What is the problem?
The problem is that a cheap charger never knows if an individual battery is full or not and continues to charge them all together, will leads to either undercharging or what is worse to overcharging a battery that shortens it’s lifetime greatly. Also, never buy ultrafast chargers–they will kill your batteries very fast too!
On the contrary to dumb chargers, smart chargers:
- stop charging right after the batteries are full, so they do not overcharge and live much longer;
- charge each battery individually giving it exactly the power it needs;
- allow you to mix bad and good batteries in one charger;
- allow you to mix different sizes (like AA with AAA);
- have other smart functions, like discharging, testing and slow charging.
How to know if a charger is smart?
Basically if any charger’s description doesn’t contain the word ‘smart’, than you can presume that it’s a dumb charger.
Here's Bluejay's Law of Battery Chargers:
Any charger that's not described as being a smart charger, is definitely a dumb charger. Conversely, any charger that's indeed a smart charger, will definitely be described as such.
La Crosse Technology BC-500
The charger I’m using currently is La Crosse Technology BC-500 (depicted below). It’s not produced anymore and lacks some functionality of his bigger brothers, but you still can find it around as cheap as $28 with free shipping and it’s very handy charging the batteries. Bought just to prove the concept it helped me to resurrect 3 packs of 4 AA batteries, which made me extremely happy given the price of a single battery pack.
How to resurrect a dead battery?
Even if you fancy smart charger tells you that the battery is dead there is a chance to resurrect it. The simplest method I use: find a metal surface and stand the batteries (a dead battery and a good fresh one) on it, then connect positive terminals with some metal thing, like a screwdriver or a paperclip. If you don’t have a metal surface around simply stand both on a metal paperclip and then connect the positive terminals of the both batteries for a second (see the picture below). Try charging your bad battery with your smart charger after the procedure, repeat if this didn’t work. | Disclaimer: I haven’t heard of any problems, like explosions or whatever, but use this method at your own risk!
Needed assistance while making a shot, hence that fancy manicure above
Update from the comments to this post:
@dgiors57
I have a couple of LaCrosse chargers. A year ago I got an Opus BT-C2000 charger and it's a keeper. It rejects fewer batteries in their deep discharge state.
BTW I keep one of my old "dumb" chargers around for refreshing a "dead" battery. The one I have charges a pair of batteries. 5 minutes in there won't risk over charging but gives enough juice they can be transferred to one of the smart chargers.
Thank you @dgiors57 for your valuable comment!
Useful links:
Best battery chargers
Battery Charging FAQ
What does mAh in a battery mean
A simple step to revive a dead Ni-MH battery
La Crosse Technology BC-500
La Crosse Technology BC-700
La Crosse Technology BC-1000
Why we shall not throw batteries into a trash can
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Thanks for reading!
Sincerely yours,
@richman
awesome post
Haha! Now that's nice :D
Thanks for your comment!
I have a couple of LaCrosse chargers. A year ago I got an Opus BT-C2000 charger and it's a keeper. It rejects fewer batteries in their deep discharge state.
BTW I keep one of my old "dumb" chargers around for refreshing a "dead" battery. The one I have charges a pair of batteries. 5 minutes in there won't risk over charging but gives enough juice they can be transferred to one of the smart chargers.
Great post.
Thank you very much for your comment!
May I use it to update my post?
Absolutely.
Thanks, updated!
The Everyday Geek on Steemit is awesome, btw! Just watched it.
What kind of software you use to make it?
I have a subscription to Adobe CC so it was Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects and a little bit of Audition.
Thanks for the compliment.
It must be cool to have this kind of subscription! Love Adobe products, but not the pricing ;D
Agreed.
Needed to see this!
:-)
And remember to never actually put your batteries in the garbage- dispose safely and in an environmentally responsible way. Also tape over the ends of batteries with terminals on the same side so you don't risk starting a fire, especially if you throw all your batteries to recycle into the same box.
Yep, thanks for your comment!
I've put the link to a relevant article in my post: http://distractify.com/old-school/2014/08/05/things-you-dont-throw-in-the-trash-1197777136
Nice tip!
And lovely nails!
Thank you!
I'm so unobservant, noticed the nails only when uploaded the picture :D
Thank you for posting @richman. Very interesting news we can use. Cheers.
Thank you!
Glad that you like it :D
Cheers!
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