Ubercharger Lacks Only Diamond-Encrustedness
Full disclosure: We are practically battery fetishists here at Strobist. And the La Crosse Technology BC-900 Alpha Battery Charger makes our Wally-Mart Ni-MH chargers look like pieces of crap. This thing will charge your flash batts at user-selectable rates, condition them, measure their voltages and capacity.
You want to be nice to your batts and slow-charge them all night long. No prob.
Need them charged fast and rough for a job this afternoon? Okeydokey.
Wanna know if your batts are up to spec, maH-wise? Your BC-900 will tell you.
(More info and links after the jump.)
It comes in full kit mode for
See what all of the fancy displays tell you here. And for $79.95, the Ubercharger comes with it's own demo video. (But of course.)
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• Product page, w/full info: BC-900 Alpha Battery Charger
• Cheaper, on Amazon (with very informative review)
(UPDATE #2: Amazon set comes with 4 AA's, instead of 8, but includes 4 each of the "D" and "C" adapters.)
(Thanks to Tony for the initial heads-up, and commenters for better pricing info.)
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Meanwhile, Up in the Cheap Seats
Costco apparent has a similar package with the slow-discharge Eneloops, sans the Ubercharger part. They call it the "Power Pack," and you can find them on the end-caps (which, granted, in a Costco can mean a 1/4-mile walk.)
Here's what you get according to Curtis, who tipped me off:
1 battery charger
8 AA batteries (2000 mAh)
4 AAA batteries
2 C adapters
2 D adapters
1 Nifty Blue Carry Case for it all
Total price: $26.
Sweet. These things are getting cheaperer and betterer.
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40 Comments:
Is there any difference between fast charging your batteries vs slow charging overnight, other than the length of time?
I have one charger that takes all night to charge 2900nimh batteries and one charger that takes just minutes to charge the same batteries.
Nice Charger!
So what do you know about these Radioshack 2700mAH batteries?? I just bought a few sets and they even come with cool flames on them! ha ha! Anyways, here's a link:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2437557&cp=&fbn=Brand%2FLenmar&f=Brand%2F1001097%2F&fbc=1&kw=2700mah+battery&parentPage=search
I'm not a battery fetishist?! At least not yet. It won't take time before I get to become one though.
I hope this product will be for sale in the Philippines soon!
I have this charger and it's a Strobist essential! It's saved a few batteries I thought were toast. The extra lifespan you eke out of your NiMH's will help offset the Lexus style pricetag.
Unfortunately, the manual is written in "Engrish." It's a painful read, but essential if you want to take advantage of its features.
Dang David, how about a head's up on these product recommendations so we can go buy company stock before you post an entry about them? :-) I know from experience that sales on these bad boys are gonna go nuts in the next 48 hours!
For us battery fetishists, that charger looks pretty sweet - and it is comparably priced to the Maha 8-cell charger as well.
Nice timing here.
I just ordered a 20 pk NiMH and was in the market for a charger.
The only thing I don't like with the UberCharger is it can only handle 4 at a time.
I was looking at this product by Maja. It can do 8 AA's, has trickle charge and has an LCD display as well.
Maha Charger
Does anybody have any experience with this one? how would it compare to the Ubercharger?
DH:
I think I could live without the C and D adapters and get this charger instead and save the money to buy more gea... I mean put it towards my retirement fund.
It's available for $55 at Thompson Distributing. I found these guys through Steve's Digicams (who has excellent battery and charger reviews by the way). I ordered a TON of batteries from them earlier in the year and have been steadily replacing all our gadgets with NiMH
http://tinyurl.com/2rjmah
The BC700 is only $40 and skips the fast charge modes: http://tinyurl.com/33z3fn
I agree its great charger. I could get 2 strobes (vivitar 283), 2x4 AA Nimh 2600mah, ebay triggers for that price. I would rather buy AB800.
this looks likes the bee's knees
looking over the offers in ebay (Germany, EUROPE)
it seems to go under various names:
BC 900
IPC-1 (Voltcraft)
IC 8800
they all look the same to me, but there could well be differences (esp. in the types of batteries it is supplied with)
might have to get one of these! (then I can watch the numbers;-)
MAHA MH C9000 looks pretty kick ass too:
http://www.nimhbattery.com/maha-mh-c9000-battery-charger.php
Or if you have to charge 2 strobes worth of batteries at the same time they make an 8 cell model:
http://www.nimhbattery.com/maha-mh-c801d-battery-charger.htm
Hmm...
$59 shipped from eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230174036665
Visit here http://www.partshelf.com/lacrbc900.html for the BC-900 around $42 (it was $51 including the shipping)... GB
i've had this charger for more than 2 years now. it's saved some rechargeables of mine that i neglected and brought them up to full capacity. it's even pushed some of of the 2000 mAh batts that come with it to over 2500 mAh. plus, it's nice knowing exactly how much charge is put into each set of batts.
i ordered mine from amazon for about $50 (only $20 after applying for an amazon visa card)
Just a comment that it seems slow charging NiMH batteries is bad for them, stick to the fast charging to avoid degrading the capacity of the batteries:
http://batteryuniversity.com/partone-11.htm
At least in germany one can buy them at "Conrad Electronic". There they're named IPC-1 coming with 4 x 2500 mAh AAs. I bought mine there some months ago and I'm really happy with it. Take extra care to get the blue one because it is the one you're looking for. The black one is inferior in it's features.
Hello,
If you are in Europe search Amazon.de for the BC 900 it's price is 39,75.
BC-900 is available from www.thomasdistributing.com -- which is where I got mine. Right now, it's about $55.
The BC-700 is essentially the same, except it maxes out at 700mA -- if you prefer to slow-charge and can live without the [up to] 1800mA charge rate of the BC-900, this BC-700 is a good value at $40.
@ Anonymous (top of thread):
Trickle charging is a lot gentler on the batteries -- they'll have a longer useable life, and their fully-charged capacity will stay higher for more charge-discharge cycles.
Fast chargers can be convenient in a pinch, but anything quicker than an hour or so for a high-cap AA is likely to severely reduce the life of the battery. As a general rule, the slower the charge the kinder to your batteries.
Also, a few repetitions of discharging and trickle charging can often bring cells back to life after their performance has become poor.
@ Tony:
I have the Maha MH-C808M, similar to the one you linked but with added C and D cell capacity:
http://tinyurl.com/jonul
I love it to bits. It's not so fancy as the Ubercharger in terms of information display, and it only has two charge speeds and one conditioning mode.
I haven't had any particular need of extra fancy features yet, and I love the fact that I can charge 8 AAs in an hour without having to push them hard. Makes my big bag full of batteries a lot less daunting at the end of the day. :)
I had looked at the Maha Wizard 1 (aka the MH-C9000)that Timmui linked earlier before I bought the 808, because of the extra features which seem to be approximately equivalent to this unit. I decided at the moment I was better off with the 808.
As my batteries get older and start needing more care and attention I may well invest in one of these super chargers, but right now I'm delighted with my 808 and don't feel the need for anything flashier, particularly if it'll only eat 4 cells at a time.
unfortunately, re-chargables/chargers cost an absolute fortune in the uk compared to the usa! a regular fast charger here will cost the equivalent of about $50!
I think something you might want to mention is that this charger charges the batteries individually. Meaning each cell can be doing something different (cycle, charge, test) if you so desire.
Put simply, it's the best charger i've owned since my old Victor High-IQ back in my RC/Car days.
Any strobist should probably be familiar with Thomas Distributing
They have good prices, good service and the fabulous Maha 2700 mAh AAs.
(I have no affiliation with this company, I'm just a very satisfied repeat customer)
This thing goes on sale once in a while. I got it last year for $20 and it works awesome.
Amazon.com sells this charger for $53.94.
I have this charger and it's fine. You guys from Austria and Germand can get it from Conrad Electronics (www.conrad.com, Art-Nr 202266 - 62).
You think you're a battery fetishist? I have both the Lacrosse charger featured, as well as the Maha charger linked by Tony. They are awesome devices. The Lacrosse model follows me wherever I go; the Maha stays at home, crankin' out the amps however I like them--sunny side up, over easy, scrambled, or defibrillator-fast. I got mine from Thomas Distributing, and their service has been exemplary. (Dave, maybe they'll consider being a Strobist sponsor?) (And my only affiliation with them is as satisfied customer.)
I recently tossed out my old and weak NiMH batteries, replacing them with those Sanyo Eneloops. Spectacular batteries; only wish they were available at more than 2000mAh. They really do keep well in my bag between uses--sorta like Spam, or beef jerky, but even tastier.
Amazon has a bunch of these check them out, and it helps the site.
Hey folks,
all right you battery-sluts. Check out Thomas Distributing online, this is the disneyworld of batteries. They have this charger cheaper here
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/la_crosse_bc-900_battery_charger.php
They also have many other goodies. I like their Sanyo generic green HIMH batteries (intended for industrial use) cheap and work great. They should have a strobist link eeeeh?
If you're on a student or starving artist budget, check out
http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=848
For $40, this 8-battery charger comes with 16 2600ma batteries. It charges each battery individually, detects bad batteries, and can drain the batteries if you press the center button. The cool thing about it is that it can use 12v or 24v (car), 110v or 220v. It was just what I needed for my trip to Israel this past spring.
TIM
Does this thing make noise during operation? I already have a full featured charger, but it's heavy and makes a lot of noise, so I'm looking for a lightweight alternative that doesn't keep me from sleeping in a hotel room.
Maik
I've got the 8 cell MAHA with the options to soft charge or regular charge, plus a conditioning cycle should you need. It fits the bill well, and I like that I can charge two strobes-worth of batteries at once.
While back my local discount warehouse type junk store (Marden's in Calais) had piles of Energizer brand chargers with 4 2300mAh batteries for 99 cents each.
I bought $100 worth. If I ever run out of batteries or chargers, I'll consider these.
I almost bought one of these but was put off by a lot of the reviews posted online at Amazon and other sites...apparently they have a problem with overheating to the point of being a fire hazard. I ended up buying a less-fancy version of the 8-battery charger.
If you're shopping for batteries, be sure to check out Sanyo's Eneloops. Unlike regular NiMH they will hold their charge over time when not in use (for up to a year, I believe). In fact, they're sold fully charged.
In my opinion the "Ubercharger" is not good enough.
Why?
Because it can not charge the batterys fast.
With 4 cells in the charger it can only charge each cell with 1000mA. That means with the new 2900mAH cells it takes more than 3 hours.
Instead I ordered a MAHA Powerex MH-C9000 charger. This one has all the possibilities of the BC-900 but can load the batteries up to 2000mA . This takes half the time than with the BC-900.
Femk001: Problem is A)you really don't want to charge these batteries that fast, it screws them up. B) the MAHA charger is great and all, but it both lacks a LCD display with digits, and costs like $80.
Anyway, I have the Alpha charger, works great. Also got that set at costco, its a screaming deal, the eneloops work great. And now i have another charger for when i use all my AA's after a tough flash day.
@ RandomTask:
Just FYI, in case you're purchasing again any time, the 4-cell Maha C9000 does have a numeric display and costs about the same as the one linked in the article. Admittedly you have to press a button to cycle through displaying the status of each cell, but I'm pretty sure it puts out the same info. The big 8-cell chargers don't have numeric displays, but then they charge 8 cells. ;)
shame you can't buy it without the batteries or at least without the AAA and C/D adapters. those would go completely unused by me.
For UK Strobists - the La Crosse is branded as Technoline:
http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-i-charger.asp
Nearly 40 quid, though. Man, we get stiffed here :-(
The BC-900 Alpha Battery Charger is currently $39.99 at Amazon.
Just purchased the lacrosse system, seemed like the right thing to do. I am still pretty confused about all the different options and the quick reference only adds to the confusion. The instruction manual is very unfriendly. If only they had a 'battery charging guide for dummies'.
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