If Eneloop 2500 are the batts of choice, which charger?
- Thread starter topcat
- Start date
underground
Active member
Not sure if its 'best' but I have a Technoline BL700. It wasn't too costly and does the job. Can vary the charge current, refresh, discharge and 'test' the battery capacity
menacer
Active member
I hate the technoline charger.
Had 2 , one failed withing 1st year and got replaced under warantee, the 2nd has now failed out of warantee. The price seems to have jumped to ?50 from about ?28. Now think its cheaper to buy replacement eneloop batteries every year rather than refresh them on that disappointment of a machine.
Had 2 , one failed withing 1st year and got replaced under warantee, the 2nd has now failed out of warantee. The price seems to have jumped to ?50 from about ?28. Now think its cheaper to buy replacement eneloop batteries every year rather than refresh them on that disappointment of a machine.
Joel Corrigan
New member
Haven't used it a great deal but my BL-700 seems fine so far but that's all I can say about it. I got it a while ago from Battery Logic & it's selling for ?32 according to their website. I spoke to them on the phone beforehand & they were very helpful, fairly non-biased, & really knew their stuff.
http://www.batterylogic.co.uk
http://www.batterylogic.co.uk
caving_fox
Active member
An eneloop one? came with batteries AFAIK does everything I'd want of a charger. ALthough I suppose doesn't actually indicate charge level, just that it is charging, and turns itself off after 15h to prevent overcharging.
I have a BL 700 and it sometimes behaves in what appears to me, at least, to be an odd fashion. e.g. on occasion, after just an hour or twos' use of 4 AAs, it will charge three for the expected two or three hours, and the fourth will stay charging for hour after hour. Also it does not seem to know what to do with brand-new batteries, or batteries that have been very heavily discharged; they need a 'kick-start' from an old-fashioned bog standard charger.
korky
New member
Fulk,
Yes, mine can occasionally exhibit this behaviour too - sometimes the charge doesn't end, and sometimes it won't recognise that a battery has been inserted.
The failure to detect end-of-charge is common with all 'smart' chargers. It's because they haven't seen the 'delta v' - the very slight reduction in voltage that they use to see when the battery has reached peak charge. If they do miss that point, it's usually because the battery has been charged too slowly and the change in voltage happens too slow for it to notice. I'd recommend charging at full whack - a 700mA rate is absolutely fine for 2000mAh AA cells. (If you're charging 600mAh AAA cells though, I probably drop the rate down!)
The failure to detect when a battery is inserted is because the battery has been over discharged - the voltage is too low for the charger to recognise it. You're right that just half a minute in a normal 'dumb' charger will give the battery enough juice to be detected by the 'smart' charger again. I see it as a warning that I've mistreated that battery by running it completely flat...
I've been stuck on expedition with an over-discharged battery like this, and no access to a 'dumb' charger... as an extreme solution, you can short a new alkaline across the terminals of the NiMH for a few seconds (-ve to -ve, +ve to +ve) - metal cutlery can be useful for doing this - which will give the poor NiMH a belt of charge and allow it be recognised by the 'smart' charger again
.
Incidentally, you might want to check if it's always the same one from a batch of four AAs. It might mean that AA has been damaged in some way. If you've got mismatched batteries running in series, the weakest one will get a hammering as it goes flat because it gets reverse charged by the stronger ones, which then makes it even weaker.
K.
Yes, mine can occasionally exhibit this behaviour too - sometimes the charge doesn't end, and sometimes it won't recognise that a battery has been inserted.
The failure to detect end-of-charge is common with all 'smart' chargers. It's because they haven't seen the 'delta v' - the very slight reduction in voltage that they use to see when the battery has reached peak charge. If they do miss that point, it's usually because the battery has been charged too slowly and the change in voltage happens too slow for it to notice. I'd recommend charging at full whack - a 700mA rate is absolutely fine for 2000mAh AA cells. (If you're charging 600mAh AAA cells though, I probably drop the rate down!)
The failure to detect when a battery is inserted is because the battery has been over discharged - the voltage is too low for the charger to recognise it. You're right that just half a minute in a normal 'dumb' charger will give the battery enough juice to be detected by the 'smart' charger again. I see it as a warning that I've mistreated that battery by running it completely flat...
I've been stuck on expedition with an over-discharged battery like this, and no access to a 'dumb' charger... as an extreme solution, you can short a new alkaline across the terminals of the NiMH for a few seconds (-ve to -ve, +ve to +ve) - metal cutlery can be useful for doing this - which will give the poor NiMH a belt of charge and allow it be recognised by the 'smart' charger again
.Incidentally, you might want to check if it's always the same one from a batch of four AAs. It might mean that AA has been damaged in some way. If you've got mismatched batteries running in series, the weakest one will get a hammering as it goes flat because it gets reverse charged by the stronger ones, which then makes it even weaker.
K.
bograt
Active member
korky said:The failure to detect when a battery is inserted is because the battery has been over discharged - the voltage is too low for the charger to recognise it. You're right that just half a minute in a normal 'dumb' charger will give the battery enough juice to be detected by the 'smart' charger again. I see it as a warning that I've mistreated that battery by running it completely flat...
I've been stuck on expedition with an over-discharged battery like this, and no access to a 'dumb' charger... as an extreme solution, you can short a new alkaline across the terminals of the NiMH for a few seconds (-ve to -ve, +ve to +ve) - metal cutlery can be useful for doing this - which will give the poor NiMH a belt of charge and allow it be recognised by the 'smart' charger again
A vehicle power source (battery, lighter socket, etc.) will do the same thing, just a quick touch with a couple of wires.
