Nikon MH-33 charger wall adapter

I have been using my MH-33 charger with EN-EL 19c batteries and plugging it into my MAC computer directly to charge. That was fine when I was only charging at home, but now that the health crisis has abated sufficiently for us to travel internationally again I tried plugging it into a wall outlet using the 5 w USB-A wall adapter that came with an iPhone. Since the iPhone socket is USB-A and the MH-33 charger cable is USB-C I had to use an adapter.

It doesn't work.

I don't have any to determine whether the fault is the USB-A to C adapter or the iPhone wall adapter is not the correct specification.

I did order the Apple branded 20w USB-C wall adapter.  I needed one for the phone anyway and it was the same price as their old USB-A adapter.

Any experience with plugging an MH-33 into the wall successfully?

MoreCowbell wrote:

I have been using my MH-33 charger with EN-EL 19c batteries and plugging it into my MAC computer directly to charge. That was fine when I was only charging at home, but now that the health crisis has abated sufficiently for us to travel internationally again I tried plugging it into a wall outlet using the 5 w USB-A wall adapter that came with an iPhone. Since the iPhone socket is USB-A and the MH-33 charger cable is USB-C I had to use an adapter.

It doesn't work.

I don't have any to determine whether the fault is the USB-A to C adapter or the iPhone wall adapter is not the correct specification.

I did order the Apple branded 20w USB-C wall adapter. I needed one for the phone anyway and it was the same price as their old USB-A adapter.

Any experience with plugging an MH-33 into the wall successfully?

Could be because you are only using the low powered 5 watt iPhone wall adapter? The recommended Nikon EH-7P is 15 watts.

I use the 18W apple branded iPhone wall adapter and my MH-33 works fine.

Fullframer wrote:

The recommended Nikon EH-7P is 15 watts.

I'm not familiar with this product other than having seen a photo on the web, but it looks to me like it is only for charging a battery in the camera.

MoreCowbell wrote:

Fullframer wrote:

The recommended Nikon EH-7P is 15 watts.

I'm not familiar with this product other than having seen a photo on the web, but it looks to me like it is only for charging a battery in the camera.

I thought it was the charger that plugged in the wall to charge the battery in the MH-33.   You could be right.     I use 18 watt apple iPhone/iPad charger head, it works fine with my MH-33.

patricksmith32 wrote:

MoreCowbell wrote:

I have been using my MH-33 charger with EN-EL 19c batteries and plugging it into my MAC computer directly to charge. That was fine when I was only charging at home, but now that the health crisis has abated sufficiently for us to travel internationally again I tried plugging it into a wall outlet using the 5 w USB-A wall adapter that came with an iPhone. Since the iPhone socket is USB-A and the MH-33 charger cable is USB-C I had to use an adapter.

It doesn't work.

I don't have any to determine whether the fault is the USB-A to C adapter or the iPhone wall adapter is not the correct specification.

I did order the Apple branded 20w USB-C wall adapter. I needed one for the phone anyway and it was the same price as their old USB-A adapter.

Any experience with plugging an MH-33 into the wall successfully?

Please do not try it until you get an answer directly from Nikon support. I tried the newest 40GBPS/80GBPS cords and Apple wall adapter, worked fine for about 2-20min and then failed. Killed the MH-33, so now I’m on my second MH-33 but luckily Amazon just sent me a knew one. I’d seriously wait or ask Nikon. It’s not a good idea unless you find a wall adapter that’s a match for the MH-33, read the specs and type them in plus USB-C 4, there’s different types. Not just USB-C, but I was using an Apple iPad 10 wall adapter and also tried the iPhone 12 Pro Max cord. Neither worked and they ruined my Nikon charger. So don’t recommend it! As far the cord, I do love it. It’s awesome, so get a new $26 cord on Amazon. Make sure it has the 40~80 USB markings noting it’s a new 80Gbps version.

Just use apple USB-C cord and apple 18 watt iPhone/iPad charger and it works fine to charge the battery in the MH-33. I've never had an issue. My camera store told me that was fine to use. Make sure it's a real nikon branded battery, not the 3rd party junk batteries.

After switching to an Apple 20w charger the MH-33 appears to charge batteries fully.

Except

It will not charge a flat battery. I've tried this with three brand new Nikon branded EN-EL 18c batteries from Adorama. All three batteries arrived with insufficient charge to even get the camera display to recognize them. This has been my general experience lately and I think it is probably unremarkable.

None of the batteries could be charged in the MH-33.

In testing, I left the batteries on the charger for 24 hours and they did not take a charge. The charger displayed 50% charge, the next light came on, and then all the lights came on green and blinked rapidly. The batteries were still flat. After allowing the batteries to sit overnight I tried another 24 hour charge. Still didn't work.

I placed the same batteries in a 3rd party charger and they behaved normally, charging up to 100% and condition 0.

After charging the batteries in a 3rd party charger I tried to run conditioning in the MH-33. All the lights came on a steady red and remained so overnight. I placed the battery in a 3rd party charger and I showed 50%, so perhaps the MH-33 just drains the battery exceptionally slowly on calibrate.

My conclusion, at least for this single MH-33 and these three batteries and this single 3rd party charger, is I would not be able to make a brand new battery useable unless I had two chargers and the MH-33 would be adequate for travel to recharge partially discharged batteries only. A second charger would be required to run calibration.

I make no representation that this is a universal situation, just my limited personal experience.

I would be willing to concede that there is always a possibility of user error here, but how much room for error is there in inserting a battery into a charger?

Charging batteries should not be a taxing or experience heavy task.  I would think it not unreasonable to expect that I should be able to just remove a battery from the package, drop it into a charger, and expect that it recharge with no fanfare or experimentation, and certainly not with the requirement of a second charger.

patricksmith32 wrote:

Please do not try it until you get an answer directly from Nikon support.

While this is probably like sound advice, based on my personal experience I'm not sure that a useful answer from Nikon support is likely to be forthcoming

MoreCowbell wrote:

After switching to an Apple 20w charger the MH-33 appears to charge batteries fully.

I use the apple 18w charger and it works perfect.

Except

It will not charge a flat battery. I've tried this with three brand new Nikon branded EN-EL 18c batteries from Adorama. All three batteries arrived with insufficient charge to even get the camera display to recognize them. This has been my general experience lately and I think it is probably unremarkable.

Thats terrible for a new battery.   My EN-EL18 series have always come with some kind of charge with them when I get them.  Camera recognizes and there is at least 25-50% charge.

None of the batteries could be charged in the MH-33.

In testing, I left the batteries on the charger for 24 hours and they did not take a charge. The charger displayed 50% charge, the next light came on, and then all the lights came on green and blinked rapidly. The batteries were still flat. After allowing the batteries to sit overnight I tried another 24 hour charge. Still didn't work.

I placed the same batteries in a 3rd party charger and they behaved normally, charging up to 100% and condition 0.

After charging the batteries in a 3rd party charger I tried to run conditioning in the MH-33. All the lights came on a steady red and remained so overnight. I placed the battery in a 3rd party charger and I showed 50%, so perhaps the MH-33 just drains the battery exceptionally slowly on calibrate.

My conclusion, at least for this single MH-33 and these three batteries and this single 3rd party charger, is I would not be able to make a brand new battery useable unless I had two chargers and the MH-33 would be adequate for travel to recharge partially discharged batteries only. A second charger would be required to run calibration.

I make no representation that this is a universal situation, just my limited personal experience.

yeah, I have never had that in my 20 years of buying Nikon DSLR batteries.   I have had similar issues or worse with many diff 3rd party batteries over the years.  Not lasting as long, quickly discharging, not charging to 100%.   I will never personally buy a 3rd party battery again, unless I have to,  Only real nikon.

I would be willing to concede that there is always a possibility of user error here, but how much room for error is there in inserting a battery into a charger?

Charging batteries should not be a taxing or experience heavy task. I would think it not unreasonable to expect that I should be able to just remove a battery from the package, drop it into a charger, and expect that it recharge with no fanfare or experimentation, and certainly not with the requirement of a second charger.

Exactly, 100%. I've never had that issue in my years of experience with real nikon battery and a real nikon charger.   Only 3rd party.    I'm wondering if the nikon batteries you got were not genuine?  That has happened to some people.