Cheap Intelligent NiMH AA Battery charger

Digiteer

Maplins have a 1 hour charger for £19.99 (£10 off, incl 4 Batteries)
Here

Those of you who remember my previous (long!) post on the subject will know that I recommend an Intelligent Charger over the cheaper Timer kind.

This one has all the advantages of taking only 1 hour for the incl 4 AA 2400mAHr batteries , but also has a 12V car adapter so wherever you go in the world and what ever mains power, there's always liable to be a car cigarette lighter socket you can use to charge your batteries.

Regards
Digiteer.

hellofreebies

Charger for AA, AAA Ni-MH and Ni-Cd Rechargeable Batteries , ideal for frequent and intensive use.
-Fast Charger
-Car and mains power supply
-4x AAA 800mAh Ni-MH
-4x AA 2300mAh Ni-MH
-4x D Convertors
-4x C Convertors

for £17.99 delivered
includes a starter pack of 16 all sorted batteries

www.play.com

Rave

Details are a bit sketchy on the play charger. While it looks like an intelligent fast charger it doesn't expicitly state that it is.....

RightRevBod

hellofreebies wrote:

Charger for AA, AAA Ni-MH and Ni-Cd Rechargeable Batteries , ideal for frequent and intensive use.
-Fast Charger
-Car and mains power supply
-4x AAA 800mAh Ni-MH
-4x AA 2300mAh Ni-MH
-4x D Convertors
-4x C Convertors

for £17.99 delivered
includes a starter pack of 16 all sorted batteries

www.play.com

Actually 8 batteries and 8 convertors.
Having said that, looks like a good price if it is an inteligent charger.

EDIT: Just looked on amazon, and seen what looks like the same charger, but in a different bundle. Described there as an inteligent charger.

Digiteer

Yep - if it is an Intelligent Charger then it looks a good deal - as you get some AAAs and adapters as well.

The adapters are very useful - it means that you can use the (much cheaper) AAs in slots meant for larger C or D batteries. Weirdly, even though physically larger these latter batteries haven't kept up with the AA's capacity Race and 'real' C or D NiMhs could actually have less capacity.

If you go for the Play item, I'd send a quick email first asking them to confirm if the Charger is Intelligent (delta V monitoring) - hopefully someone there will now what that means!, how long it takes to charge different capacity batteries and if it can do 2 cells at a time or needs all 4.

My MaHa 2010 has twin charging circuits and does 4 or 2 hi-capacity NiMhs in 2 hours, state of the art 4 years ago, so anything faster is a bonus.

Regards
Dig

aj2001

so did anyone tried to email them?

Please let me know
I will try as well
thanks

aj2001

phoned them
the guy didnt know and said he has info that on web

aj

hellofreebies

should get mine delivered monday if not tomorrow...let you know then...
try this link
gives you further info

aj2001

INTELLIGENT CHARGE CONTROL-DELTA V

@ Digiteer says this on this website it seem to be a same sort of thing _http://www.greatdigitaldeals.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=286

Btw The OP says that maplin charger charges the batterys in 1 hour.

This one from the site:
3 HOURS & 20 MINUTES for included batteries

I am confused, very confused But Dear poster above will post a nice review when he recieves his charger.

Digiteer

My original post was for this battery charger from Maplins.

I posted it because (unlike the guys at Play it would seem), Maplins generally know what they are on about, have high street branches to pick up from, and 1/3 off is a pretty good saving.

This charger will do 2400 MAHr AA batteries in 1 hr, smaller capacity will take less.

The one shown in the previous post is thus not the same as it takes over 3 times longer to charge, and is therefore of inferior capability. The problem with fast charging and enemy of rechargable batteries is heat generation.

Good chargers will have better built-in charging algorithims and even heat sensors to make sure that batteries are not damaged - and you simply have to pay more for this complexity. Less capable ones solve this my reducing max current so that damage can't happen, but at penalty of taking longer to charge. Really cheap ones just have a timer + lower power that turns off charge no matter what state the battery is left in.

Bottom line - if you want quality - probably go for the Maplins version or pay even more and get a sub 1 hr charger. If you want quantity and aren't worried about the time taken, go for the Play one.

Regards
Dig

aj2001

I'll go for maplin one, these converters are cheap so probably come in poundland aaa batterys hmmm. Thanks Digitree for making it more clearer.