Rechargable Batteries AA - what to look for?

[etherial]

Thumbs up for Servaas, I ordered mine online, and received it the next day in country Vic. Very good service.

[bigdazzler]

Thanks for pointing me to this thread Kym missed it when searching ... i just went to dicksmith and got Eneloops and they came with a charger, will that charger be okay for these batterys?

The Sanyo plug-in-wall charger that would have came with your Eneloops is a slow charger mate. it will take up to 12 hours to fully charge your batteries.

I use Eneloops and they are great batteries, so youll wanna look after them, and keep them conditioned for longer lasting life .. I have this Maha 8 Cell Charger .. fantastic unit

[N*A*M]

lukiez, make sure your old charger was suitable for nickel metal hydride (NiMH), not nickel cadmium (NiCad).
some chargers have a switch on them to set the battery type. using the wrong type will not work very well.

[Colourised]

i was just wondering.. does anyone here have any experiences with the MahaEX travel charger?? the one that charges for 1hr..

because im not really keen in waiting for the batteries to charge up till 9 hours..

and since everyone recommends them Maha's or Sanyos was wondering whether their quick chargers are okay??

please advise

[etherial]

If you are only looking for fast charging and size isn't your issue I would still go for the MH-C9000. You can set the charging rate to make it charge quicker. Even when I put mine in on default settings for a quick charge it only takes around an hour.

[Colourised]

oh! so there is a default settings for the MH-C9000? because it does look a little bit complicated to me imo.. after looking at the Wizardone charger as well with the different settings. kind of scared me off thinking i would need to know quite a bit on these batteries!

[etherial]

Yes there certainly is. Just chuck em in and it does it just like any quick charger - only better!

But you won't regret buying one, the flexibility it gives you is brilliant.

[Colourised]

thnks etherial! id better take advantage of the promo by servaas then!

[peterb666]

I have been using Eneloops for a while and they are fantastic. I also have some Varta Ready2Use which are quite similar. I prefer these to the high power Engergizers and Duracell batteries which are forever needing a recharge when I pick them up.

I don't use my flash a lot but the last thing I want to do is recharge the batteries before putting it into use.

[dave]

Ive used Eneloops for the past year and still use my 10 year old kodak fast charger and have the best batteries Ive ever had always charged when ya need em

[Clubmanmc]

I have 5 sets of eneloops, they are great, they are only 1900 mA but they slowly loose their capacity, giving their best for longer, I used to use the sanyo 2700 but found they would be awesome just after being charged, but would drop to 1900 mA level very quickly..

M

[juliaharwood]

Thanks for this, I have had loads of trouble with rechargables, so I will try these.

[PROtog]

Available from a site sponsor too:

eneloop AA 4 pack

Thanks for this, I have had loads of trouble with rechargables, so I will try these.

[Kym]

Thanks for this, I have had loads of trouble with rechargables, so I will try these.

Most people think they have issues with rechargeable cells; but in fact the real problem is the crappy charger that kills their cells by overheating.

[enduro]

DO NOT buy Energizers. They do not hold their charge and will die rather quickly.

Get Sanyo Eneloops or Powerex Imideons. Both are slow discharge type NiMH batteries. i.e. they'll hold 80% charge after a year, so they're always ready when you need them. They go for about $20/4 AAs but are totally worth it.

On top of that, get an intelligent charger - something like a Maha C9000, you can dial in a slow charge and they shutoff based on charge, time and temp. as opposed to generic timed chargers that tend to overcharge your batteries and thus shorten their life.

All of these can be got from www.servaas.com.au (great guys btw), or the Sanyo batteries are also available from Dick Smith stores.

Agreed. I have 16 Eneloops and they work fantastically on the 430-EX, Wii Controllers, my GPS etc etc. We even use them on the doorbell.

I get far better results from them with on the flashgun than with standard NiMH's and I'd say they are just as good as alkalines. At least the huge cost and evironmental saving is worth it. Nonrechargable batteries are disgusting things.

[bigdazzler]

I have 5 sets of eneloops and the Maha 8 cell charger .. and ive just ordered another 2 sets from Jeff at Servaas the other day. Fantastic batteries, but make sure you get a good conditioner to look after them.

[Roof]

Can i charge eneloops nimh in my energizer fast charger ??? Or would i be better of getting one of these hitech chargers. I now have energizer cells with the charger but the cells don't hold power anymore.....

[Kym]

Can i charge eneloops nimh in my energizer fast charger ??? Or would i be better of getting one of these hitech chargers. I now have energizer cells with the charger but the cells don't hold power anymore.....

The cheapo chargers work, but will kill your cells much faster than a decent charger.
I've found eveready to be sub-par when it comes to rechargeable technology.

[Roof]

The cheapo chargers work, but will kill your cells much faster than a decent charger.

never said it was cheap, same price ast the maha.

[Helen S]

Another fan of eneloops after having purchased a few sets of late... flash, Wii, torches, you name it... all enelooped.