Hey guys,
I’m faced with the following problem
I just got my la crosse bc700 today and wanted to make it run a test on some old batteries for me
I chose a charge rate of 700mA
After this the charger first dicharged them and then started charging
However when i took a look at it just now the voltage of the batteries was already 1.7V!!!
With fear of exploding batteries to the face i quickly removed them.
Why did it miss the deltav cut off?
Because the cells are old, because they are (were) only 750mA or is something else at hand?
I first charged them normally and then the charger did the delta v cut off correctly with them at 1.45V…
Hmmm
Sorry for the bad news. There have been many, many threads in regards to La Crosse Technology and their poorly designed battery chargers. From the BC700 through the BC9009, the manufacturer acts totally shocked when customers call their tech support to voice concerns about failed terminations during battery charging. They sited a faulty wall wart power supply to be the cause and sent several free new ones out last year to customers experiencing the problem. This did not cure the problem at all. Being a skeptic of the companies well renowned consistency of lying to its customers, I ordered 5 of them to test and compare and found their voltage variances to be as much as .5V!! I'm sorry but this company and their products are ABSOLUTE PURE SHIT!!! There simply is no other way to describe it. Please unplug this poorly engineered menace from your home and sell it on eBay or throw it in the garbage before it burns your residence to the ground. The Maha Powerex MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer is the standard AA/AAA charger by which all others are judged and can be found on sale at reduced prices on www.newegg.com and sometimes www.amazon.com with batteries and carrying case. I have 3 of them and they have never failed to terminate, even down to 200 ma charge with AAA's. La Crosse probably translates to "pure shit" in a different language. I hope they get sued out of business before someone gets seriously injured from using one of their trashy products.
Mine works fine. Regardless of bad these are, they're still probably better than any "budget" charger, or any number of dumb chargers. All of my lithium chargers miss termination on crappy cells (including supposedly good xtar charger). If anything you should be throwing out the cells. I had Maha 204's overcharge cells, too.
Cheapo wall transformers are pretty common. It doesn't necessarily mean anything since circuits can be tolerant depending how it's connected inside.
The problem with these chargers is that when they do fail, they deliver the full current of the DC adapter directly to the batteries. This failure has occurred hundreds of times to others. There are several threads spanning hundreds of posts on CPF and elsewhere about this subject. People have ran these chargers without incident for years and then suddenly had them catch fire, melt the wrappers off burned batteries or melt the charger housing. You're messing with a time bomb, that by design, must fail sooner or later and usually with catastrophic results. I got rid of my five 9009's last year. This is worse than any other reported charger I have ever read about at any price... PURE SHIT.
Given that plenty of people also post reviews to the likes of Amazon which sells thousands of these, you would think such a serious problem would be reflected there. And it is, for a very small segment of 9009 users.
CPF user are also know to mod their chargers.
Which isn't to say that their design doesn't have flaws, just that it seem to be overblown.
What acuatlly happens when the charger misses the delta V and the voltage keeps on rising? Last time i’ve pulled my batteries out on 1.7V but now i’m considering to out the charger outside on the lawn and just let it be to see what happens…?
He does it almost every time when you put in almost charged batteries so achieving this shouldn’t be too hard 
What do you guys think?
Ok so should i even try to sell it or just film it (after my exams that is) when it blows up? Should make a fine movie to show here and to add to my mail when sending my refund claim for the product and personal psychological damage to la crosse!! :d
If you try charging non-crap batteries and it works fine, it really shouldn't be a problem. But if unsure you can check the wall power supply or mosfet in it to make sure it's functioning normally.
If it explodes and doesn't kill you, we'd of course love to know.
Flashpilot I'm not sure you made your point ..I guess no matter how you say it ..Someone has to question your motives ..Look deep within ..maybe you're just having a bad day ..regardless ..tell them what you really think .
Aloha KDLST! If you're gonna do it anyway you might as well record it to use for when you file a claim and also you can use it to warn others who might want to buy the same unit. The most important thing is to make sure you do it outside your house and be very, very safe about it. Good luck.
:bigsmile:
Don’t take my word for it. Use a bit of Google-Fu for the hundreds of posts in regard to the abysmal failure rates of these pieces of shit. The Manufacturer has done absolutely nothing to revamp the design and disavows any knowledge of the inherent dangers in its poor designs. At one point, the senior engineer of Maha chimed in on a thread discussing what a horrible design it was and why Maha and most other manufacturers of battery chargers are designed with adequate safeguards that actually work. Not so with La Crosse chargers and the other names they sell them under in different markets.
Oh, come now. La Crosse is a nice town. I lived there a few years. La Crosse footwear is usually thought of pretty positively. (No relation to La Crosse Technology who makes the chargers, though they both originated in La Crosse. Sadly, La Crosse footwear no longer has a presence there.)
I have both the Maha and the La Crosse but I have never had failed termination before with the La Crosse. I will say though, the first ever set of La Crosse I bought, I had problems with it, and when I opened up the PCB to have a look, I was shocked to find the PCB full of green corroded green crap! What’s worse, it looked as though someone did some work on it. Feeling like I was duped to get a refurbished set, I complained to the supplier which gave me back a new set and I have not had problems since.
does this mean that my voltcraft ipc L1 (lacrosse bc 900 ) is a ticking time bomb? i actually haven’t unplugged that thing from power for years literally and i only charge eneloops (uomo edition from ChibiM) and never had any problems it is always 1.53v when it says full and the batteries are between 2.09 and 2.21 Ah so now you got me worried…should i go and throw away the charger that served me well for years?
I had a La Crosse BC-9009 that overheated and melted the plastic casing a while back. IMO, their chargers suck, and so does their customer service. My charger of choice is the PowerEX C9000. Never once gave me a problem in the 3 years I've owned it
It's a different charger but I have read of incidents with it (just Google "BC900 meltdown").
I would unplug it when not in use and don't leave it charging unattended.
I understand the notion of not leaving things unattended while charging but who really does that? Who sits for the hours it takes to charge some batteries? Surely we mean dont put it on to charge overnight while you sleep or head off shopping etc?
Just pop it in a flame proof box (metal) with lid, and put that in the garage with nothing combustible around it. Im thinking worst case scenario it isnt going to detonate with enough force to escape. Might pop the lid at worst. Everytime I read that advice it makes me wonder. I picture people who ponder which to engage in today, watching water boil, grass grow, paint dry or batteries charge. I guess in an office while working its feasible, but for most people its not going to be realistic.
Now I’ve gotta get me another charger and an ammo box to retire my bc700 to. (Shoulda googled better when I bought it, I guess.)