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Whats the best charger for the money?

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dale84307

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Is the MAHA the best for conditioning and charging or is there another? I want one that lets you charge fast, in the car also and conditions. Does the maha let you know when the batteries are fully charged with a led or audio alert?--Download free photoshop plugins/actions at
http://www.image1studio.com in our webstore!
 
I just bought the Rayovac at Targets for $29.99 (USA). It charges 4 1600 ma batteries in an hour.--Dr. John
 
imho Ansmann Powerline4 cant be beaten for features, time, small size, display, options etc. bought mine at a trade show. U can get it off the net but it's all German, which is Greek to me--bobrob
 
dale said:
Is the MAHA the best for conditioning and charging or is there
another? I want one that lets you charge fast, in the car also and
conditions. Does the maha let you know when the batteries are
fully charged with a led or audio alert?
Click to expand...
The MaHa C204f has one LED for each pair of batteries. They blink during conditioning cycle, are red during charge, and green when done. Comes with AC and DC (car) charging cables. Fast charging, conditioning, and trickle charging. Its da bomb!

Mike Roberts
 
Hi,

The Ansmann Powerline 4 is "the biz", so long as you DON'T need "in car" charging or 1 hour charging.

It's main feature is that it runs off virtually any AC mains voltage and is supplied with 4 interchangable outlet socket adapters, perfect if you expect to be traveling abroad. Typicaly charges/recharges in 2 to 3 hours.

The Ansmann can be bought over the "Net" in the UK (PhotoSense) and the US (GreenBatteries), although it seems a bit pricey in the US. It should come with 4 excellent 1800mAh NiMH Ansmann batteries.

Mark H.
Bob Robertson said:
imho Ansmann Powerline4 cant be beaten for features, time, small
size, display, options etc. bought mine at a trade show. U can get
it off the net but it's all German, which is Greek to me
--
bobrob
Click to expand...
 
Ditto marks comments, Ansmann is excellent charger and conditions the batteries well as it also can fully discharge battery before rechargeing.
Mark H said:
The Ansmann Powerline 4 is "the biz", so long as you DON'T need "in
car" charging or 1 hour charging.

It's main feature is that it runs off virtually any AC mains
voltage and is supplied with 4 interchangable outlet socket
adapters, perfect if you expect to be traveling abroad. Typicaly
charges/recharges in 2 to 3 hours.

The Ansmann can be bought over the "Net" in the UK (PhotoSense)
and the US (GreenBatteries), although it seems a bit pricey in the
US. It should come with 4 excellent 1800mAh NiMH Ansmann batteries.

Mark H.
Bob Robertson said:
imho Ansmann Powerline4 cant be beaten for features, time, small
size, display, options etc. bought mine at a trade show. U can get
it off the net but it's all German, which is Greek to me
--
bobrob
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
These are all good:
Rayovac Nimh charger (fast)
Kodak K1000 nimh charger (tiny, good for travel)
Maha 204F

a lot of battery experts claim nimh's don't need conditioning. ymmv
dale said:
Is the MAHA the best for conditioning and charging or is there
another? I want one that lets you charge fast, in the car also and
conditions. Does the maha let you know when the batteries are
fully charged with a led or audio alert?
--
Download free photoshop plugins/actions at
http://www.image1studio.com in our webstore!
Click to expand...
 
Andrew nixon said:
Mark H said:
Hi,

The Ansmann Powerline 4 is "the biz", so long as you DON'T need "in
car" charging or 1 hour charging.

It's main feature is that it runs off virtually any AC mains
voltage and is supplied with 4 interchangable outlet socket
adapters, perfect if you expect to be traveling abroad. Typicaly
charges/recharges in 2 to 3 hours.

The Ansmann can be bought over the "Net" in the UK (PhotoSense)
and the US (GreenBatteries), although it seems a bit pricey in the
US. It should come with 4 excellent 1800mAh NiMH Ansmann batteries.

Mark H.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It has a discharge capability?
--Russ Meyer http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=450591
 
dale said:
Is the MAHA the best for conditioning and charging or is there
another? I want one that lets you charge fast, in the car also and
conditions. Does the maha let you know when the batteries are
fully charged with a led or audio alert?
--
Download free photoshop plugins/actions at
http://www.image1studio.com in our webstore!
Click to expand...
I say the Maha, this is exactly what you want.

I use the Ansmann and the Maha, of the two I much prefer the Ansmann, but as you require one of the best that also includes an in-car charger, buy the Maha.

Best wish's

Harry
 
Russ Meyer said:
It has a discharge capability?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. You have the option to select this, at any point after you start the charger, by pressing a small button on the front for a couple of seconds.

It discharges all four cells simultaneously, then switches over to charging. The LEDs flash in a "scrolling" fashion during discharge, and a syncronised flashing when charging. An always on LED indicates a fully charged (trickle charging) cell. A rapidly flashing LED indicates a faulty cell.

Bear in mind that discharging is a slow process that can easily double the whole process cycle time. The best advice is that predischarging NiMH cells is unnecessary, and will reduce the number the cell's life cycles. This is because the cells deteriorate slowly, over time, with repeated charging, and charging half empty cells (as opposed to discharging first) means that they spend less time being charged per cycle of use.

NiCd cells, on the other hand, do need to be periodicaly discharged fully, to minimise the so called "memory effect". NiMH cells apparently do not suffer this memory effect.

Mark H.
 
Do you have a web address or phone number for PhotoSense in the UK (unable to find them myself).
Thanks in advance.
Paul
Mark H said:
The Ansmann Powerline 4 is "the biz", so long as you DON'T need "in
car" charging or 1 hour charging.

It's main feature is that it runs off virtually any AC mains
voltage and is supplied with 4 interchangable outlet socket
adapters, perfect if you expect to be traveling abroad. Typicaly
charges/recharges in 2 to 3 hours.

The Ansmann can be bought over the "Net" in the UK (PhotoSense)
and the US (GreenBatteries), although it seems a bit pricey in the
US. It should come with 4 excellent 1800mAh NiMH Ansmann batteries.

Mark H.
Bob Robertson said:
imho Ansmann Powerline4 cant be beaten for features, time, small
size, display, options etc. bought mine at a trade show. U can get
it off the net but it's all German, which is Greek to me
--
bobrob
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Mark H said:
Hi,

The Ansmann Powerline 4 is "the biz", so long as you DON'T need "in
car" charging or 1 hour charging.

It's main feature is that it runs off virtually any AC mains
voltage and is supplied with 4 interchangable outlet socket
adapters, perfect if you expect to be traveling abroad. Typicaly
charges/recharges in 2 to 3 hours.

The Ansmann can be bought over the "Net" in the UK (PhotoSense)
and the US (GreenBatteries), although it seems a bit pricey in the
US. It should come with 4 excellent 1800mAh NiMH Ansmann batteries.

Mark H.
Click to expand...
Any other sites besides GreenBatteries?
--Russ Meyer http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=450591
 
Mark H said:
Russ Meyer said:
It has a discharge capability?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. You have the option to select this, at any point after
you start the charger, by pressing a small button on the front for
a couple of seconds.

It discharges all four cells simultaneously, then switches over to
charging. The LEDs flash in a "scrolling" fashion during discharge,
and a syncronised flashing when charging. An always on LED
indicates a fully charged (trickle charging) cell. A rapidly
flashing LED indicates a faulty cell.

Bear in mind that discharging is a slow process that can easily
double the whole process cycle time. The best advice is that
predischarging NiMH cells is unnecessary, and will reduce the
number the cell's life cycles. This is because the cells
deteriorate slowly, over time, with repeated charging, and charging
half empty cells (as opposed to discharging first) means that they
spend less time being charged per cycle of use.

NiCd cells, on the other hand, do need to be periodicaly discharged
fully, to minimise the so called "memory effect". NiMH cells
apparently do not suffer this memory effect.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I keep seeing some posts about "conditioning" the batteries first to get the longest charge time. So your saying that's not accurate?
--Russ Meyer http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=450591
 
Russ Meyer said:
Any other sites besides GreenBatteries?
Click to expand...
I'm in the U.K. so I've never really searched for it in the U.S. sites.

Perhaps you could put out an "APB" for other U.S. suppliers on the forum.

If there is an Ansmann U.S. office you could email them for suppliers or maybe buy from them direct. There is a U.K. office, again i'm not sure about the U.S.

If you're not in a hurry you could try to buy from the U.K. ?

Mark H.
 
dale said:
Is the MAHA the best for conditioning and charging or is there
another? I want one that lets you charge fast, in the car also and
conditions. Does the maha let you know when the batteries are
fully charged with a led or audio alert?
--
Download free photoshop plugins/actions at
http://www.image1studio.com in our webstore!
Click to expand...
---------------------------------------------------

I use this RadioShack 23-422 (around $20us) and RayOvac 1600 mA

batteries. This charger does 2-4-6-or 8 batteries in about one and a half

hours. You can prime batteries before going on a shoot and when the

red charge light goes out,-- they are done. Charge is good for from

100 to 150 pix after several uses and get better with age.
--Clifford http://www.imageevent.com/cdbrown
 
Russ Meyer said:
That's interesting. I keep seeing some posts about "conditioning"
the batteries first to get the longest charge time. So your saying
that's not accurate?
Click to expand...
Hi Russ,

Maybe I overstated the case a little.

Whether your batteries need a few charge/discharge cycles to get up to speed, probably just depends on different battery manufacturers, perhaps the rate of the initial charging, or maybe just pure chance.

Certainly, I found that my first charge of the Ansmann 1800s in the Powerline charger, lasted just as long, if not even longer than either the Energiser or the GPs I was allready using (I was very impressed). Neither did I notice any short life cycle after the first charge of either my Energisers or GPs. My advice would be, charge them, run them down normally in the camera, then predischarge them further in the charger the next couple of times, if you feel you must.

NiMHs "might" benefit from an occasional fuller discharge, not more often than once in ten charge cycles. NiMHs should NEVER be FULLY discharged beyond a certain voltage point, as a damaging voltage reversal can occur (don't ask me how or why), but this should not occur with a properly designed charger.

You might be interested to know: I have just taken my Energiser 1600s out of the D7 after low battery shut down. I thought I'd do the predischarge in the Ansmann to see how long it would take to drain them to the point at which it switches over to charging - it took 2 hours! This suggests (just as Ansmann indicate) that to discharge full cells, in the charger, could take up to 8 hours. So don't bother, use them in the camera first.

Regards.

Mark.
 
Mark H said:
I'm in the U.K. so I've never really searched for it in the U.S.
sites.

Perhaps you could put out an "APB" for other U.S. suppliers on the
forum.

If there is an Ansmann U.S. office you could email them for
suppliers or maybe buy from them direct. There is a U.K. office,
again i'm not sure about the U.S.

If you're not in a hurry you could try to buy from the U.K. ?
Click to expand...
Found another site, but more expensive. However, great picture of it.

http://www.nexusamerica.com/NA/NAchargers.html
--Russ Meyer http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=450591
 
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