Smart Battery Charger
If you find yourself buying a lot of batteries, getting a smart battery charger and some rechargeable batteries can soon save you a substantial amount of money. La Crosse Technology has produced an excellent AA and AAA battery charger having a number of advanced features, ensuring that you get the most out of your batteries.La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger
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What is it? It is an advanced, yet easy-to-use, NiCd and NiMH smart battery charger that can charge up to 4 AA (or AAA) batteries. It has 4 modes of operations: Charge, Discharge, Refresh and Test. The Charge mode allows you to select the charging current so you can decide how fast (or slow) you want to charge each individual battery. The Discharge mode can be used to reduce memory effect of a battery. The Refresh mode can help revive old batteries that are not used for a long time. The Test mode measures the true capacity of a battery.
What are the features of the La Crosse BC-900 smart battery charger?
- It charges 4 AA or AAA batteries (NiCd or NiMH only) at the same time.
- It has 4 modes of operation: Charge, Discharge, Refresh and Test.
- It offers 200 (default), 500, 700, 1000, 1500 and 1800 mA charging current.
- For a battery with a capacity of 2000 mAh and selecting a current of 1800 mA means a fast charging time of just over 1 hour!
- It has 4 separate LCD displays, one for each battery.
- The display can show one of the following: charging current, elapsed time, instantaneous voltage and accumulated capacity. Simply press a key to switch between them.
- It knows when to stop charging automatically when the battery is full by detecting minus delta voltage (-dV).
- It applies trickle charging current (about 5% of selected current) when the battery is fully charged. This keeps the battery fully charged until it is taken out and also prevents overcharging.
- It detects overheating to prevent overcharging the batteries.
- It detects damaged/dead batteries and will not charge defective batteries.
- The Discharge mode offers complete discharging first followed by charging to reduce memory effect.
- The Refresh mode offers multiple discharging/charging cycles until such point when the battery is "refreshed" i.e. when no further increase in measured capacity is expected.
- The Test mode consists of charging, discharging (when the capacity of the battery is measured) and charging again. Often you will find the stated capacity of a battery different from its real capacity.
- It comes with an AC/DC adaptor with input voltage 100-240 V and thus can be used worldwide.
- It comes with 4 AA and 4 AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries and 4 C and 4 D battery adapters. The supplied AA batteries can be inserted into the adapters, which in turn can be used for appliances requiring C or D type batteries.
- It comes with a travel bag for when you are away from home.
What are its benefits?
- In general rechargeable NiMH batteries are better than disposable alkaline batteries for powering high drain devices such as digital cameras i.e. NiMH batteries last much longer.
- Instead of one single charging current, you can choose your charging current depending on the capacities of the batteries you have got and how quickly you want them ready.
- The risk of overcharging is minimized as the unit changes into trickle charging when the battery is fully charged. Overcharging can lower the capacity and reduce the usable life of a battery.
- Memory effect can be minimized by using Discharge mode. If a battery is repeatedly charged after it has only been partially discharged, it may develop a lower capacity and voltage known as the memory effect. By fully discharging the battery and then charging it, memory effect can be reversed or minimized.
- Refresh mode can revive batteries that have not been used for a long time.
- Test mode can tell you the true capacities of your batteries.
- Given that each battery is independently charged, discharged, refreshed and tested, there is no worry about mixing up charged and partially charged, or old and new batteries. Each battery will be handled appropriately.
- By using each of the 4 modes appropriately, you can maximize the usable life of your batteries, saving even more money for you.
How do you use the La Crosse BC-900 smart battery charger? Simple. Follow the 3 steps below:
- Insert battery/batteries
- Choose Mode: Charge, Discharge, Refresh, Test
- Choose Current Rate: 200, 500, 700, 1000, 1500, 1800 mA
That's it. The charger takes care of the rest.
La Crosse BC-900 smart battery charger has received over 300 overwhelmingly favourable reviews
Gift Idea: This is a great gift idea for anybody who uses a lot of battery-powered electronic devices. It will save them money (potentially quite a lot depending on usage).