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Originally Posted by keitaro La Cross Technologies makes good chargers http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/power.php
The BC-900 has gotten favourable reviews http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lacrosseBC900.htm
Basically it will condition the battery by trickler charging, or doing full discharge/charge cycles. It also allows you to monitor each battery's charge capacity. You can see when a battery becomes defective when the indicator shows that it doesn't hold a lot of charge. You can also control how fast a battery charges. |
+1. I got the BC900 as well and it works great. Like keitaro mentioned, you can monitor each battery's charge, adjust the charge rate from 200mA up. (slow charge is usually better for the battery) You can also do a "battery condition" cycle which basically charges and discharges the battery 20 times to "refresh" the battery. It also trickle charges them once they are full so that you can always have a set of fully charged batteries.
One other thing that might be important - it supports 100-240V so you can use it pretty much anywhere in the world (with the right plug adapter). Most of my el-cheapo chargers only support 110V so also something to consider.
The only downside with this charger (and you may see it in some reviews) is that it sometimes needs a "jumpstart" if your battery is completely dead. (as in it has zero charge) It's as simple as taking a paper clip and basically touching the dead battery to the battery next to it to give it a small amount of charge so that the charger can recognize it.