Please reccommend a AA battery charger

[IpaqMan]

Here's another vote for chargers from Thomas Distributing. I like the ones that have microprocessor controlled charging with separate charging circuits for 1, 2, 3, or 4 cells at a time. Single cell charging is important for the new one cell flash players. BTW, using high speed charging for the small AAA NiMH cells can overheat them. I overheated a couple of the 850mah AAA Energizer NiMHs with a 500ma charger current.

My favorite charger is the La Crosse charger. It can actually cycle charge a brand new rechargeable battery until its "newness" is gone and it has reached a maximum charge. It can also test a battery and let you know what its maximum capacity is with real numbers.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver The chargers sold at Wal-Mart and Best Buy charge too slowly (most models) or require that the batteries be charged in pairs (again, most models) or have only a single shared charging circuit for all four cells (the "1-hour" and the "15-minute" chargers sold at such stores).

The Energizer 1-hour, 30-min and 15-min chargers do in fact have individual channels for each cell and have thermistor temperature sensors on the negative electrodes. The 15-minute unit is a little scary with its hardworking little fan, but it gets the job done. Wal-Mart and Target carry them. Watch for sales. Shouldn't cost more than $25 for charger plus 2 or 4 cells, but as has been pointed out, watch for the higher-capacity cells in the package. All Energizer quick chargers have switching-type wall wart power supplies which can interfere with nearby radios. NiMH only.

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Not quite. You see, regular batteries lose voltage slowly over their usable life (they may measure a bit over 1.5V when new, but will drop to below 1.2V after only half the device's claimed battery life figure) - whereas rechargeable batteries will stay at nearly their full rated voltage until near the very end of their usable charge lives (rechargeables may measure about 1.4V when fully charged, and the remain at or near 1.2V until the very end). Thus, half the time your portable players will sound worse with regular batteries than with most rechargeable batteries.

Wow, never new that. I have a four year old Energizer charger that takes 15 hours to charge batteries.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Not quite. You see, regular batteries lose voltage slowly over their usable life (they may measure a bit over 1.5V when new, but will drop to below 1.2V after only half the device's claimed battery life figure) - whereas rechargeable batteries will stay at nearly their full rated voltage until near the very end of their usable charge lives (rechargeables may measure about 1.4V when fully charged, and the remain at or near 1.2V until the very end).

Dunno why, but I've found these things to not always be true in actual practice. Alkalines don't necessarily keep dropping slowly in voltage until the end of their life, and NiMH batteries don't necessarily retain most of their voltage until nearly exhausted.

In particular, it seems to me that NiMH batteries lose more voltage over the course of a given charge than they're supposed to in theory. In other words, they do drop off slowly to some extent.

 

[nsjong]

Energizer 15 minute charger. No questions asked.

They even have their own cooling system.

I have the 20 minute charger. It's great but the batteries are deadly hot right after they're charged. I have to wait another 10 minutes or so for them to cool down since they don't have their own fan like the 15 minute charger.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by atx http://www.thomas-distributing.com/l...ry_charger.php This is the best charger I've seen. 4 independent circuits, temperature detection, 4 different functions (charge,discharge,refresh,test), not to mention a very useful lcd display. blows away any charger you'd find at walmart or best buy.

I have this charger and it's great.

Not very user friendly, though. The delay between changing charging current rate is annoying.

Otherwise if it had ports for charging 9V batteries it would've been d@mn near perfect.

-Ed

 

[fewtch]

For inexpensive chargers, I like this one the best:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/m...ry-charger.htm

Nice latest-generation features. Only charges in pairs, but who uses batteries singly anyway?

 

[Visigodo]

I have a Rayovac 15 min. charger, which requires 15 min. rechargeable batteries (it does work with AA and AAA batteries). It's an awesome product that delivers on what it promises, each charge lasts a long time, and saves you a lot of money in the long run.

Highly recommended.

 

[RobertR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Visigodo I have a Rayovac 15 min. charger, which requires 15 min. rechargeable batteries (it does work with AA and AAA batteries). It's an awesome product that delivers on what it promises, each charge lasts a long time, and saves you a lot of money in the long run. Highly recommended.

another vote for the rayovac. these batteries have a long shelf life between charges. Radio shack sells the same thing under their brand name at 2x price of walmart.
Rayovav is the innovator of the 15' charge.

 

[JeffS]

Vote number 3 for RayOVac.

I've read reports, that the unit only charges the batteries to around 85% of their full charge in 15 minutes. The unit does trickle charge after the rapid charge part so I guess you'll hit 100% if you leave it for a while.

Even at 85% in 15 minutes, these batteries do a great job for my amp and digital camera. and with that short of a turnaround, it's hard to resist.

Oh, the batteries do get quite warm while rapid-charging, so be careful.

-Jeff

 

[Ice Nine]

[size=small]I'll throw in a vote for the Ray O Vac also. It's nice that it charges AA or AAA and can be used to charge other rechargeable batteries for longer durations.[/size]

 

[fiery]

http://www.ripvan100.com/products_recharger.htm

compact and charges fairly quickly too (though not as fast as 15-20-30 mins). carried it around for 4/1/2 months while backpacking through europe, and it took the knocks ok (the cover popped off a couple of times, but popped back on again with no problems). i chose this after reading good write-ups at the time (summer '04) on digital camera sites, and while i can't compare it to any other models, i am real happy with it and won't need to replace it any time soon.

re batteries, i used (and still have) sanyo 2300 mah AA's (i think the sanyo's are are up to 2500 mah now).

 

[spanner]

What about Lithium Ion AA/AAA rechargeable batteries? They even run at 1.5V instead of 1.2V or 1.25V from what I can see. I can find the batteries thelmselves, but no chargers! Are they not for generic use?

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanner What about Lithium Ion AA/AAA rechargeable batteries? They even run at 1.5V instead of 1.2V or 1.25V from what I can see. I can find the batteries thelmselves, but no chargers! Are they not for generic use?

You won't find single 1.2-1.5V AA or AAA LiON batteries. There are 3V ones, but not the alkaline and NIMH voltage equivalent.

-Ed

 

[spanner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood You won't find single 1.2-1.5V AA or AAA LiON batteries. There are 3V ones, but not the alkaline and NIMH voltage equivalent. -Ed

What about these?

http://store.batteryspecialists.com/l92bp4.html

Edit:
Oops sorry, tunnel vision...these aren't rechargeable batteries.