Eneloop charger - AccuPower or Vapextech?

Vapextech or AccuPower?

  • Vapextech

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • AccuPower

    Votes: 8 72.7%
  • Total voters
    11
I've got a couple of Vapextech chargers and they are both excellent. Very fast at charging high Mah batteries and I wont be using any of my old chargers again, which took 24 hours to do a 2-3 hour job.
 
I own the Vapextech listed above, alongside a much more expensive MAHA C9000. The Vapextech is a very good charger for it's price. Unlike most cheap chargers it will charge individual or an odd number of batteries and provide basic charge status for each cell.

I use the MAHA for testing my batteries or when I need a quick-charge, but the Vapextech is the one I use most of the time because it takes 8 cells. It can be a little slow, but it's ideal if you are in no rush and can leave the batteries inserted overnight.

I have not used the Accupower, but it seems a very good charger also. Both will be fine for Eneloops.
 
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I just bought that Accupower one off Amazon and bought some ansmann batteries to go with it (they didn't have eneloop). It comes with a 3-pin plug so no need for an adapter. No backlight or anything though.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Having read what the AccuPower does, it has the ability to refresh dead/dying cells which I think would be useful to bring back the Duracells that my fast charger has killed. I can then use them around the house or as emergency flashgun batteries on shoot. Once they're done once though, I prob won't use that feature again.

The Vapex doesn't do anything similar, which is a shame. The price difference is the same as another pack of Eneloops though...

Hmm. Decisions!
 
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Don't expect miracles regarding any chargers ability to refresh dead batteries. From experience with a C9000, you may breath some life in to them, but they will never fully recover and tend to degrade really fast afterwards. It's a bit like giving your granny an few ecstacy tablets.

The only real cure for a dead or dying battery is a new battery.
 
Eneloop batts need charging slowly to maintain their quality, I use the Sony charger that comes with the batts.
 
Another AccuPower owner. Ive not had any issues with it since i got it, so i cant really say if its better than the other one's.

Ive been using a fast 15min charger for the past few years, mainly with Eneloops, and i cant say there are any issues with them, they all still work, and having put them in the AccuPower charger that reports they all are working fine.
 
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I'd go for the flexibility of the AccuPower. As it happens, I've just blown up (carelessness) my Techno-Line BC-900 (very similar) and have ordered the AccuPower from here: link. I chose that site because they can also supply a 12V car charging lead for it: link. I used Chrome to translate their site (www.akkushop.de).

My old BC-900 and the AccuPower allow you to charge at 1 A and that's got to be enough for any AA battery. I would only use it in emergencies as it could do some damage. As is pointed out above, slow charging is best. I'm using a rule of thumb that says the max rate is given (numerically) by taking one tenth of the cell's capacity. (It that still correct?) So I generally charge at the default of 200 mA and sometimes go to 400 mA.
 
Sorry for the thread hijack. Just wanted to say thanks to PickleB for that link in that last post. I wouldn't have thought about 12v if it wasn't for that. :thumbs:

I'm starting to get into this flashgun malarky so I was actually reading about Eneloop batteries which lead me here.
 
PickleB said:
I'd go for the flexibility of the AccuPower. As it happens, I've just blown up (carelessness) my Techno-Line BC-900 (very similar) and have ordered the AccuPower from here: link. I chose that site because they can also supply a 12V car charging lead for it: link. I used Chrome to translate their site (www.akkushop.de).

My old BC-900 and the AccuPower allow you to charge at 1 A and that's got to be enough for any AA battery. I would only use it in emergencies as it could do some damage. As is pointed out above, slow charging is best. I'm using a rule of thumb that says the max rate is given (numerically) by taking one tenth of the cell's capacity. (It that still correct?) So I generally charge at the default of 200 mA and sometimes go to 400 mA.
Click to expand...

Not really.
As far as I know, LSD batteries actually "prefer" higher charge rates, even higher than 0.5C. Something between 0.5C and 1C.
 
Recent replies reminded me to update this thread.

Thanks for the replies, I went with the Vapex one in the end. Partly due to the ability to charge 8 cells at once. So far so good!
 
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