Battery charger suggestions

[blueonblack]

OK, enough is enough. My kids go through AA and AAA batteries like candy and I'm tired of throwing them away. I've decided to invest in a good charger and some good rechargeable batteries.

It looks like Eneloop batteries will be my first test subject but I'm hoping someone here with some experience can recommend a charger.

I want something that will charge at least eight batteries at once, preferably more. I need to be able to leave the batteries in the charger indefinitely without worrying about it overcharging. It has got to charge AA and AAA at a minimum, but obviously others would be better. Some kind of condition indicator would be good but not critical.

I'm currently looking at this one (http://www.amazon.com/Hitech-iC-808UL-LCD-Charger-Discharger-Batteries/dp/B0047QRD6W/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358864096&sr=1-1&keywords=battery+charger), but would also consider this one (http://www.amazon.com/Ansmann-5207123-Energy-16-Charger/dp/B00017LRCC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=917YCEEFWHAK&coliid=I3C3ZH34RYTU5K), though the price is pretty high.

Any suggestions from the battery gurus out there?

[AmEv]

Any game consoles? If they're game console controllers, I can give some recommendations.

[TLHarrell]

I have found that the Eneloop cells don't have a lot of storage capacity for their price. Take a look at Fry's or somewhere that sells rechargeable batteries. Find the largest mAh number you can get. Usually this is printed on the cells, not the packaging. The ones I bought from Fry's were 20% cheaper than the Eneloop cells, and 60% greater capacity. My kid was going through standard batteries pretty fast on his Leapster game. The NiMH cells last a lot longer.

As for chargers, I just bought a cheap $7 4 cell charger for NiMH batteries. It's not fantastic, but if I needed to charge more, I'd just buy another one.

[blueonblack]

Any game consoles? If they're game console controllers, I can give some recommendations.

No controllers, no. Does it make a difference? Haven't had a console since the Dreamcast so I honestly don't know.

[d_stilgar]

My suggestion goes for this one. Totally worth it and can charge pretty much anything.

http://www.amazon.com/eneloop-2000mAh-Typical-1900mAh-Position/dp/B0058N6JUE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358887498&sr=8-4&keywords=eneloop

Relatively inexpensive too. Comes with 12 AA batteries and 4 AAA. Only charges 4 at a time though.

[AmEv]

No controllers, no. Does it make a difference? Haven't had a console since the Dreamcast so I honestly don't know.

Naw, I was just thinking of simplifying it a bit, if that's what you needed the batteries for.

[Konrad]

I've had great luck with el-cheapo WalMart battery chargers. The "free" batteries they come with are pathetic, but might as well use em until they die (after maybe 50 charge/discharge cycles). The whole package is still tons cheaper than 50 alkalines, let alone 100-200 of them. At the worst, you can gut out the crap electronics and DIY properly into the snazzy plastic chassis.

Integrated overcharge protection is required by law in most of North America and Europe; but it's best to plug fully-charged batteries into your Shenzhen-WalMart charger and see how hot the thing gets after 15 minutes or an hour. If you think it'll burn your house down then return it. Or mod it with self-resetting (polymetric) thermal resistors/fuses or something. Don't give it any heatsinks/fans/etc because this can skew the overcharge-cutoff circuitry, meaning that it could stop charging before batteries reach full charge.

I like LEDs which indicate things like, oh, "charging" and "charged", ideally separate LEDs for each battery pair. Again, modding the charger will guarantee the specs you want.

Batteries (along with their chemistry and engineering) are incredibly complex and involved topics. Short version: NiCd and NiMH batteries are basically compatible, use the same chargers, shouldn't be mixed together, NiMH will be best per-charge longevity and performance for your application, NiCd will be much better bang for the buck and not too inconvenient if you always have enough spares parked in the charger. You'll get at least 50 cycles off even the cheapest NiCd with "very abusive" treatment, and up to 500 cycles on the most costly NiMH with "very careful" treatment.

The very best NiMH AA/AAA cells are the Duracell "Heavy Duty" or "Professional" types. Limited availability and definitely not economical, meant for critical applications.

I recommend you use a permanent felt or drops of nail polish to identify pairs of batteries, always keep them paired (tape them together if you can) in operation and in the charger, and get rid of the pair when either one seems dead. Technically, you'll get best performance by maintaining a logbook full of measured voltages, operating times, charging times, etc ... but that's just too anal for AA/AAA toys.