My company is going through a green initiative, and one of the things I proposed is using rechargeable instead of alkaline batteries for things like remote controls, wireless mice, etc.
These are largely AAA and some AA batteries, so I’ll just suggest Eneloop/Fujitsu.
Any suggestions for good bang-for-the-buck chargers that:
- hold 8-16 batteries (and maybe some 4 battery smaller ones for some departments)
I think you biggest problem is going to be education. Most users of rechargeable batteries don’t know what they are doing, and aren’t much interested in learning. Their expectations and use patterns don’t jibe with what they’ve learned with alkaline. They buy crap batteries, crap chargers, use them inappropriately and wonder why NiMh is crap.
Not familiar with those charges. I’m having OK luck with the Tenergy LSD batteries, so far, but I’ve only got a couple years of use comparing them to better brands. The lower end Tenergy aren’t good. The blue ones are poor (miserable actually).
General feedback on EBL is not good….for those that know what they are doing. The charger is apparently a ‘dumb’ charger. You don’t want to be mixing that in with LSD batteries.
You can tell the level of knowledge from the high number of * for the EBL. The product simply does not deserve it. Find the review by [NLee The Engineer] for a fairly honest review (came up top of the 3* section for me).
nquinn, Investigate Thomas
I have been lead to believe the Maha chargers do well.
The most commented on and favored cells are the Eneloops (from Japan).
+1. This would be a workhorse charger that anyone can operate successfully: Maha MH-C800S AA-AAA 8 Cell Battery Charger.
I have it’s large multi-cell size counterpart and it’s been charging NiMh of all sizes for over a decade. Until I got into Li-on it was my ‘go to’ charger. A bit expensive but solid and reliable.
I also agree with looking over HJK’s list. You can sort the list according to your main requirements in the columns.
There are a lot of good chargers there, some fairly simple and not terribly expensive. I have a Lii-402, small, simple (if you don’t mess with the settings), inexpensive, and seems to work fine.
It sounds like the primary use will be low draw devices so you definitely want LSD. For these the ‘standard’ grade LSD, about 2000mAh I think will work better. They are somewhat more robust, have more charge cycles, and a bit better retention than the higher capacity ones like 2450mAh. Best bet, probably still the old white 2000 Eneloop made in Japan. Hard to beat them.
Some good 4x chargers are the Panasonic BQ-CC17 and BQ-CC55, which are slow and fast respectively. They cost about $20 each on amazon and will take good care of your eneloops(or other LSD battery).
I would pass on Tenergy Centura AA batteries. 10 that I bought in 2014 tested great out-of-the wrapper (over 2200mAh on my Opus 3100). When I tested them again last year 6 had a capacity ranging from 270 mAh to 1000 mAh after a week off the charger with the other 4 at around 1800 mAh. My original notes vaporized when my HD died but I recall that self-discharge on them wasn’t too bad back when they were new.
I have been using the Lacrosse BC-700 as it allows for more in-depth monitoring and management than dumb chargers without spending too much. And if four slots isn’t enough, the Powerex MH-C800S seems like a good alternative as you can charge up to eight batteries at once while giving you feedback on their progress.