I have been charging two types of AAA batteries, Duracell supreme Accu 1000mah, and Fameart 1000mah.
I would have expected these to take around 7 to 8 hours charging time but the charger stops charging them at around 3 hours and clams they have been fully charged. The Famerart usually charge a little longer than the Duracells maybe by 30min to an hour (i.e sometimes takes 4 hours) but still doesn’t seam enough time to be fully charged. The Famerart are 5 years old where as the Duracell I got in the new year.
Another interesting thing (relatively), I charged 3 Duracell’s and 1 Fameart, when they displayed on the screen as being fully charged I moved them to a dumb charger and charged them a further 7 hours ) 55ma. Then moved them back to my Lloytron charger to see if they stopped charging instantly or fairly soon as they should be nearly fully charged+ they charged for a further 3.5 hours before I removed them without the charger saying they are fully charged, why would it do this, would it be looking for an increase in voltage that wouldn’t come because they were fully charged when inserted or did they still need more time to charge.
I have also charged a set 3 Duracell and 1 Famert for just 3.5 hours until the charger clamed they are fully charged, I’m going to test how long they run for in my torch, then test the set that were charged for much longer and see if there is any difference. I think there probably will be.
Im really baffled with this, any help or advice would be great.
Did your charger come with a manual that explains how it terminates?
These chargers are quite cheap from Amazon UK. Looks like it has the same LCD as the Soshine SC-C3. It would be interesting to know how “smart” these chargers are.
Touted as an intelligent alkaline charger, this rather cutesy looking model charges 1 to 4 AAA/AA in any combination and has a backlit lcd bargraph display one per cell. Measuring only 4.5” x 2.5” x 1.25” the charger can be slipped into a reasonably sized pocket and has a figure 8 socket for main input (100-240V). Plugging in the charger results in no lights ar any indication that it’s switched on; you have to put batteries in for the display to come to life. The lcd backlight switches on and then individual bargraph displays show the charge (voltage?).
The charging rates for1/2/3/4 batteries are:-
for AA 1200/600/300/300
for AAA 600/300/150/150
For alkalines the charging current is 100mA but since I don’t want caustic liquids all over my charger or equipment then I won’t use it for this purpose. Stick to good quality NiMh!
Results
As can be seen the charging rate gets divided between slots when more than 1 AA/AAA is loaded. This is because the charger is restricted to a total current of 600mA for AAA and, seperately, 1200mA for AA. All of this doesn’t detract from operations; batteries get charged sooner or later, they seem fully charged and they terminate reliably. There are no heat issues with either batteries or charger and when charging is done the backlight switches off leaving the icons still visible.
Conclusion
Worth buying? Yes if you’re looking for a small and simple charger. Mine cost £9-50, post free, so well worth consideration.