600 Rechargeable batteries and chargers

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › 600 Rechargeable batteries and chargers - where to source

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gzt

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#3424341 12-Oct-2025 14:20

timmmay: The Maha C9000 is smarter, but there are probably better options these days.

New model C9000 Pro (4) looks darn good - programmable charge rate. For the OP I think C940 (8) with the capacity readout would be useful for SOP eol purposes. I'm guessing there are cheaper charger options with similar features in other brands. Selection depends on the deal and OP's application.

Edit: To be clear - In my earlier long post I'm blaming my issues with MH808 on charger and battery selection combination. Other models like those above I've looked at are later more smarts and lower charge rates for both standard and fast mode.

ezbee

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#3424342 12-Oct-2025 14:21

Oh, sorry RS may not be right place.
Or not place it once was, my experience is quite old.

Price each in a pack of 4 or 8 etc , is odd way to word pricing and cart does 4x, 8x the price.
Suppose their sales people can confirm if its a stuff up, if they have a more competitive brand and volume pricing.
Their eneloop looks to be about double PBtech.

Surprisingly Panasonic do still have a NZ office in East Tamaki, Auckland .
May be worth a tickle if you have not already, or hook you up with a channel more suited to your volume.
https://www.panasonic.co.nz/support

Simpower maybe.
https://www.simpower.co.nz

Looks like Amazon Basics are the ones geared to shift product, by a very long shot.
If 'basic' product is ok. So your Google Fu up to mark. :-)
If chargers also have a slow mode and you can live with that it might help lifetime.

As gzt points out the management around this may make it a moot point.

CokemonZ

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#3424352 12-Oct-2025 14:56

My intention is to supply ~20 of each type (AA + AAA) to each store.

Then as they run down they will go in a slow charger. I have a semi smart one that defaults to about 300 mah, so if the smartish ones do that no worries. They can put a load in before they leave, another when they arrive in the morning, and another at lunch time. Seems unlikely to cause many issues.

Won't be perfect, but will be better than the amount of cost and waste.

Amazon batteries (landed) work out at about $3.

Hard to go past that - 3x the price of a mid range non rechargeable AA, and 9x the price of cheap ones (like I currently use).

nitro

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#3424749 14-Oct-2025 09:46

i've never used them, but according to Which AA Rechargeable Battery is Best after 1 Year?, Amazon Basics are no slouch.

i only have Eneloops and a handful of energizers (2500mAh) given to me. there's no comparison about the length of service. i have eneloops from 2006/2007 that still give me 1500/1600 mAh. still useful for remotes/clocks.

for your use case, i'd probably favour the 2000 mAh Eneloops just for the cycle rating - 2100 vs 500 for the Eneloop pro. do be careful about slow chargers on Eneloops or any LSD NiMH batteries. they're not good for them, as they're more likely to lead to missed termination. continuous trickle charging at the end of the main charging cycle also has a negative effect. plenty of info in Eneloop 101.

i have the C401FS and C9000 from Maha/Powerex, but i didn't like them for Eneloops due to trickle charging (when i forget about having a set on charge). yes, connecting it to a timer would solve that, but that's another thing to set, which doesn't work very well when someone else (family) uses it. the break-in routine on the C9000 had been useful for batteries that have not been cycled for some time.

my main charger is a SkyRC MC3000. UX on the device (charger buttons) is actually terrible, but the app allows one to save "programs" including timer and temp cut-off as a fallback for missed terminations:

Eneloop 2000 charge
Eneloop 2000 refresh
Eneloop 800 charge
Eneloop 800 refresh
Li-Ion 14500
Li-Ion 18650
Li-Ion 4.35V

would i recommend that for your use case? no, but it might be good to have one (or a few with the numbers you're talking about) with an analyzer capability to check battery health before chucking them out.

SkyRC have also released the MC5000 that looks fancier. the screen certainly does. i was looking forward to this, as i currently only have one charger for lithium ions. however, it has apparently lost the temperature sensor, which gives me hesitation. for lithium ion batteries, i prefer chargers with one. i've rescued a bunch of 18650s (laptop pulls, etc.) and that has been handy.

the VapCell S4+ is also another one (if you want one with an analyzer feature) to consider, as it's good for NiMH. my father-in-law has been happy with the one i gave him years ago now.

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