most any NIMH charger will charge any NIMH battery, but dumb chargers just push a set current for a times number of hours, usually overcharging the battery and making them as hot as hot water from a faucet. I suspect these batteries don’t come out fully charged, my very fickle digital camera dies with low battery warning when used with almost full batteries refuses to run on dumb charged batteries but the same batteries on a smart charger will run it for a little while.
Also people are saying that only the white top duracell that say made in japan are actually rebadged eneloops (“duraloops”)
I can tell you I actually use those 15 minute battery cookers and out of all brands Eneloops have the best performance using them. They heat up very little when on the charger and even after a couple years it still won’t reject the cells whereas almost every other brand, Duracell, Energizer, Powerizer, Lenmar, Tenergy, they all fail after a few dozen 15 minute charges. They also get hotter indicating higher internal resistance.
Eneloop classic 2000 mah cells are just real workhorses. I figure if I get a year out of a nimh battery after using the 15 minute charger I’ve gotten my money’s worth. And the convenience of 15 minute charging for gear like my flashlights and especially cameras and camera accessories trumps getting an extra year out of the cells but charging them very slowly.
Check these out. Same features as the Eneloop at half the price.
Enelong AA
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1140600
Eneloops.
You do raise a good point, i would rather have a few extra batteries and always have charged and ready to go, but if your only using them for one device like the OP and presumably not using them very often then full battery life may not be worth the cost of a smart charger and a standard 6-8 hour dumb charger may be fine (though i disagree with mr krabs, shortening the life drastically with 15 minute chargers is pointless IMO, especially since eneloops can hold charges for years unlike non low self discharge NiMH, and they should last far more then double using a smart non 15 minute charger or even a dumb non 15 minute charger)
I would not trust them as far as i can throw them
Sent you a PM zach8935,
Still amusing almost nobody ever refers to my sales thread when people want to buy eneloops.. So here we go... never counterfeits, cheaper than almost all of your local shops, and the newest available on the planet ;)
That sounds like win win...
Something to consider if you have both Li-ion & Ni-MH cells...
I bought a dedicated Ni-MH charger - La Crosse Technology BC-700 (Amzn). But I don't use it since I got a ThruNite MCC-4.
ThruNite MCC-4 is a 4 bay charger. It can do Li-ion & NiMH at same time (HKJ review) (purchase: iLLs, OGS, *Amzn).
But it doesn't "refresh" or discharge cells like the La Crosse charger.
I have a Maha C9000 at home and I really like that charger for my MiMh batteries. However, I have been away from home for over a year and have bought a charger that I really like and seems to work fine for all the batteries I have been charging. It’s an Intelicharger i4. You can pick them up for about $20 and charge both NiMh and LiOn at the same time.
2 day ship from amazon is my primary reason. Granted they are 2/3 gen at amazon, but the cost of 4th gen isn’t really justified by the benefits imo.
Batteries: Eneloops or white top Duracell “Staycharged” batteries (aka Duraloops).
Eneloops hold their charge the longest, maintain capacity the longest, and offer the most bang-for-the-buck. The superiority of Eneloops and re-wrapped Eneloops (like Duraloops) may not be immediately apparent, but there’s a pretty big difference 2-3 years down the line. I have 5 year old Eneloops that are still as good as new. I can’t say that about any other LSD Nimhs that I’ve had.
Charger: La-Crosse BC-700 - price on Amazon fluctuates between $28-38.
I used to think that a basic $10 smart charger was all I needed because I wasn’t a “heavy” user. I bought the BC-700 a little over a year ago and I don’t think I could go back to a budget nimh charger. Being able to check the capacity of each battery individually is huge.
I have some devices that take 4 nimhs. For the less important ones, I run old black top Duracells in them. What I didn’t realize was that a few of my black top Duracells were going bad and losing capacity. I could tell that my runtimes were diminishing, but I couldn’t tell why because my old charger couldn’t test capacity. The BC-700 allowed me to test the capacity of each cell and I was able to pick out the bad cells and match the remaining cells with ones that had similar capacity. Now I get more reliable performance out of my multi-cell devices.
Just to echo a few of the above sentiments…. Eneloop and bc700 charger.
If you are mainly going to use AA and AAA, this is the way to go
Just 2 days ago, my mate gave me 3 old GP AAA batteries to test because his charger ( maha I think) said at least 1 of them was dead and could not be charged…
They are rated 600mah min. Ran test cycle, when complete 1 battery 132mah, second battery 232 mah and last one 290mah. Then ran the refresh cycle, batteries are now 258mah,309mah and 458mah….
Not only could the charger check each battery individually, but could also revive the batteries somewhat…
Awesome stuff!
Obviously, if you are going to use li ion mainly, the I4 or Thrunite might be a better option…
And also, eneloops from ChibiM are the way to go!
Good luck with whatever you decide. 
I dont trust my i4 after it overcharged my AAA’s.
I will side with ChibiM, he seems to be selling hard to get worldwide Eneloops such as 3rd gen XX aka Pro and colorful ones, I for one havent seen them in my local stores ever, especially for that price.
Regarding cheap chargers - there are plenty of reliable cheap chargers which are good for the money, heres the cheapest one Ive seen with four individual channels, not a dumb charger, albeit pretty slow:
4.56$ on Ebay right now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271214964724
But as others have mentioned - if you want to get serious with your batteries and their maintenance, then get yourself MAHA C9000, if youre in USA theres hardly any reason not to, given how often it goes on sale for less than 40$(???) ;)!
Heres some more about budget and not that budget chargers, I started that thread and it helped me alot and some folks shared their experience with smart chargers:
and that’s the enelong and short of it.
i’m glad someone agrees with me 
some people can get very defensive about their choices
concerning the i2/i4, if i remember correctly its not a correct dv charging algorithm, but an approximation
I use Eneloop, GP Recyko, Top Craft Ready To Use (Aldi) and Tronic “ECO” (Lidl).
All of these low selfdischarge batteries are very good, the Tronic batteries have the highest capacity (2200mAh, tested in the Maha MH-C9000).
Even the oldest Top Craft batteries (4 years) still work very good in the camera flash.
The Top Craft and Tronic are the cheapest, 4,99 Euro for 4 x AA (in Belgium, they could even be cheaper in Germany because we have the “Bebat-tax” here).
In Veers thread there is a small unnoticed response that should be pointed out ....
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/7551#comment-178168
this charger comes with 4 rechargable batteries too..
I've had these come with duraloops but most of them are black top
but figure that into the price since even 4 regular rechargables are worth at least 6$
the reason this charger is cheap is because it comes with a austrailian type plug ...to wit you can either buy a $1.50 el cheapo adapter ... feed it 12volts into the side with a easy as hell to find wallwart with a 3mm plug ...or give it 12V off of a cigarette lighter plug ...
Or all of the above .
I bought a few at 13$ and have run them for years .
If you try to buy the us version of the same thing you'll find it being sold from 45 to 60$
It was a 10$ deal about 3 years ago on schloop and they were almost all duraloops back then ...and people still cried about the wrong plug ..
I say get over it ."there's no crying in electronics ".. great charger w/ USB outlet on the side ..
great deal at $10 /12.99/or 16$
then I'd talk to ChibiM or find some duraloops
vs
the U.S. model
I’m having good luck with tenergy 2600 and nitecore i4 charger
I have good luck with these. http://www.amazon.com/Imedion-2400mAh-Rechargeable-Batteries-4-Pack/dp/B003LWMZ5M/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390000076&sr=1-3&keywords=maha+batteries
The Eneloops are also good.
I would like a link to where a 20 dollar purchase can be made/reliable seller …
Picked one off amazon for $17. They were down to $15 a month or so ago.