I don't really NEED one, but family is pestering me for gift ideas, so I might as well put one on my Amazon wish list. Right now looking at LaCrosse BC-700. Any other ones I should be considering in this price range?
Originally Posted By: Dyusik
I just got a nitecore d2
Thanks. Looks neat, but max charging current is only 500 mA. I already have one slow charger in my possession, so I'm looking for something quicker. Then again, very high charging current is probably detrimental to battery life, so maybe I don't want to go above 500 mA anyway...
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Dyusik
I just got a nitecore d2
Thanks. Looks neat, but max charging current is only 500 mA. I already have one slow charger in my possession, so I'm looking for something quicker. Then again, very high charging current is probably detrimental to battery life, so maybe I don't want to go above 500 mA anyway...
The D4 does 750 mah with 2 cells if I'm not mistaken
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
The D4 does 750 mah with 2 cells if I'm not mistaken
Yeah, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a 4-slot charger if you have to limit yourself to charging only two at a time to achieve higher current.
The LaCrosse one can do 700 mA into all 4 cells. Then there is the Opus BT-C2400 that can do 1000 mA into all 4 cells, but again, I'd probably not be pushing this much current into my batteries anyway.
lacrosse is great, but only if you're sure you'll only be doing aa/aaa. If you ever move to 18650 cells or other 3.7 v cells, then you'd need another charger and then you got clutter.
I got Nitecore D2 and recommend it if you have mix of AAA, AA and their Lithium variants. It handles them all even including 18650 but you will be waiting a for a long time on them! Fpr $16, it is extremely well constructed.
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
The D4 does 750 mah with 2 cells if I'm not mistaken
Yeah, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a 4-slot charger if you have to limit yourself to charging only two at a time to achieve higher current.
The LaCrosse one can do 700 mA into all 4 cells. Then there is the Opus BT-C2400 that can do 1000 mA into all 4 cells, but again, I'd probably not be pushing this much current into my batteries anyway.
Appreciate the suggestions though.
I don't know if you use 18650s as well, but if so, the Xtar VC4 is a nice unit. The display provides total charge amount, voltage, etc. It will only do 1 amp if your charging 2 cells, but like you, I don't like to pump that much current into my batteries anyways, so it's a moot point.
I got myself a fancy lacrosse charger, it had LED amperage displays, did one cell at a time, etc.
Worked for a year and died. There's some probe that detects how warm the batteries are and it went out. $40-something bucks down the drain. I could have run an 80-pack of harbor freight alkalines for that money!
Thanks all. I'm going to give Opus BT-C2400 a try. With the latest firmware (2.2) it does everything LaCrosse BC-1000 does and more, and it's less expensive.
Thought I'd update this thread since it's now been a year since I bought it. Overall, I'm very happy with it. It seems to be doing everything well... charging, discharging, capacity testing, etc. It lets you set charging current individually per each slot and displays good amount of detail.
On the downside, it only handles NiMh and NiCd, no Li-Ion, hence my other thread...