Anyone have the Energizer 15-minute charger?

[Azndude51]

I'm talking about this charger.

Does it charge all NiMH batteries in 15 minutes? or just the AA or AAA Energizer branded batteries?

 

[mugs]

Bump for you... I'd lean toward no.

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Azndude51
I'm talking about this charger.

Does it charge all NiMH batteries in 15 minutes? or just the AA or AAA Energizer branded batteries?

should be all batteries. not sure about AAA though. fast charging is not good for your batteries.

 

[Rubycon]

Yes it will.

It has a fan, the cells will get very warm during a xc where x>1 charge rate. The cells should not get too hot to touch for a few seconds though. Most will vent if the internal pressure goes over 100 psig which equates to an outside casing temp well over 75C. That's quite uncomfortable for contact with human digits for sure!

Worst thing that would happen is the vents open up (battery hisses) so then you have to throw it away. Explosions are RARE with modern nimh tech. Li-Ion is a different matter altogether, however.

 

[Baked]

Rapid recharge will kill your rechargeable batteries real fast.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Baked
Rapid recharge will kill your rechargeable batteries real fast.

Real fast? I suppose if 1500-2000 cycles vs. 500 is much of a difference. Who wants to wait hours for a recharge though? It's a form of abuse however newer cells definitely keep their internal impedance down in high current scenarios - both ways.

Even if 50 cycles till death, it's still worth it.

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Yes it will.

It has a fan, the cells will get very warm during a xc where x>1 charge rate. The cells should not get too hot to touch for a few seconds though. Most will vent if the internal pressure goes over 100 psig which equates to an outside casing temp well over 75C. That's quite uncomfortable for contact with human digits for sure!

Worst thing that would happen is the vents open up (battery hisses) so then you have to throw it away. Explosions are RARE with modern nimh tech. Li-Ion is a different matter altogether, however.

yeah in hong kong, a father bought a used nokia with a third party battery for his kid. battery blew up in his face while he's using the phone!

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Who wants to wait hours for a recharge though?

i personally charge the batteries while i sleep. i think a lot of people do... not like i only have a set of batteries so they can rotate.

 

[Baked]

I'm never in a hurry when I recharge my batteries. If I need them now, I use alkaline batteries.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: sniperruff


yeah in hong kong, a father bought a used nokia with a third party battery for his kid. battery blew up in his face while he's using the phone!

Yes that's Li-Poly which if not monitored most definitely will succumb to the dangerous effects of thermal runaway where the cell ruptures and the hot vapors will ignite profusely. If that happens whether a phone or MP3 player, the user is definitely going to be unhappy. Shorts to naked cells will cause the same result.

Originally posted by: Baked
I'm never in a hurry when I recharge my batteries. If I need them now, I use alkaline batteries.

The problem with alkalines is the voltage drops too fast under high loads. My Canon flashgun is one example. Recharge time after full dumping of the caps with nimh 2.5Ah cells is about a second. With fresh alkalines, it's double that and goes downhill fast.

 

[Azndude51]

Thanks for the info, MS Dawn. I mainly wanted to know because I currently have the Rayovac I-C3 charger with a few AA's, but I need AAAs now and it's really hard to find I-C3 batteries. I might go for the Energizer charger to replace the I-C3 so I can buy any NiMH rechargeable and charge it quickly. I don't really care about the quality of the charge or how many the battery can take before dying because I can just buy a bunch of cheap ones and replace them. I go though batteries fast because of my digital camera and RC car.

 

[icarus4586]

Is that Rayovac I-C3 charger a 15 minute charger? I have some sort of Rayovac 15 minute charger, and it only works on special batteries. It takes the normal ~8 hours for regular rechargeables.

 

[TheRyuu]

Yes the Energizer 15 minute charger will charge ANY TYPE of NiMH batteries. As long as it's either AA or AAA, it'll charge it in 15 min. or less.

I use it with my Energizer batteries, my Sony ones (for my Digital Camera), the AAA batteries in my Calc. (TI-84), etc...

 

[Azndude51]

Originally posted by: icarus4586
Is that Rayovac I-C3 charger a 15 minute charger? I have some sort of Rayovac 15 minute charger, and it only works on special batteries. It takes the normal ~8 hours for regular rechargeables.

yeah, exactly