Possibly 6 years ago I purchased a Maha MH-C808M “ultimate Professional Charger” for NiMH batteries. It worked fine, but I’m phasing out the lights using NiMH. I wonder if I have a use for it at all anymore. It has a so called “conditioning mode” that is said to apply a “special charge” to the batteries, then discharges and recharges them to “restore battery performance”.
I recently got an OPUS BT-C3100 that charges NiCad (useless to me), NiMH and Li-Ion and also has some sort of conditioning mode. I’m wondering if the 2 modes are the same (Maha vs Opus) and can I get the Maha charger off of the charging station and not miss it? It takes up a great deal of space for the few times that I might need that conditioning mode. If the modes do the same thing with both chargers, well, I can reclaim some space.
I’d guess they’re about the same — drain down and recharge, one or several times.
I’m still using a C-808M to keep a bunch of old NiMH D cells charged for the earthquake kit.
I take them out, and see how much is needed to bring them to full charge (with a VC4 charger, two at a time)
Any that need more than 10 percent to bring them to full charge get cycled in the Maha (or in the one slot of the VC4 that does cycling)
Not yet ready to opine whether the cycling really revives any capacity, but that’s the idea.
Depends on what you want and need. The Maha is a damn good charger for NiMh and very easy to use. You have no idea WHAT is going on but it does seem to be doing it pretty reliably. You just want to pop a battery in and charge it, it’s great. AND, it’ll do so for 8 cells if you need that requirement.
The Opus is a lot more analytical and detailed. It’s also fussier to use. If you want info, then the Opus is your choice. Sure it can also JUST charge cells but it can’t do the same kind of quantity and if you have a bunch of C and D cells it’s kind of lame dealing with those. Maha is great for large sizes and quantities of NiXX cells. Opus, not so much.
It’s great for my wife. We have lots of AA from underwater photography strobes. She just puts them in, pushes the ‘soft charge’ button, and away it goes. That’s about as much as she wants to deal with. Some people just want [plug and charge]. 80% of the time that’s all I want also. I used the Opus a lot when I first got it, analyzing everything I had. Now, I just charge the cells and don’t use it so much. It’s still important, just not so much for regular charging use.