Battery charger go bang!

[PeterC]

Several years ago I bought a Tronic charger from Lidl. After about 34 months it packed up and Lidl sent me a new one - well done Lidl. This second one went bang and emitted the smell of burning (elec)tronic bits

- as the was some metallic content in the sound I guess at an aluminium capacitor. It also took out the 3A fuse.

I'm now looking for a decent charger, preferably one that gentle on good NiMH cells and, if possible, give the capacity. I considered this one, as it's had good reports:

there seems to be only one supplier and has only 12 months' warranty, so reliability/price seems dubious.

Any recommendations please?

[Jeff Layman]

Take your choice...

Or if you definitely want only NiMH...

Read the reviews!

[Andy Burns]

I have one of these

Pleased with it for NiMH AA/AAA and Li-ion 18650/26650s, it will do a discharge/recharge cycle and measure voltage, capacity, internal resistance etc.

Advert says NiCd also, but I don't remember it handling those.

[tabbypurr]

Replace the capacitor. May need a new mains diode/bridge too.

NT

[Theo]

my go-to reference.

I've used the ISDT C4 which is pretty nice and easy to use:

and the Opus BT-C3100 which is not as shiny but still does the business and is cheaper (also fits 4x 18650s not 2 as the C4 does): On both of these you can set the charge currents so as not to overcook small batteries. They do all the cell analysis stuff you might want too.

Theo

[Chris B]

I have one that looks identical to that but is branded 7dayshop

Had it for a couple of years, and seems to work well. Gives capacity, adjustable charge/discharge current, cell voltage. Only does AA/AAA cells and does not do lithium batteries but for what I need its good.

[Pamela]

[PeterC]

Yes, I always read the reviews to see if there's any no-go point arising.

[PeterC]

Thanks for all the links and feedback - plenty to go at there. Now I have to choose one, um, er...

[Jac Brown]

But has the massive downside that it doesn?t do protected 18650s.

But the UI is much worse than the C4.