Four charging slots/two channels, bright LCD with dual function, minimal looks, good build quality and four AA Energizer cells included.
This review will be about charger itself, I will talk about batteries in my next review, due in couple of days ;)!
Acquired for review from Tmart
Upd: (Use coupon code tmtchp4wb4 to knock the price down by 4:money_mouth_face:
Why this charger:
I never bought genuine, well known brand products from Chinese retailers before, thats why I decided to give this charger/battery combo a closer look!What sets it apart from similar chargers is its LCD functionality β beside showing you battery charging progress, it will also display number of hours left to finish charging!
Whats inside:
What you get here is Energizer CHP42 charger(CHP4WB4 is full name of this bundle), four Energizer 1400mAh low self discharge AA batteries and simple, easy to understand manual.
Batteries came inserted into charging slots, separated from charging connectors with plastic insulation tape to protect them from accidental discharge.
Handling and charging:
It charges in pairs, it means that you can charge two batteries at once, if you insert one battery, it wont charge, you have to put two batteries in either ports 1&2(to the left) or 3&4(to the right).
When plugged into mains without batteries, the LCD will light up for a fraction of a second and then turn off, it wont be illuminated if there are no batteries inside or if there is only one battery inserted, remember, it charges in pairs so it wont work with only one battery inserted!
When two batteries in correct slots are inserted, the LCD will light up and the battery status to the right will start to blink while to the left remaining time till the end of charge will be displayed! When charging is done, it will display 0 as remaining time and full battery charge indicator, backlight will not turn off.
Charging current is, according to manual, 500mA for 2 and 4 AA and 220mA for 2 and 4 AAA batteries.
When I inserted all four batteries it showed that it will take 5 hours to charge, which was bit of a surprise given that Energizer says on the packaging that it takes 4 hours to do so and manual has 500mA stated as charge current for AA sized batteries.
It might take up to 30 minutes for charger to calibrate remaining time function properly. Energizer recommends in their manual charging empty batteries to get as accurate readings as possible in timely manner(mine were empty after capacity test with MAHA Powerex C9000)! It took around 4 hours to fully charger all four batteries.
Maximum charging time is 5 hours, if by then they are not fully charged, charger will stop charging anyway, its safety limitation.
Charger itself stayed rather warm to the touch(but not overly so) during charging process while batteries were warm to the touch, yet not as warm as charger. Heat shouldnt be a problem with this charger, which is good both for charger and batteries as well.
Another thing to mention regarding charging process - if it will detect bad battery, both of those(either those on the left side or on the right side, remember, this thing charges in pairs) small battery indicators under the main screen will blink in blue, no matter if only one of the two batteries is damaged/non-rechargeable battery.
Dissembly:
I wanted to take this charger apart to see whats inside of it, I even managed to remove its unorthodox screws, however it was impossible to separate top and bottom plastic panels without risking to tear this thing into pieces and break for good, so I put the screws back and wont risk damaging it.
What else?
Well, yes β when putting my ear close to the charger while charging I could hear pulsating-buzzing sound, as far as little searching online tells me it is normal for NiMh chargers to charge in pulses to detect correct voltage of battery and stop charging when its full, so no worries here, the charger does its job the way its supposed to.
The sound is not annoying, however it might be audible in completely quiet room while being next to the charger.
Conclusion!
What I like about this charger is that it displays remaining time, its not too large, it feels good in hand and doesnt feel overly cheap and comes with four low self discharge AA batteries that are made in Japan!
What I would like to see different in this charger is battery capacity, they could be of higher capacity and separate charging channels, more accurate/faster calibration of charging time display option.
Other than that no flaws so far. Its will stop charging after 5 hours regardless if batteries are fully charged or not, its safety feature to avoid overcharge, but at such low charging currents, at leat for AA, there should be slightly higher upper limit, say 6 or 7 hours preferably.
Price could couple of dollars less, perhaps Tmart could offer some coupon for this item, given that currently you can get 4 Eneloops and a charger for the same price, I will ask them and see what their answer is.
Hooray! Heres 4$ coupon to shave off this combos price - tmtchp4wb4!
I will be using this charger on rotation with my other Ni-Mh battery chargers when not in rush. Its not a fast charger, but this can be a good thing also β it will not overheat your batteries and thus extend their lifetime for those who dont want to deal with potentially overheated batteries or babysit them during charging process on much faster chargers.
In one sentence Id say that this charger might be interesting because of its time display function and batteries included, otherwise this is generic charger with alternatives costing much less.
Thanks for reading!