected - close to the specs protection works


Good NiMh Charger:

IPC 1L - http://www.ciao.de/Voltcraft_IPC_1L_Ladegerat__2532339 - Intelligent, with refresh function 4 individual channels and test capability. A bit expensive. Commonly sold in conrad stores through europe. Also known as LaCrosse IBC 900.


Good NiMh batteries:

AA Sanyo 2700mAh - Very high capacity, high discharge rate, high self discharge (thats a con)

AA Sanyo eneloop 2000mAh - High capacity, high discharge rate, low self discharge - LSD (the biggest plus)

I also use these batteries from DX and they've never let me down..

TrustFire Protected 18650 3.7V True 2400mAh Rechargeable Lithium Batteries (2-Pack)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20392

For charger i have this one:

TrustFire TR-001 Multi-Purpose Lithium Battery Charger

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12594

It's very cheap at $8.63 and a convertor to a EU plug (flat to round) is only $0.87

I never had any problems with it and it charges almost everything (altough i only have 18650's at the moment) so i'm pretty pleased!

I've heard of people having problems with the 2700 cells, but I have 4 of them and they've held up fine over the past couple of years (bought in June 2008). Self-discharge isn't bad and they still have about 2500mAh capacity. They'll last 6 months or more in my camera waiting to be used.

My sanyos 2700 are all running great but the selfdischarge is as expected high... very high. I would agree that eneloops are generally a better choice.

Sanyo do make good batteries - my very first rechargeables were Sanyo Cadnica NiCd cells. I think I still have one of them around. It must be 30 years old!

+1

I also have this one http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13820 but stopped using because i don't trust it much. Makes weird sound when charging batteries that are below 3V upon reaching 3v works fine. Not the fastest around but it seem that does terminate properly after 4.20V. However it does not adhere to li-ion specs (by reading the forum).

What does this mean?

It means I agree with you.

Anyone else knows a good site where i can buy a xtar WP2 because the more i read about it the more interesting it gets!

And the price is low to so... but i've never heard from miraclestore (first post) so i'm looking for some other sites..
or is miracle store reliable enough?

You can check out http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/. off-course they are little bit cheaper in ebay.

QCG are fine, but they ship from the Chinese mainland which means it takes several weeks longer than from Hong Kong. They aren't usually the cheapest but have always supplied exactly what I've ordered, not whatever was vaguely similar to it in the warehouse. Every order of mine was correct, not something I've found from the Hong Kong guys. They read and respond to their emails which is nice. If there's stuff on their wholesale site that isn't on their retail site, they'll give you prices, or at least did for me in the past.

Which bit of TN are you in JAS?

You should check and see if it still holds a charge which would be very interesting if it did or if it's still usable.

hey just wanted to point out some things

the Trustfire DX 14500s i have are ALL high quality. i own 2, have sold and tested 8 more.

the protected version of course

HOWEVER

the DX trustfire 18650s, totally different story

had 1 DOA, a few that wont put out the amperage (too high internal resistance) and maybe 3 good ones total....

to me, i got ripped off. after hearing so many rave reviews, i will not purchase any more of these cells.

and my purchases were spread out over a year, so not all could be from the same lot

PS they are all flame versions