| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 306 | | Review Date: January 12, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $52.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Programmable, 4 separate charging slot, works great | | Cons: | Not found yet | |
I have been using standard cheap eneloop charger from year 2007. Oh boy i was stupid, this charger is worth every cent! Have this few weeks now and i just love this thing. Can even charge my batts in about one hour if needed. If u r ready to study little basics about charging batteries, u must buy this charger for ur AA/AAA batteries!
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2011 Posts: 84 | | Review Date: June 10, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Features, possibilities | | Cons: | Poor LCD, dumb menu system | |
I bought this thing quite some time ago. Reviewed different models and options, and this was the king of them all. So I went with it, with higher than high expectations.
It still managed to exceed the expectations.
The only issue I have with it is the LCD. It is beyond retarded. It must be viewed from a specific angle to see anything. It's an issue when you position it anywhere else than on your desk, not too far. On top of a shelf, you can't read the display. Not at all. The thing must be tilted forward to see if the batteries are done. It's frustrating - the thing is perfect, but ruined by the bad LCD.
Still, it's a solid 10.
Why? Because you can do the thing, the other thing, and all the rest of the things, and more. For AA/AAA batteries, this charger does it all and then some. You can very carefully individually adjust the charge & discharge rates, all independently, for every slot should you want to do that.
That brings me to the other downside of this, the menu. Since it has a million or more possible combinations, the menu system requires quite a bit of clicking. Take a standard 2800 mAh AA battery. Put it into the place. Click recharge. Tone down the rate, click-click-click-click-click, and click done. Insert next. Do the clicks again. When you want to do the cycle, you click more for the discharge. A dozen or more button clicks, times four batteries, is a lot of clicks. And if you have, say 6 packs of four AA's waiting to be recharged after a shoot... Uh.
There is one feature in which you just set the mAh rating for breaking in the battery; it then uses 10 % of capacity to do a few cycles (takes 2 days or something). Why it wouldn't have the same system incorporated in the other options too is beyond me. If you guys at powerex ever read this, I suggest you make a menu where I can set up default charge- and discharge rates as % of capacity. Then when inserting the battery, just ask the mAh and suggest to use the 'default' rates. Then if I set it up to charge by default at 20 % rate, I just set the mAh and click OK twice, and I'm done, and I don't have to figure out if it's 400 or 500 mAh and clickity-click it down to that every single time I insert a battery.
So the bottom line, though it's built cheap, the LCD is hideous, and you need to click the buttons about six million times in it's lifetime, it's so good it's almost perfect. Without the issues, it'd be as perfect as 4-slot reasonably priced smart charger can get.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Berlin Posts: 197
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 16, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $49.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Can analyze and improve batteries's life | | Cons: | heavy, LCD too bright | |
This is a perfect charger & analyzer  It can help to know and to improve my batteries. The document is very clear and it helps to use the charger quickly.
It's a bit heavy and big, not good for travelling The LCD screen is so bright in night.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: Ontario Posts: 3,332 | | Review Date: April 7, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Lots of charging options, easy on batteries | | Cons: | Bright and squeelie | |
(Note-I bought mine from PaulsFinest in Canada a few years ago when these were fairly new. It can be had for less now I'm sure. I don't regret a single cent I spent on it though.)
After being so happy that my brand new eneloops and k100d would get me 400~500 shots, I dealt with the frustration of their life expectancy rapidly dwindling after only a few months of use. I was using a standard 8 hour cheapo energizer charger that abused my poor eneloops, heating them up and having no idea when to stop charging. It was frustrating being able to get only ~100 shots from a set of eneloops that only a few months ago performed so well. So I took the plunge and picked up this maha charger. After running the eneloops through the "break-in" cycle, lo and behold, I could get over 400 shots again! Yipeee! It was fun to use my camera again!
The Good:
It makes life good. Well, it makes rechargeable batteries a pleasure to use and ended the frustration. It kept my eneloops working at near new capacity for years. I also used it to revive another k200d users eneloops in a similar way.
It has a very large and easy to read display showing a few things, charging/discharging rate, voltage of the batteries, total amount charged/discharged, and the total time it's been running.
Lots of charging/discharging options. Most of the time a straight-up charge is all I do, every few months a set of batteries will run through the "refresh and analyze" cycle. Not much to keeping your batteries in top shape.
Lots of space between the batteries for good airflow to keep the batteries cool (heat is the enemy).
It's a 'smart' charger with 4 independent cells. This means it can detect when each individual battery is fully charged and cut off the charging. This is much easier on the battery and the charge cycle is then tailored to each individual cell.
It can report how much capacity each battery has letting you pair up sets of a similar strength. This is optimal as a set with one weak battery in it doesn't perform as well as a matched set. The strongest get use in my demanding k100d, the weaker ones go in flashes or other junk (=non-camera things). Also, you can be super nerdy and make a spreadsheet about each of your batteries capacities as the months go by, then show it them at a year end battery performance review giving awards to the top performing battery as well as most improved battery.
Charges AAA's and AA's, I have a few camera accessories that need AAA's so this is bonus.
The so-so:
Lot's of charging options may be confusing, but the manual is pretty simple so read it!
It's pretty big. Some of the size is unavoidable to leave space between the batteries though.
The Bad:
The LCD display is bright. Really bright. Not so nice if it's in your bedroom at night unless you want something to read by.
It makes a high pitched squeal when operating. Not all users report this so it's possible they don't all squeal and it's possible that not everyone can hear it. It doesn't really bother me, but it's best used someplace out of the way otherwise my girlfriend will (bother me).
If you have a cupboard to put it in when it's running, this thing is fantastic, and the best friend your rechargeable batteries can have.
| | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Illinois Posts: 43 | | Review Date: March 9, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $55.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | high quality, will last years, can revive old batteries, charges batteries perfectly, backlit LCD screen | | Cons: | Costs about $50-60 but is worth every penny. | |
This charger is the king of AAA and AA battery management, conditioning and reviving. It is efficient and tells you exactly where your batteries are at and gives a wide variety of options for conditioning batteries. It will definitely keep your batteries alive longer than other unregulated chargers!
| | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: New Brunswick Posts: 21 | | Review Date: October 16, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Miles ahead of any others I've seen or used | | Cons: | Can take up to 2 days to break in new batteries or recondition old ones. | |
Yup... seems like a lot of money to pay for a battery charger but the Maha 9000 Wizard is much more than that. I won't go into it here... just browse to www.paulsfinest.com for all kinds of info, reviews and testimonies. It's a Canadian site so buy from Paul if you're in Canada and save the cross-border money grab from brokers, customs and all the other leeches in the system.
BTW - Paul sells the Imedion brand ultra-low discharge batteries that are the successors to the Eneloops. I have 16 of them and they work beautifully in my K200d (which usually "objects" to any other brand except (expensive) lithiums).
You won't regret buying either the charger or the batteries.... and no I don't work for Paul or receive anything for this testimony.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: Lansing, MI Posts: 509 | | Review Date: July 19, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $48.97
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | lots of charge/discharge options | | Cons: | | |
This is a great charger. Allows you to condition, discharge and charge both AA and AAA batteries at various rates. I use this to match batteries in sets, and I believe it helps me get the most life out of rechargeable batteries. Thomas Distributing is a great source for batteries and chargers, and they included a nice case for the charger when I purchased it.
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