Yes it is miles better.

This has 4 independent charging circuits, one per battery, which means it stops charging each cell when it is full and can charge 1 to 4 cells, I'm not certain, but I think the duracell one charges batteries in pairs.

You can select the charge rate 200, 500, 700 ma, or 1amp (it can even be set at different currents for individual cells if you wish to).

It shows the voltages of the batteries.

You can test batteries which fully charges them, then discharges them to measure their capacity before automatically recharging them again - useful for sorting a failing battery from a good set, and sorting old batteries into sets with similar capacities, and spotting if you've been sold batteries with exaggerated capacities..

It has also got a recovery mode that keeps charging and discharging the batteries until they reach their peak capacity, which has recovered some, or most of the lost capacity of a few of my failing cells.

I think he might be talking about the 15 minute one:
hotukdeals.com/dea…989

That pumps over 6A into a single battery, 3A when using multiple:
lygte-info.dk/rev…tml

They're aimed at different markets. The Duracell one is purely a quick charger with no other functionality while this is a more general use product with low enough charging rates not to impact battery lifespan and other functionality like monitoring and testing.

​you can charge 1 at a time on the duracell one too.

They claim to have a 2 year guarantee in the amazon questions, let us know how good or bad their support is. I've had mine for a couple of years and it has been fine so far.

You can't really compare them as it's totally different technology. Electric Vehicles use Lithium cells so would have more in common with your mobile phone.

Electric vehicles mostly use lithium ion batteries (often 3.6 volt 18650 Li-ion laptop batteries), which can be charged at higher current. This is for NiMH batteries, charging NiMH batteries involves a chemical reaction, if charged too rapidly heat and gas is produced that can escape the cell, decomposing the electrolyte. You can, or at least could buy NiMH cells specifically designed for rapid 15 minute chargers, but they were lowish capacity, expensive and still degraded by fast charging.

Why not? Most people's cars sit stationary for hours at a time and are rarely driven for more than a couple of hours at a time.

But electric cars use thousands of battery cells and a different chemistry so the situation isn't quite the same. Fast charging will reduce electric car battery life, but even the fastest charging points don't approach the equivalent the 6A into a NiMH AA.

Panasonic Eneloops. :smile:

Eneloop and GP Recyko. Eneloop is probably still the best.

And when Lidl have them for sale, the Lidl Tronic Pre-Charged (Low self discharge) Batteries @ £3 a set of 4 are also good.

That depends on their capacity and which setting you use. High capacity AA batteries at the 0.5A setting will take over five hours. Average AAAs charged as it's max speed will take 45 minutes.

The limitation is what the batteries accept gracefully rather than the charger, spending £15 on a charger instead of £5 isn't going to charge your batteries faster. The extra is for the other features.

where from? I can only see them for the £20 mark.... post up the link or it never happened :unamused:

I usually charge my AAA at 200ma, and the AA at 500 ma, and sometimes at the next setting up for each. If I charge my AA at 1000ma, they usually get rather hot.

Charging NiMH too rapidly can reduce the life and capacity of the battery and charging them at too low a current can cause a delta V charger to miss the termination point and terminate by timer instead.


The mah display shows the mah it has pumped into to the batteries when in charge mode, that won't take account of any charge left in the batteries when put on charge, and presumably doesn't make any allowances for the internal resistance of each battery, so won't show the true capacity of the batteries.

To measure the capacity, you need to select the test mode by holding down the Mode button, then pressing it repeatedly until the display shows "Charge Test". The charger will then fully charge, then discharge each battery down to about 0.9 volts, allowing it to measure the true capacity.It then recahrges them.

This charger is sold under various branding, when I bought mine it was also available rebranded as a Duracell charger, for a few quid more.

It looks like there is a new version for £32 on Amazon that also charges li-ion, so @ £20 it might be worth waiting in case 7dayshop intend to stock the new version and are clearing these out :- amazon.co.uk/gp/…x_w

Same here.

Got this abrupt reply:
"Anett replied:

with a manual attached as a pdf. I will test it tomorrow and if any doubt then it is going back.

Really, mine was the same, but it's a charger after all. Do you really care about the box?