I’ve recently purchased a “cheap ”intelligent”“:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=201478179274 charger which works fine with my 18650 batteries. Some AAA batteries take 3/4 hours until the green light turns off. The 18650 takes 7 to 8 hours (with 4 batteries in the charger) with the green light on.
However in some AA or AAA rechargeable batteries the green light (when is charging) turns off after a minute or two.
Does this mean that the batteries have lost their charging capacity?
Did the charger come with any instructions? Does it describe the situation you are experiencing?
It is quite possible that it just cannot charge those particular batteries for whatever reason… the batteries may be dead. Sometimes if the voltage is too low, some chargers won’t be able to revive them. Pull out your multi-meter and do some measurements, or try these batteries in a different charger to see what happens. However, if it charges some AAA batteries but not others, then I suspect the problem is with those batteries.
The voltage can be set manually. I use 1.2v option. I suspect the problem is in some batteries because sometimes I put 4 AAA in the charger and the green lights (four) turn off at different times, one can turn of after 10 seconds and the other after 2 or 3 hours.[edit] The charger has no instructions.
It could be bad batteries. More likely, the charger isn’t very good for charging NiMH cells. Whatever termination signal it is looking for (probably -dV/dt), it doesn’t work very well at detecting it for some batteries.
IMO, I wouldn’t use it. Get another charger for your NiMH batteries.
I don’t know if I’d be using that charger. There are too many name brands: NiteCore, Opus, Xtar, SkyRC, Liitokala, et. al, to be screwing around with no-name generic chargers.
You never want to cheap out on lithium ion cells and lithium ion chargers.
If you have to save a few pennies, cheap out on toilet paper and buy Lite Beer from Miller!
that is a really cheap charger.a friend had one and got to use it once loaded with 18650.
it charged properly but took forever.like 1200ma/4.
it went bang the next time he used it.
also note that already full charged cells will terminate quickly.they should.
and that there are a ton of aa and aaa grossly overrated cells that will charge fast because they have little capacity thus charge fast.
the picture in the ebay auction shows it loaded with scam cells.
Solid, reliable chargers, though not the quickest, I would recommend the Panasonic BQ-CC17 for charging NiMH (slow, it will take overnight to charge 4, but they are charged individually, one per channel, and it knows how to terminate) and for Lion I recommend the Xtar VC2 if you’re willing to go with a two-channel unit, or he VC4 otherwise. The VC4 can do NiMH also, the VC2 not. $25-$30 for both separate chargers and the same for the VC4 by itself. Many users seem to think highly of these, myself included, but they are a bit slow.
+1 for that charger. I have a couple of them, that came bundled with Eneloops. Great AA and AAA charger, if you don’t mind waiting. Always gives a full charge, and has never failed to terminate properly. Takes about 6-7 hours to fully charge AA cells, about 5 hours for AAA. When it terminates charging (individually for each cell), it completely stops the charge so you don’t get any damaging trickle charge.
I almost always use the BQ-CC17 chargers. If I’m in a hurry I’ll use a faster charger, but I seldom need to do that.
It has a good price but I need to charge 18650 batteries also.
[edited] I’m really suspecting that the problem is in the batteries because some of them are from 2010 or older. I experimented AA batteries from the same generic brand and model. One or two charged for 2 or more hours while other stop charging after 1 ot 2 minutes.
Why not look at this Liitokala Lii - 500 LCD Battery Charger. It is very well received on this forum (i have two of them). should be able to pick one up for $15-$24. I use it exclusively with li-ions but it will charge nicad as well.definitely worth looking into.
I have 4 Panasonic BQ-CC17’s which I use exclusively to charge my Eneloops. Yes they’re slow, but super reliable and safe. I do occasionally condition my Eneloops in the Maha C9000.
Overall, it seems to be great for Li-Ion batteries, but apparently it slightly undercharges NiMh batteries. I recently bought it, but I only use it for my Li-Ion batteries. For NiMh, I have my old Opus C-2400.
For a charger that does most chemistry’s and battery sizes, it’s excellent. You can’t beat it for the price. I paid $15 for mine without the power supply
