Hi there,
We are considering buying a battery charger and rechargeable batteries for my younger brothers various toy cars as he seems to go through an alarming amount of batteries.
What things are there to consider when buying a battery charger and what type would be suited to this sort of use?
And finally can anyone kindly give me any recommendations based upon their own personal experience?
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Look out for the Lidl (or is it Aldi?) battery charger and the precharged ("ready to use") NiMH batteries. Very good value for money on both the charger and batteries.
The main thing IMHO is to get one which charges and monitors each cell separately. You won't get that with the cheapest but you don't have to pay a fortune. Mine is a GP Powerbank and does 4 AAs. Each cell has its own status lights, and a copper strip which (I guess) senses temperature.
I've got a Ansmann Energy 8 Plus that's brilliant - but not cheap. Think I paid about 45 quid for it from CPC but that was on special offer.
Charges up to 6 AA or AAA, 4 C or D and 2 PPÂ3 types (or various combinations). Individual cell charging, cell conditioning and all sorts of clever things I don't understand but seem to result in it being brilliant :-)
That and a load of Sanyo eneloop batteries have restored my faith in rechargables :)
Darren
For the cells, try Eneloop (Aldi sometimes does an equivalent) from e.g.
7dayshop.com. I didn't risk that place's own brand. Eneloop type stay charged, unlike ordinary NiMH, for a long time and also run much longer. Ordinary NiMH in my camera managed a few shots then the camera cut out; Eneloops managed ~200 shots, about 30 or so with flash. The plain white Eneloops at 2.1Ah can be recharged about 1000 times; the newer ones with higher capacity not so many. I try to have 4 cells to charge so that they take longer - the other option is to spend £30+ on a settable charger.
Does this mean they have a higher voltage? Or are you saying they are many times the capacity?
Lower iinternal resistance?
If it is designed for alkalines, I doubt it.
Internal resistance has been mentioned, they may have different discharge curve as well.
In message , Dave Liquorice writes
I've never noticed such performance difference with any of our cameras that use them.
Thank you very much for all your responses.
Does this charger seem okay?
It certainly seems rather a dramatic difference. My guess is a faulty cell.
TBH I don't know. The ordinary cells were in good condition and have since worked well in lower-drain items and the Eneloops are good in the camera. I'd like to know why but as it's all working I'm not messing with it.
I rather fancy one of these, when I can justify it!
It's just that I have some 7day NiMH that do so badly that I must get rid of them; some Aldidl NiMH are OK, so I just went for the Eneloop while they were on offer.
Out of curiosity I'm trying an Eneloop in a clock (yes, hardly worth it) that will run its cell to about 0.95V (some clocks dip out at ~1.25V and so won't really go on a nominal 1.2V) and so far its managed 7 months. An ordinary NiMH would have discharged by now.
I've only the one camera, so no comparison. All cells tried were good and run OK elsewhere but the camera was shutting down on low battery. I tried 3 pairs then got the Eneloops and they just work.
my old cells, working out which could be persuaded to hold a good charge, and which were beyond redemption.
Chris
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