I need a first charger for all my kids toys. Mostly AA and AAA. Have read about the opus 3100 and nitecore D4. Both seem to be sufficient for my needs. the opus will recharge faster but my main concern is probably reliability. Nitecore appears to be a bigger name/company do they produce a better quality product?
thanks
Welcome to BLF.
Isn’t opus 3100 $40 & nitecore D4$25? Bit expensive if you don’t really need a screen & extra functions.
$15 Panasonic BQ-CC17SBA eneloop charger
- Charges 1-4 cells individually.
- Individual battery status light for each cell.
- Compact size with folding plug.
That could also be an option as I don’t really need all the fancy features. I do like the ability to fully discharge and refresh the battery periodically which the more expensive chargers would allow.
Opus BM 100 is nice, cheap too.
Are you in the United States? If so, go with the Nitecore from Illumination Supply. The Opus has a fan that isn't terribly reliable. The Nitecore has less moving parts and buttons, and has an excellent vendor for customer service should you have any problems.
Welcome to BLF, cheps! :party:
Opus BM-100 is not a bad choice (20.77 USD from GearBest) but maybe too many options if you prefer to keep things simple. Shan/Angeleyes charger is a little more but simpler operation, has discharge feature and adjusts charging current per number of inserted cells. There are reviews of it here on BLF.
The Nitecore i4 has a bit of a reputation for cooking cells due to poor thermals, but it is popular due to the price. I would not get it unless you may need to charge li-ion cells in future.
i have two bt-c3100’s and nitecore d4,and i2.
i would spend the extra on the opus ,i think $41 is current offer.
the nitecore is very good quality ,but the opus is covered by gearbests excellent service.
not only the battery refresh proves useful ,but the capacity checker is my favourite .i nearly brought trustfires at £16 a pair ,then opted to go for £10.88 pair (cheapest option was just £9 ,which i will try)on ebay against all advice regarding ebay on here.
they tested between 5100mah-5360mah well above the usual 4400mah.
so now i will buy more from this vendor knowing his present batch is a very good one.
the same applies when you buy duff ones off ebay. just test them and send a message stating your dissapointment . Recently i brought 20 cells £14 and the vendor quickly refunded me and told me to keep the cells .The cells were labeled 5000mah but varied from few hundred to 2300mah (average 1100mah) so now they are all labeled up with their capacity so i can match up when using multiples.Plus with the ability to photograph the test results the vendor is always going to back down as soon as you mention bt-c3100.
the extra investment for me has already paid off in two weeks.
hope this gives you the answers you needed.
18650 batteries tested 5100mah? :~
During charge mode or during discharge capacity test?
the best sold charger on the ebay!!
works with all battery chemistry NiMH and LiIon!! :)
And alkaline, lead acid, even charges tomatoes!
Of course its idea of “charging” is a bit different then our traditional definition of charging. Includes free fireworks.
thanks for the replies. Many good options, I may lean to the opus with the ability to charge LI ion also. i have been looking to upgrade my flashlights also and with a run time of about 1.5-3 hours rechargables would be desirable.
CH-V6280 Smart Bay Charger ( 8 Channels World Wide Power) for AA/AAA NiMH batteries I have one like this and it has been serving me years. It’s an option if you want one for NiMH only. (You can probably get it cheaper elsewhere)
Anyone have an option for 8 x NiMH at once from a single charger?
I use a Maha MH-C808M charger. Will charge/refresh 8xAA/C/D at once. Very happy with it.
It's not very smart, only charges and refreshes. No capacity measurements.
So you may also want a smarter charger that can test and measure the batteries.
I like Maha of one sort or another for the high end, but
I’m delighted to learn about the Panasonic mentioned in response #1 — four channels, four lights, NiMH only.
That’s a really good choice for your unsophisticated/young/careless battery user. No worry about charging only pairs of batteries.
I’d guess (but verify) that if a kid stuck one of your Li-ion cells into it it would just refuse to do anything, rather than get into trouble.