Best Rechargeable Batteries? Best Charger?

Tom0 · 24 Mar 2008 at 21:38

Bigsy said:
JAMAL said they won;t have anywhere near the capacity not that you can't do it, and he is quite correct.

Not to mention that alky's are totally unsuitable for any kind of high ampage application.

I didnt say they were as powerful, I was saying it worked "What a load of crap" made me assume he was saying otherwise.

Bigsy · 24 Mar 2008 at 21:42

JIM_BOB7813 said:
Whatever you do, don't get one of the manual/timer chargers ie. £5-£10 including batteries.
Get an "intelligent" / -dV cutoff one. The Maha c9000 is apparently good (£50 though). I got a Vapextech VTE 4000 for about £20, does 4 batteries in 32 mins, has a fan to keep batteries cool.
Sometimes they get warm/mildly hot but i just leave them on till the charger cuts the fan off (5 mins after they are done) to cool them down.

Cells get hot if you charge them fast, and -dV can sometimes result in overcharge, but at £5 for 4 AA's, who cares if it shortens the life a bit?

I already touched on this but just to reiterate the above point if you can aford to get a delta v charger, then do so but Maha and laCrosse chargers are v.expensive.

I have this dv one: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=151066 It's fantastic for the money has all the functions of Maha and LaCrosse chargers, just a lower (but still v.good) charge current.

I can't tell you where to get it but if you search google you can find it for $35 with free delivery.

n30_mkii · 24 Mar 2008 at 21:45

Thanks for all the advice folks!

Energize · 24 Mar 2008 at 21:46

I have one of those 15min 6.5A chargers, batterys get very hot though!

Combat squirrel · 24 Mar 2008 at 22:29

n30_mkii I have some energizer high drain batteries, made for camera flashes specifically, id recommend something like that

Bigsy · 24 Mar 2008 at 22:36

Combat squirrel said:
n30_mkii I have some energizer high drain batteries, made for camera flashes specifically, id recommend something like that

It's just marketing, it comes down to chemistries, if these are "high drain" alkalines forget it,` NiMh will out perform them with ease.

If their lithium primaries these are better but a NiMh is more suitable and far cheaper in the long run.

If their NiMh then there going to be as good as any other NiMh so go for the proven brands, ie sanyo etc.

You don't get much better than NiMh for "High drain" uses, and the low discharge rate chemistries can put out a huge amount of amps before things start going iffy, not that a camrea is going to pull that much anyway.

Combat squirrel · 24 Mar 2008 at 22:38

There NiMh High Drain, I cant find them at the moment but I remember them having pretty much the most capacity iv ever seen.

n30_mkii · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:15

Thanks I have come to a decision now....

All feedback was helpfull though!

Burnsy2023 · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:24

Tom0 said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rcC8BuFj21Q

There is proof it works, thats all a battery needs to do isnt it? Anymore effort and you're as enthusiastic and slighty sad as the guy in the video is pretending to be over batteries.

Of course this is just my opinion and a radical suggestion to the OP, I didnt mean to hurt your feelings.

You realise that this is highly dangerous? I've seen alkaline batteries explode and it really isn't a pretty thing.

If you've got any sense you wont chance this.

Burnsy

Combat squirrel · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:32

Haha that battery vid is hilarious !!

'Its one big lie ! its amazing ! I cant beleive what im seeing !, when this hits youtube the world is going to change !!!!!!'

haha

Hxc · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:40

Burnsy2023 said:
You realise that this is highly dangerous? I've seen alkaline batteries explode and it really isn't a pretty thing.

If you've got any sense you wont chance this.

Burnsy

My original gameboy makes batteries explode. It's not that awesome. Acid everywhere. Never manages to kill the thing though (it happened 3 times, I thought it was just a one off, repeated by another one off...).

InSanCen · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:44

I thought I heard AA L-ion were supposed to be "just around the corner"

Any news on them?

Would be better at holding a charge over time than Ni-MH i would have thought.

mrk · 25 Mar 2008 at 00:49

Ulfhedjinn said:
I would be quite interested in hearing some suggestions too, actually.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

A few years ago I bought a 15minute charger made by Uniross and heck yesit charges my 2800, 2300 and 2100 mAh batts in around 15 mins. The batts get quite warm but I've never had a problems in the few years I've had it. I've obviously changed batteries every year due to NiMH batteries losing the capacity over time but it's a superb charger.

It cost £40 :eek:

(the vents are for the fan)

NiMH are so cheap anyway, the 2800 ones (blue ones in the BG above) were under a tenner for 8. That's £10 for 2yrs worth of usage. Good enough for my flashgun

Hawk Tuah · 25 Mar 2008 at 01:29

I get all mine from Vapex. Quality batteries and chargers.

Kreeeee · 25 Mar 2008 at 03:20

n30_mkii said:
I have found some positive reviews of the Energizer 2500 mAh batteries, someone recommended the Uniross 2700's

I use both of those types of batteries with a uniross sprint charger. It works very well and the batteries last for ages

romperstomper · 25 Mar 2008 at 03:50

Tom0 said:
You can recharge non-rechargable batteries, waste of money buying rechargable ones if you ask me, let alone expensive ones.

they can explode as warned on recharges !

Back to the op I have a uniross aa and aaa recharger that only takes about 20 minutes comes with 2600 (I think) from argos was about £50 though !

Archaius · 25 Mar 2008 at 06:30

Combat squirrel said:
Haha that battery vid is hilarious !!

'Its one big lie ! its amazing ! I cant beleive what im seeing !, when this hits youtube the world is going to change !!!!!!'

haha

The ending had me in stitches. His reaction is priceless

But on a more serious note, he only did recharge them for 1 hour. I'm sure something nasty could happen if they were left for much longer.