Best Inexpensive NiMH Charger?

Hi

After having studied all about LiIon batteries and chargers and flashlights and coming to the conclusion that the XTAR VP2 is a great LiIon charger now what is needed is a good NiMH charger. Something under about $15.00 USD is desired if possible.

Of course good things cost money and it is not expected to get the best for very little but what is recommended these days for a decent NiMH charger? A "quick" or "fast" charger is not desired. One that would be gentle to the batteries is wanted. By the way-the batteries to be purchased probably will be some mid/high quality batteries like the Tenergy or Eneloop PROs or Accupower. This has not yet been decided.

The AccuPower IQ-328 was being considered but it seems several people said better could be had for less but did not mention which one(s). What about the Eneloop chargers or the Panasonic chargers?

Thank you

You haven’t mentioned what size NiMh cells you want to charge. Presumably they are AA or AAA. The IQ-328 is a much more ‘flexible’ charger than the
Eneloop or Panasonic Chargers, and also provides useful information about battery capacity and has the ability to ‘cycle’ batteries as well. For the money it is hard to do any better than the IQ-328.

I’m using a digipower TC U450 it charges 1 or 2 NiMh batteries at a time with 600 miliamps in each channel. It also claims to be able to charge 14500 Lion though I haven’t tried it yet. This is the maximum length. I believe it will charge 16340 batteries also and I’m shopping for a laser pointer. It is a good charger if you don’t need the larger batteries.

+1 although slightly over your budget. I have a clone of the same model and very happy with it. But If I were in the market I would consider this other one, closer to your budget. See review here and here

Sorry - forgot to mention it but yes - AA and AAA only will be recharged.

Thank you for the ideas so far. Anyone else with any opinions?

Eneloop has one model of smart charger that i know of, its sold with 4AA batteries, but you have to make sure your not buying the more common dumb charger version.

Opus BM100 would be a good option if you could get it cheap, it was 20$ last time I looked
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Opus%20BM100%20UK.html

For $12 the 2014 i2 nitecore can be had at gearbest shipped. There is a coupon in their sale thread. I bought 2 of those for friends.

i2 above, or add a couple bucks for an i4 from what Ive read. Otherwise the Eneloop smart charger is good too and comes with a bonus 4 batteries (I went this way).

I wish the Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD did not cost more than the VP2. Also Panasonic has no page with NiMH chargers all on one page except the eneloop-marked chargers are on one page but Panasonic makes many additional chargers for AA/AAA NiMH.

I had read the IQ-328 did have a few negative comments somewhere as well.

Well, wish granted because it does not. It is just 27$ without coupon, about 10 $ over your budget. Anyway I am confused with the comparison now because vp2 is for li-ion and you asked for nihm. According to the shan review linked above, the shan
Is the best bang for the buck that you can get, not only charger but also analyzer and able to refresh. Second best would be the opus BM100, 5$ over your initial budget.

I am a big fan of the simple nitecore chargers and sometimes use them myself for nimh charging but I wouldn’t recommend I2/i4 for nimh charging because it seems to work nonstandard and not optimal…

I believe HKJ determined they don’t use a delta V charging algorithm so they work but not quite properly

Edit: This is the eneloop with smart charger, the charger looks the same as the non smart but says advanced, it should be available in other countries as well

The current eneloop chargers are the BQ-CC16, BQ-CC17 & the BQ-CC18. Only the BQ-CC-16 is a smart charger out of these three. It seems there used to be many older but discontinued eneloop chargers.

The Nitecore D2 or D4 chargers are very nice looking but as HKJ did point out they are not so good for charging/servicing NiMH batteries.

The XTAR VP2 was mentioned because it could give someone an idea of the type of charger we were interested in (for NiMH/NiCads) as opposed to say a hobby charger, a basic cheapo charger, an 8-port charger or something like the BT-C3400 charger for example. So the point was that for LiIons we chose the VP2 and for NiMHs we were hoping for something sort of like it only for NiMH batteries as far as functionality and features.

The Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD is ugly and the display looks even worse. This probably means we are vain to the degree we wish for something that looks good as well as works well but we are not willing to give up accuracy and certain basic features for the sake of looks though. If only the Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD looked like an XTAR or a Nitecore then the deal would have been done long ago.

The BM100 is sort of old by now and the newer unit (BC-T3400) is still an alpha or beta item in its developement as far as we are concerned.

So...spending more money seems likely now. Who ever thought that a NiMH/NiCad charger would cost more than a LiIon charger with similar features?

So......anyone know of a unit that looks like an XTAR or Nitecore-type charger in the case and display but functions like the Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD with its accuracy and quality?

Thank you all so far. The end is near!

the eneloop “pro” model that is black and has LEDs appears to be the one with independent channels and a low rate. tenergy makes a 2-bay independent channel charger that is pretty much an overnight charger TN153. I have a lacrosse bc700 but it’s now going for about $40. I have a tenergy charger for the rcr123’s and it has been flawless so I might consider the tn153 unless other people have had bad experiences. IMO because nimh are now LSD, fast charge rates aren’t really necessary unless you are running huge power packs for some reason like photography and fast charge rates aren’t supposed to be good for cells

http://www.panasonic-eneloop.eu/eneloop-products/chargers.html#c412

Again the eneloop 17 is not even advertised as a smart charger. It uses time as a terminator. Only the 16 above it is a smart charger according to Panasonic. No smart charger=no thanks.

Having just spent some additional hours researching, HKJ tested the Basen S2 and it almost came out on top but it seems the Nitecore D2/D4 might take first place for us.

It is pretty frustrating that Panasonic has no page for their chargers except the three on the eneloop page. Panasonic makes several other chargers but scattered all over the place and not even searchable or findable on their own website.

The Sony's were looked at as well (not that they were all on the same page either).

Great sale prices on all Nitecore chargers here:

I find the traslucent Shan about as sexy as a battery charger can get, the next step would be the Technoline/Lacrosse/other brands clones. I have a technoline BC700 charger/analyzer that can be found for about 25$, with similar functions, and in my hands is an excellent charger. It may be not as fashion as you need, or not new enough, but you can always place it in a drawer. Normally, on battery chargers, good models stick around for years with minor design changes. In any case, if you need simple and pretty you might consider the Apple charger. It is an extremely simple thing and quite sexy, and it does not perform bad at all. Only charges 2 batteries at a time and no advanced options like the more functional models that we recommended, for 30$ (with six Appleloops included).

I’ll never understand this obsession with stylish appearances, its a charger, as long as its not hideous or covered in gargoyles who cares.