Good NiMH Batteries & charger to use?

[+LEGO]

Does anyone have any recommendations?

[+Chuy!]

SANYO ENELOOPs or MAHA IMEDION. A good charger is the - Maha MH-C204W.

[gallet]

Without any doubt it's a MaHa which will charge each of the four slots individually. LaCrosse is good but I don't think it will do each cell separately.

 

As for batteries, if you use them regularly then Sanyo 2700's or if you think you'll leave them in the unit for a long time, the eneloops 2100

[martin_nv]

Eneloops + Maha MH-C401FS work well for me. It will charge each battery individually.

[jimlarkey]

I routinely charge a single, separate Eneloop in a LaCrosse BC-900.

 

From the BC-900 user's guide:

"CHARGE MODE

Charging at 200 mA is the default-operating mode of the charging unit. When only one or two rechargeable batteries are charged, provided that only compartment 1 and compartment 4 are used, a charging current up to 1500 or 1800 mA may be set by the pressing the CURRENT key. On the other hand, when charging three or four rechargeable batteries at the same time, user may select a charging current of 200, 500, 700 or 1000 mA."

 

Cheers,

Jim

 

<snip> LaCrosse is good but I don't think it will do each cell separately.<snip>

[gallet]

Yes I think it was that bit from the manual that put me off (as well as the fact it's not available in australia), I got the impression that the LaCrosse could not apply a completely different program for each of the 4 slots at once. Is this right? The MaHa doesn't have any type of limitation like this. Use any or all compartments at once to perform any of all the possible combinations of charge/discharge/mAh cycles.

 

For example, I thought perhaps incorrectly (in which case the manual was not written well) that you could not have say, cell 1 doing a 45 hour forming charge, 2 doing a normal 500mAh charge, 3 discharging only, and 4 performing a charge/discharge-analyse/charge cycle.

Edited July 5, 2008 by gallet

[jimlarkey]

I do not have any experience with "different program for each of the 4 slots at once"...never needed or sought this feature. But in answer to your question, the LaCrosse BC-900 guide says:

 

• Charging/ Discharging functions can be launched independently and simultaneously to each rechargeable battery in the compartments.
  
• Various display modes during charging/ discharging – the charging current (in mA), time elapsed (in hh:mm), the terminal voltage (in V) and accumulated capacities (in mAh or Ah).
  

 

Cheers,

Jim

[gallet]

well that just goes to show how a badly written manual can lose a customer because I had decided on the la crosse first (before I knew I couldn't get it).

 

This "...provided that only compartment 1 and compartment 4 are used..." made me think there were conditions on which slots to use but your last post indicates the opposite from the same manual. I cannot reconcile the two statements. If the four slots are all independent as if they were four separate chargers, then what does this mean "...provided that only compartment 1 and compartment 4 are used..." Why not compartments 1 and 3 if they are all independent?

 

The other thing that put me off was that their default charge is 200mAh but the MaHa manual says that would be too low to guarantee that the voltage spike will trigger the auto shut off.

Edited July 5, 2008 by gallet

[+Ratsneve]

Just bought a La Crosse BC-900 and am refreshing a set of AAA's for one of my cordless phones for starters.

 

Instructions must be read and charger played with a half-dozen times maybe before things start to make sense. I'm not there yet. Not at all certain that the MaHa(?) charger isn't in the same boat. I read some good reviews on both chargers before deciding on the BC-900. Here are some thoughts relative to the reviews:

 

1. The MaHa display has a backlight that is on all the time and is so bright it will light up your room at night.

2. The BC-900 is considerably smaller then the MaHa and comes with a nice carrying case for the charger and all its equipment including room for batteries.

3. So far it looks like you can do cell functions independently of other cells in the charger but this isn't clear yet. It may be that all you can do is observe different conditions of a set of cells but not be charging one while discharging another and that sort of thing. At this point this doesn't matter much to me.

4. Because each MaHa charger cell is more independently controlled then the La Crosse one thing that stood out to me in the reviews was that it takes many many button presses to program a whole set of cells in the MaHa compared to many fewer needed to get a set of cells going on the BC-900.

 

I think--not certain--that the BC-900 mode switch will set up the same function for all cells unless you select a specific cell location. If you do the later then only that cell gets set up.

 

We'll see...

[gallet]

re 4.

 

I'm glad you put that in because I remember reading (probably from the same reviews) about the MaHa button presses, it had me convinced that it required 40 button presses to charge 4 batteries, or something like that. It is ironic that the multitude button press thing is what made me decide on the LaCrosse, I only bought the MaHa because the LaCrosse was unavailable. So I'd like to clear that bit up now that I've used one for a couple of months.

 

Yes there are a few button presses needed to set the unit up to your desired normal rate and your desired charge and discharge rate for the charge/discharge/charge cycle but once that has been done it remains in memory so...

 

If you wanted to charge batteries normally, ie give them whatever you determine to be your preferred normal charge, whether that be 200mAh or 500mAh (in my case it's 1000mAh) then no buttons need to be pressed at all. Just put the battery in and it starts its normal charge as per it's last setting.

 

If you wanted to do a refresh/analyse then you would need to put the battery in and press one button once.

 

If you wanted to do a 45 hour forming charge you press one button twice.

 

The multitude button press complaint in the reviews I read is deliberately misleading. It only takes a lot of button presses for the initial set up. But that's just what you have to do if you want this sort of control. But you only do it one time.

Edited July 5, 2008 by gallet

[shivia]

...I think--not certain--that the BC-900 mode switch will set up the same function for all cells unless you select a specific cell location. If you do the later then only that cell gets set up.

- I have a LaCrosse BC-900, too. wonderful charger. beautiful blue color. It comes with the protective case and 4xAA, 4xAAA batt. And the adaptors for 4xC, 4xD batt too.

Yes, their 4 slots work INDEPENDENTLY. Even you can set different currents charge applying to each slot. The trick is to remember to put the HIGHEST current charge in the slot ONE first. Then, you can set down on currents for the remaining slots.

Amazing charger.

[jimlarkey]

There is an Amazon customer discussion group for the LaCrosse BC-900 at:

Amazon Group

[gallet]

double post.

Edited July 6, 2008 by gallet

[gallet]

Do be aware that the amazon link may be written by fools with they own agenda, for example...

 

I tried all the new features of the C9000. For analyzing and re-conditioning of old cells, it does offer more functions. For example: it has a "break-in" mode to revive really old and completely drained cells (which BC-900 cannot recognize). However, for routine charging of multiple NiMH cells, the C9000 is a PAIN to use. For example, if I want to charge up a set of 4 cells at 2A, I need to press a total of 48 key strokes to do so!

 

The display is big and bright, but very difficult to use because it constantly jumps between capacity, current, time, voltage, and so on for each cell. There is no way to pause the display. You cannot see all batteries' statuses at a glance. You just have to stare at the display for about one minute for it to cycle through all 4 cells.

 

48 button presses is a theoretical maximum possibility if you wanted to alternate charging 4 cells at 2000 then 4 cells at 200 and so on. In the real world charging 4 cells at your preferred rate takes no button presses at all. Just put the batteries in.

 

With regards to the changing display, it's brilliant, it give you enough time to do a quick check. But you do not have to wait for it to cycle to see what you need as there is a button to take you to whatever cell you want.

 

I'm at a loss to understand why people write this rubbish, unless they work for LaCrosse. I know nothing about the LaCrosse, it may be better for all I know but I would be suspicious of the above writing.