Recommend me some rechargeables and a charger?

Kieran_Burns

My old NiMHs have had it - lose charge overnight and the camera eats them for breakfast.

I need a bunch (>16) of AA batteries and a better charger for them. I remember (but can't find) a discussion which recommended a full discharge / charge intelligent charger and good batteries.

Could someone please recommend some to get?

bornagainroadie

Thread: http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12735699

After reading that thread, I ended up buying batteries and a charger (BL-700) from here

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/

Everything works, too early to tell if the batteries are "better" in any way other than price.

ndru

Best to invest in a hub dynamo and dynamo powered lights front and rear. While at first it might seem weird it will save you the hassle and money in the long run. No more worries about charging the batteries - the lights are on all the time you ride (also when you stand if you buy a standlight version).

rjsterry

I've just received a Fenix LD20 and was looking at the battery recommendations in DDD's thread. Vapextech came up there as well, either with their own charger, or the Technoline charger. I'm currently pondering whether the Technoline is worth the extra £14.

Kieran_Burns

ndru wrote:

Best to invest in a hub dynamo and dynamo powered lights front and rear. While at first it might seem weird it will save you the hassle and money in the long run. No more worries about charging the batteries - the lights are on all the time you ride (also when you stand if you buy a standlight version).

I have a Cateye Single shot on the front coupled with a Hope Vision 2 - they have their own proprietary chargers and are VERY bright.

This is for non commuting purposes - I need batteries for a variety of uses (which do include one of my pair of lights on the rear (LD1100)

tincaman

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2580wt_914

4XAA and 2AAA Hybrios for £6

desweller

I've been using this battery charger (comes with 4x cells) to drive my Vision 1 for just over a year now. No complaints, it just works. The batteries have also been pretty good so far, they get rotated out of the light just under once a week.

roger_merriman

ndru wrote:

Best to invest in a hub dynamo and dynamo powered lights front and rear. While at first it might seem weird it will save you the hassle and money in the long run. No more worries about charging the batteries - the lights are on all the time you ride (also when you stand if you buy a standlight version).

And how well do they compare to the high power bike lights?

desweller

roger merriman wrote:

ndru wrote:

Best to invest in a hub dynamo and dynamo powered lights front and rear. While at first it might seem weird it will save you the hassle and money in the long run. No more worries about charging the batteries - the lights are on all the time you ride (also when you stand if you buy a standlight version).

And how well do they compare to the high power bike lights?

Pretty well

green thing

I bought a wee solar charger; it's quite good except that when you use the lights the most, there's very little sunshine....

alfablue

rjsterry wrote:

I've just received a Fenix LD20 and was looking at the battery recommendations in DDD's thread. Vapextech came up there as well, either with their own charger, or the Technoline charger. I'm currently pondering whether the Technoline is worth the extra £14.

The Technoline BL700 is worth the extra in my opinion, as it will let you assess the capacity of your batteries from time to time. My charger (A MAHA Wizard One) allows me to do this. When my 2900mah batteries drop to about 2000mah capacity I replace them. Pairing a dud one with a good one in your torch will lead to very short run times.

The £14 Vapextech world LCD charger is very good and will treat your cells kindly but the Technoline has the above advantage.

Kieran_Burns

I went for the BL700 in the end - and thanks for the info on that one - also ordered 16 new 2700mAH AA batteries at the same time.

Cheers folks

FeynmanC

I got mine from http://www.vapextech.co.uk/

Gave some good advice on which batteries and charger to get by email as I wasn't sure what to go for. They didn't recommend the most expensive and the cells have lasted 18 months so far with no failures.

Headhuunter

DesWeller wrote:

I've been using this battery charger (comes with 4x cells) to drive my Vision 1 for just over a year now. No complaints, it just works. The batteries have also been pretty good so far, they get rotated out of the light just under once a week.

That looks like the most simple form of intelligent charger without discharge or refresh functions but it would have an edge over your average Argos/Tesco type "fast charger"...

alfablue

Headhuunter wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

I've been using this battery charger (comes with 4x cells) to drive my Vision 1 for just over a year now. No complaints, it just works. The batteries have also been pretty good so far, they get rotated out of the light just under once a week.

That looks like the most simple form of intelligent charger without discharge or refresh functions but it would have an edge over your average Argos/Tesco type "fast charger"...

Even though it is an intelligent charger, I would avoid using one that charges that fast as the cells are likely to get to a temperature that will shorten their life (doesn't say if it has temperature sensing), I think for a basic intelligent charger the Vapextech LCD world charger, at £14.50, plus £5.50 for four 2900mah AA's is the one to choose. It will charge 4 AA's in about 4 hours, rather than 1hr50m. (I got through about 20 cells in 6 months with a "fast" charger).

(nb; most of them claim to be "fast", but it covers a wide range, and too fast is not good).

wgwarburton

Hi,
I have the Technoline BL-700, too. No complaints.

I'm moving to "hybrid" rechargeables at the moment- you can get them from most of the usual suppliers, including Maplin own-brand. These are recheargeables which don't lose charge as quickly as normal ones, so they are more useful as spares. The claimed capacity isn't as high but in many cases the actual charge at time-of-use is better.

If your usage is for a digital camera, this might be helpful, especially if you normally carry lots of spares.

Cheers,
W.

stuaff

alfablue wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

I've been using this battery charger (comes with 4x cells) to drive my Vision 1 for just over a year now. No complaints, it just works. The batteries have also been pretty good so far, they get rotated out of the light just under once a week.

That looks like the most simple form of intelligent charger without discharge or refresh functions but it would have an edge over your average Argos/Tesco type "fast charger"...

Even though it is an intelligent charger, I would avoid using one that charges that fast as the cells are likely to get to a temperature that will shorten their life (doesn't say if it has temperature sensing), I think for a basic intelligent charger the Vapextech LCD world charger, at £14.50, plus £5.50 for four 2900mah AA's is the one to choose. It will charge 4 AA's in about 4 hours, rather than 1hr50m. (I got through about 20 cells in 6 months with a "fast" charger).

(nb; most of them claim to be "fast", but it covers a wide range, and too fast is not good).

I've got one of those Camlink chargers, not had any problems with battery degredation etc in over 18 months of use, on the included batteries (in my Vision 1) or the sets of Duracell rechargeables I've got. The batteries do get warm to the touch, but no more than that. That said, with what I've read since, I'd probably now err on the side of caution and get something like the Vapextech charger, particularly as it's the same price.

Kieran_Burns

Just as a follow up to this: I got the BL-700 and as a first test I put some of my older 2500mAh batteries in and hit refresh.

That was Thursday. It's now Monday and they're still going :shock:

It has however revived a completely dead battery (it was initially showing 0mAh for some time, and is now up to 1900) and got the rest back from 16-1800 and up to 2100-2200.

The next ones are going to be the 2700mAh (my highest capacity) ones and it'll be interesting to see how long these take.

Headhuunter

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Just as a follow up to this: I got the BL-700 and as a first test I put some of my older 2500mAh batteries in and hit refresh.

That was Thursday. It's now Monday and they're still going :shock:

It has however revived a completely dead battery (it was initially showing 0mAh for some time, and is now up to 1900) and got the rest back from 16-1800 and up to 2100-2200.

The next ones are going to be the 2700mAh (my highest capacity) ones and it'll be interesting to see how long these take.

Yeah I always do a refresh at the start of winter and it always takes ages. I refreshe once a season and then use "discharge"...

nich

FeynmanC wrote:

I got mine from http://www.vapextech.co.uk/

Gave some good advice on which batteries and charger to get by email as I wasn't sure what to go for. They didn't recommend the most expensive and the cells have lasted 18 months so far with no failures.

+1 for vapex.

Kieran_Burns

two are now 'full'.One came in at 1890mAh and the other at 2100mAh. Not bad at. Still.... 5 days? :?

Good charger this.

desweller

What-a-what? Took 5 days to deliver or 5 days to charge?

Kieran_Burns

5 days to completely refresh - goes through a continual cycle of full charge / full discharge until the charged amount doesn't change. This is the main reason why I got one - to refresh my old batteries. It's paying for itself by not requiring me to buy new batteries.

alfablue

Kieran_Burns wrote:

5 days to completely refresh - goes through a continual cycle of full charge / full discharge until the charged amount doesn't change. This is the main reason why I got one - to refresh my old batteries. It's paying for itself by not requiring me to buy new batteries.

I know, tedious but worth it (and also you can see if any cells are dud and make sure you don't mix them).

My Maha charger allows me to set the charge/discharge rate when it does refresh/analyse, my 2900mah's take about 30 hours to go through the process when set at reasonable rates, can you adjust this on your charger?

Kieran_Burns

Yup - can go between 200 and 700. I set to the lowest amount the first time (to maximise the potential charge)

rolf_f

ndru wrote:

Best to invest in a hub dynamo and dynamo powered lights front and rear. While at first it might seem weird it will save you the hassle and money in the long run. No more worries about charging the batteries - the lights are on all the time you ride (also when you stand if you buy a standlight version).

I take my lights off in spring!