La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger
List Price:$69.95 Our Price:$39.99 Your Save: $ 29.96 ( 43% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer:La Crosse Technology
Average Customer Rating:
Batteries Included: 1 Binding: Lawn & Patio Brand: La Crosse Technology Color: Blue EAN: 0757456993430 Feature: Battery charger; charges AA and AAA batteries simultaneously Label: La Crosse Technology Manufacturer: La Crosse Technology Material Type: Nylon Model: BC-900 Publisher: La Crosse Technology Studio: La Crosse Technology Variation Description: Blue
Features
Battery charger; charges AA and AAA batteries simultaneously 4 separate LCD displays; 4 modes; heat monitor prevents overcharging Comes with 4 AA and 4 AAA rechargeable batteries Also includes 4 C- and 4 D-size battery adapters and durable travel bag Measures 5.1 by 3 by 1.5 inches
PRODUCT FEATURES:All modes automatically default to 200 mA charge;Charge both AA and AAA rechargeable batteries simultaneously;Overheat detection to protect over-charging.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Glad I trusted the reviews! Comment: I've looked at rechargeable batteries as a solution for a long time, but always from a distance. Three years ago, I picked up a $20 retail store charger and battery combo and took it for a spin. Within a month, the batteries wouldn't hold a charge. I didn't understand it and didn't research at the time, so I tossed it all.
Recently, I started looking at rechargeables again. Between Xbox 360 controllers, remotes, and cameras, rechargeables just seemed to make sense if they could ever work right. That's when I went into overdrive research mode and realized that my retail store charger was overcharging and destroying batteries. Everything lead me back to the BC-900. I'm totally satisfied.
For anyone curious about revisions, my model is V35. Customer Rating: Summary: Best battery charger going!! Comment: This charger does it all! Can recharge, refurbish and test your batteries and all at a great price! Great product!! Customer Rating: Summary: Great little battery charger Comment: I've only had this charger for a couple of week. It's so easy to use and the charged batteries last longer then standard one use batteries.
I didn't realize that the AA batteries have converters to make them into C's and D's..... They work great...
I use the batteries in 2 small fans that require D cells. I also bought a set of 4 AAA's for my battery powered toothbrush and camera.
I consider this a very good product. Customer Rating: Summary: Quite the gadget Comment: I bought the La Crosse BC-900 after having repeated problems with dead NiMH AA batteries used in a wireless telephone system. I found out that the batteries I had been using had gone from 2650 mah to less than 300 milliamp hours. The telephone charging stations were rejecting the batteries.
I was able to test and determine most of the batteries were of poor quality. By Refreshing, and testing, one can determine the actual MAH capacity of a battery and pair it with another of like capacity.
One trick is to mark each battery with a unique number, build a spreadsheet of all your batteries and keep a history. You might also try a small piece of tape on each battery and note the MAH after charging.
Each of the four battery compartments are isolated in their function,(Mode) and charge levels.
Some users remark that the two interior compartments are hard to get batteries out while other batteries are on the outside. I placed a small loop around each of the two interior batteries before inserting and they pop out easily. A rubber band would work. I used a small plastic tie fastener.
One trick for selecting the mode is to place the batteries in the unit, unplug and plug again. The 8 seconds are sufficient for selecting both mode and charge levels.
I find myself toggling the display to see a status. Each battery displays the MAH at the moment the unit goes from discharge to charge. That number will remain the same until the next discharge cycle. I use a small pad of paper near the charger to note in four columns the most recent MAH read-out.
One will also note the time of the current mode (charge or discharge and the present Milliamp draw. Simple math MA x time determine MAHs.
Since I have several brands of NiMH, so far I am observing that the resultant MAH is about the same for each battery. However, few of the batteries come even close to the rated MAH on the battery. I might have fried them using a "Millennium" Rapidcharger I bought years ago.
I have put all of the old chargers away. I only need one now to put voltage on a discharged NimH to get the BC-900 to read something and avoid a NULL readout. Customer Rating: Summary: Five Stars! Comment: Ignore the 2-star rating, that was due to the previous review I had listed below because I didn't understand how the charger worked. It is well worth the money and the extras help make it worth it!
I'll quote one of the most helpful posts in the discussion about this product:
*********
The capacity value reported by BC-900 (or any other charger) during charging is not reliable. It calculates the amount of charge (product of charging current and time) going INTO the cell, not the amount of charge retained by the cell. If a cell is leaky or haven't been used for a long time, it takes a lot longer time to get it fully charged. That is probably what happened to your #4 cell which was charged to 1200mAh.
If you put in a cell that still have some charge in it, then less charge is required to fully charge it. That is probably what happened to your #3 cell which only charged to 717mAh.
When you use the BC-900 to TEST a cell, it calculates actual capacity using product of discharge current and time. So this number is more reliable.
When you swap cells between slots, the capacity number may vary by 1-2%. This is also completely normal.
*********
My old review:
Beware when using these products with Duracell AAA rechargables:
Duracell DC2400B4N Rechargeable Batteries, NiMH, AAA Size, 4-Count Packages (Pack of 2)
While this recharger is so high-rated that I'm surprised I had issues, I did have issues and it possibly caused permanent damage to those AAA recharables that I'd purchased. While charging the provided AAA and AA batteries (4 each) that came with the charger, I had no issues and charging was superb. However, while charging the Duracell AA's I was wondering if it would do the job, and it did its job quite well!
The problem came when charging the Duracell AAA rechargables (1000 mAh). I'm lucky I had the charger set to view the total battery charge, how much mAh the battery should have stored due to charging, and it updates dynamically while its charging. For the Lacrosse batteries, they were only 'charged' about halfway due to already being partially-charged when they were shipped, but the AAAs for some reason climbed all the way to 1000 mAh and then kept going! I didn't think anything was wrong with the charger, I never touched it during charging (other then to change the display) and didn't figure a brand-new charger would have issues. After noticing the batteries climb to almost 1200 mAh, I cut the power to the unit and removed the batteries, which were warm to the touch. I waited about 10 mins then plugged in the unit and tried all 4 AAA batteries and got the message that they were 'Full'.
So TELL ME WHY this stupid charger was charging these batteries when they were FULL!? I bought this charger to be a SMART charger and be a 'set and forget' type of thing. I don't want to have to worry about battery damage/overheating, that's why I had it charging at the default 200 mA charging rate and didn't change any default settings for it!
If you use the provided batteries, you should have no issues, otherwise beware of this charger. I only give it 2 stars because it worked fine with its provided batteries, plus the accessories are a pretty good value. I'd recommend though to get the 'updated' version of this charger, the BC-700 has newer circuitry/firmware compared to this and even without the extras I'd say its well worth it to make sure your batteries stay ok!
