Titanium Smart Fast 8 Bay Battery Charger, White, 8800

First impressions (2012-08-02)I was looking for an 8-cell charger with more than just the basic charging feature and this one is delivering. With a foot print barely larger than my basic 4-cell chargers, it charges any number of mixed AAs & AAAs between 1 & 8. In addition to basic charging, it offers a refresh cycle which fully discharges the the cells in one (or both) of the banks, then automatically charges them. Though I have yet to use it, the car cord allows flexibility for charing on the go. It does not have the more advanced analysis modes of more expensive chargers, but offers an exceptional value for features that it does have. I like the informative, easy to understand LCD display which has an individual status indicator for each cell.This model had only one review, but it was highly possitive and the 16-cell version had numerous positive reviews, so I took a chance on this one. So far, I'm glad that I did.I was considering the Powerex MH-C800S, but it was unavailale at the time that I was ready to order, doesn't offer the car cord, and costs about 80% more. Since ordering, I've found that Amazon also offers a Pearstone model which appears to be identical in appearance (save for the color and logo) and appears to have similar features/specs, though it does cost about 50% more.

A great device. I have charged 8 batteries of various capacities and from various manufacturers simultaneously without issue. There is a meter below each battery letting you know the charging status so you can tell how much of a percentage of the battery capacity has been charged. I found a battery in my collection that would not charge using this and would have never found it using my other simpler chargers.

Great product. You must use quality batteries. Cheap ones are not recognized and show bad. You must have at least 1.35 v charge and acceptable internal resistance to work in this unit. I have Panasonic NiMH from 1994 that were refreshed and work fine. I also have newer generic "digital" Wal-Mart ones that fail. They work but are not.optimum and only charge in a dumb charger to 1.4 volts. The internal resistance is nog correct and the unit analyzes them as bad. I have new and gently used eneloops that work and refresh fine.So.buy with confidence and use good batteries. 2200 nah is about all you want for longevity and fit. Larger capacities have short positive buttons and won't fit in many devices. 2000mah last me over 10.years with proper care. I am an engineer so my test equipment is quite sofisticated. N Lee's reviews tell it all so I won't repeat his info.2200.capacity as took 6 hours to cycle and come to full charge. Let's face it they are batteries. Chemical storage units. Knowing every detail won't change the fact that a cell is poor or good. Buy well and they last. I usually never refresh NiMH. Only NiCd. EventuLly the chemicals neutralize and the cell is dead. Still cheaper than buying single use cells.

This charger not only terminated charge too early, leaving me with only partially charged batteries, it also started to die (half of the LCD went first) after six months and went completely dead after seven.I initially used it in my the vehicle, but later was running it from a solar power system with 105AH of batteries, so there was no shortage of DC power to run this battery charger. None of the other devices I use has died. It looks like this one goes to the recycle bin.My original review follows:Not Good as a Car ChargerI don't have access to grid power so I have no way of knowing if it performs better with the provided AC adaptor. The performance when plugged into my vehicle's lighter plug is far from optimal.The charger appears to function but terminates charging far too early, usually after only a matter of 10-30 minutes. Cells that normally give about three hours of run time in the lights that I use every single night only give about 15-30 minutes of run time when charged in this charger to indicated full charge. I have tried new eneloops, new duraloops and beat up old generic NiMH cells, all with the same result.Resetting the charger several times appears to allow for a more full charge but, aside from that being a pain, I am still not sure how well the batteries are being charged. My old beat up charger with two of its four bays dead outperforms this fancy eight bay charger. My old charger also terminates a bit early but nothing like this one.

This charger appears to properly charge each installed battery independently, it's most important feature. And, the 'refresh' feature, which means discharge-before-recharge, also seems to work well. Batteries don't appear to get overly warm during charging, but I haven't done anything to try to evaluate the unit's real performance.The charger has one moderately annoying defect, and if I didn't have another advanced multi-port charger, I might instead have returned the unit. Very often, batteries that have been discharged to below 1.1V will not recharge. The battery icon will flash all segments and the battery will not charge.Another reviewer mentioned this, but when I purchased I discounted it thinking that it might not happen too frequently. However, I've found that this problem shows up almost every other time I drop batteries into the unit for charging.Hopefully the manufacturer will fix this defect in their next product run. I suspect it would be a trivial fix.