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Rayovac VS. Maha?? Need advice!

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Tommy L.

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I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger). It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time, reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
 
RAyovac does not have the battery conditioning feature, MAHA can condition two batterys in each of left and right circuits. Rayovac can recharge 1600mAh NiMH cells individually in 60 minutes, MAHA can recharge groups of two batteres in two seperate circuits in 3 hours (1600mAh)

The Rayovac is 2X larger in both charger and the AC power adapter. Rayovac AC adaperter output is 1.5A at 12 volts where as the MAHA's AC adapter is 500mA at 12 volts. Rayovac weighs over 2x of MAHA model MH-204F. Also you have to pay extra for Rayovac's car adapter. Rayovac can charge a 9 volt battery. Both can charge Nicd batteies also. After full charge is detected, both will automatically switch to trickly charge to maintain batteries at full charge for sustained periods.

MAHA came out with their Powerex 1800mAh batteries, Rayovac will come out with their 1800mAh mid year. MAHA also coming out with new charger due this month, MH-C401FS with fast 500mA or slow 250mA selectable charge times. This new charger also has 4 indepent charging circuits, each capable of charging a single battery. However, this new charger will have only one circuit to condition one battery at a time.
Tony
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger).
It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the
Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the
difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time,
reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
Click to expand...
 
Tommy,

Have you considered the Ansmann Powerline 4 ? I've just bought one in the U.K.

Here is a convenient comparison table from GreenBatteries.com...

http://www.greenbatteries.com/documents/charger_comparison_table.htm

The Ansmann is a fast charger designed for international travel. It is relatively small, light weight and a self contained plug in design (no separate power adapter unit). It will run off any AC supply voltage 100-240V ~ 50-60Hz and is supplied with a set of four interchangable plug pins covering the U.S., U.K., Europe and Australian socket styles. It can discharge if desired, and is supplied as the "Digi Cam Power-Set" including an excellent set of 4 1800mAh Ansmann batteries.

I'm very happy with my Ansmann. It charges fully discharged 1600-1800mAh cells in 2.5-3.0 hours, and I believe cells straight out of a Dimage7 only take around 1.5 hours to top back up.

Green Batteries' price seems a bit steep at $69, I just paid £35 inclusive of U.K. tax, plus a few quid for delivery.

Cheers.

Mark H.
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger).
It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the
Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the
difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time,
reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
Click to expand...
 
I have both and both work very well.

I also have 2 kodak chargers and a quest and an Olympus. None of these are as good as the Ray-O-Vac or the maha.

I better list some stuff on ebay...

Steven
D7/C2100/S300
 
The Ray-O-Vac works very well on GP1800 MAH NiMH and tops batteries out of the D7 in about 30 minutes. You can also put batteries from the D7 into the Minolta 5600 HS(D) flash and get quite a few flashes out of the set before you recharge them. It then takes about an hour to recharge them. I have three sets of batteries, one in the camera, one in the flash and a spare set (held together by a heavy rubber band in a snadwich bag to prevent them from shorting out), which I use between the camera and flash and that is all I seem to need for a days worth of shooting. Then about 2 hours max to recharge everything to get going again.
Steven Sterne said:
I have both and both work very well.

I also have 2 kodak chargers and a quest and an Olympus. None of
these are as good as the Ray-O-Vac or the maha.

I better list some stuff on ebay...

Steven
D7/C2100/S300
Click to expand...
 
NiMH batteries should be individually charged and monitored which both the Ansmann and Ray-O-Vac chargers do. Conditioning or full discharge cycling is required with NiCd batteries but not with NiMH as some have implied. You only need to top them off and if you want to get more use from the charge available in the batteries then move them to your external flash or other piece of equipment after they won't power your camera.
dcy said:
-Tommy L.
You owe it to yourself to also check this one out. I have one and
love it.
Hope it helps.
DCY

http://www.ripvan100.addr.com/lp4000.htm
Click to expand...
 
Hi All,

I have the Rayovac now and while I like it for its quick charge, its a real brick! NO, make that 2 bricks! I just took my first trip via plane since buying the rayovac and it took up the space of a pair of shoes.

So, now I'm thinking of the MAHA but have 2 sets of rayovac batteries - can I use these batteries in the MAHA charger?
-Shelley
Tony said:
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger).
It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the
Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the
difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time,
reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
TerraUnbound said:
I have the Rayovac now and while I like it for its quick charge,
its a real brick! NO, make that 2 bricks! I just took my first trip
via plane since buying the rayovac and it took up the space of a
pair of shoes.

So, now I'm thinking of the MAHA but have 2 sets of rayovac
batteries - can I use these batteries in the MAHA charger?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Plus you will have DC cables for car charging. :)

Mike Roberts
 
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger).
It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the
Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the
difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time,
reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
Click to expand...
I have the Maha 204 and wouldn't trade it for anything.

It charges my 1800's in 2-3 hours....3 hours is plenty quick for me.

I have 6 sets of batteries though...so if you only have 1 or two sets of batteries you may want to consider the ROV charger. I considered getting the ROV charger in addition to the maha...but decided against it because the maha suits my needs just fine. Plus the small footprint helps alot...doesn't take up too much space on my desk, and the charger and the DC cord fit nicely in my camera bag without taking up too much space or really adding any signifigant weight at all.

You have to decide for yourself...if you need the 1 hour charge...then definitely the ROV is what you're lookin for.

You really can't go wrong with either one.
--John MankosVisit my homepage at http://home.ptd.net/~mankman
 
dcy said:
-Tommy L.
You owe it to yourself to also check this one out. I have one and
love it.
Hope it helps.
DCY

http://www.ripvan100.addr.com/lp4000.htm
Click to expand...
Having recently surfed these forums looking for something tiny for international travel, I decided on the ripvan100 charger. My camera came with a cheap Quest which takes forever to charge, and doesn't even tell you when it's done (two red LEDs which only show that you are have batteries installed and are charging). Although both Maha and Rayovac had good reviews, the small size of the ripvan100 charger made my decision easy. I'm now looking for a minimally sized hip pouch which will hold my camera, charger, and batteries.

I haven't had the charger long enough to judge it's performance other than my first set of batteries charged in the advertized 90 min. The convenience of having fresh batteries in that short of time really changed my habits. I no longer have to plan 16 hours ahead of time.

Luke--Dimage5white iBooknothing but OS X
 
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
Click to expand...
I am looking for a charger also, but can't find any local store that sells Rayovac or Maha. (I live in Estonia). After a bit of searching I found the GP PoerBank Smart, witch is availible locally and seems to have 99% the same features as the rayovac.
Does anybody have experiences with this charger?
 
Ah, thank you Mike. This is good news as I would feel that I were being wasteful otherwise.
-Shelley
Mike Roberts said:
TerraUnbound said:
I have the Rayovac now and while I like it for its quick charge,
its a real brick! NO, make that 2 bricks! I just took my first trip
via plane since buying the rayovac and it took up the space of a
pair of shoes.

So, now I'm thinking of the MAHA but have 2 sets of rayovac
batteries - can I use these batteries in the MAHA charger?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Plus you will have DC cables for car charging. :)

Mike Roberts
Click to expand...
 
Great! I'll check them out too.
-Shelley
Luke Lin said:
dcy said:
-Tommy L.
You owe it to yourself to also check this one out. I have one and
love it.
Hope it helps.
DCY

http://www.ripvan100.addr.com/lp4000.htm
Click to expand...
Having recently surfed these forums looking for something tiny for
international travel, I decided on the ripvan100 charger. My camera
came with a cheap Quest which takes forever to charge, and doesn't
even tell you when it's done (two red LEDs which only show that you
are have batteries installed and are charging). Although both Maha
and Rayovac had good reviews, the small size of the ripvan100
charger made my decision easy. I'm now looking for a minimally
sized hip pouch which will hold my camera, charger, and batteries.

I haven't had the charger long enough to judge it's performance
other than my first set of batteries charged in the advertized 90
min. The convenience of having fresh batteries in that short of
time really changed my habits. I no longer have to plan 16 hours
ahead of time.

Luke
--
Dimage5
white iBook
nothing but OS X
Click to expand...
 
Portability is a concern but not the rapidity of the charge. Well Ok, 12 hours is too long, but 3 hours is just fine. With 2 sets of batteries I have yet to run out of juice in a day.

But John, who/what is ROV? Is this Ripvan or Maha or ???
Thanks again,
Shelley
John Mankos said:
Tommy L. said:
I am planning to buy another rapid charger(I have two now, one
can't fully charge the batteries, another need 14 hrs to charger).
It looks like the Maha one has more functions. However, the
Rayovac only take one hour. Could you tell me what's the
difference between the two such as the size, weight, charging time,
reliability, etc.? Thanks!!

Tommy L.
Click to expand...
I have the Maha 204 and wouldn't trade it for anything.

It charges my 1800's in 2-3 hours....3 hours is plenty quick for me.

I have 6 sets of batteries though...so if you only have 1 or two
sets of batteries you may want to consider the ROV charger. I
considered getting the ROV charger in addition to the maha...but
decided against it because the maha suits my needs just fine. Plus
the small footprint helps alot...doesn't take up too much space on
my desk, and the charger and the DC cord fit nicely in my camera
bag without taking up too much space or really adding any
signifigant weight at all.

You have to decide for yourself...if you need the 1 hour
charge...then definitely the ROV is what you're lookin for.

You really can't go wrong with either one.

--
John Mankos

Visit my homepage at http://home.ptd.net/~mankman
Click to expand...
 
Hi Gang,

Can anyone tell me where I can find MAHA batteries in Ontario? I've located the ROVs, but have never come across the MAHAs ...

Thanks kindly,

Andrew
 
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