AA rechargeable batteries

Impaler

Impaler

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Can anyone recommend a good AA battery charger and batteries? Preferably one that can be plugged into the boat's ciggy socket. I have a handheld GPS which is brill but a real battery gobbler.
 
Thew best batteries are
Sanyo 2700
or Sanyo Envalop 2000.
The first has the highest capacity. The second has very low self discharge. (They will still have some charge after many months of storage)
There are plenty of 12V chargers look for one that charges all batteries independently and has DeltaV cut off.
 
I bought a Uniross from Homebase.

Chose it because the mains power unit was separate and it came with a car connection lead. 4hour recharging

Exactly what I wanted! but first one did not work, dodgy batteries I think.

B&Q sell something similar but a different make.

Check out what Maplin have to offer. They may now have something similar.

Mine was principally for camera batteries but also AAs for LED lantern for anchor light.
 
I use a charger that I got from Jessop's (the camera shop) which can be used from a 12 volt ciggy lighter socket of with a plug-in mains adapter. It came with four 2500 mAh cells and cost about £20 I think. I do have a problem with using these in a camera however as it seems to do a low-voltage cut-out after a few shots and will not operate in display mode for more than a minute. After it switches off, it comes back on fine for a few more photos, and I suppose I did manage to get over 150 shots on one set of cells one day last month. (In the Med by the way in case anyone tells me it was the cold that was he problem.)

I do want to replace the cells however and read in Which? last month that the best results were for Varta 2700 mAh cells. Finding Varta rechargables has been beyond me so far.
 
My faffing around with rechargeables has converted me from obsession with capacity to obsession with robustness.

I.e., I got fed up with knackering them by overcharging or leaving them kicking around until they had no charge.

£23 on a Maplin charger and the new hybrid batteries has solved my problem. The one I have is the Maplin N42FK, which has a digital display that tells you what it's up to and detects when to stop (-ve delta V). The web site doesn't say that it can work from a cig lighter socket, but it can.

The hybrio batteries are the best rechargeables to hold their charge (many months).

The Maplin paper catalogue has a huge amount of information on the pros and cons of different battery types. I suspect a more thorough search of their web site might locate the same info.
 
If your device is designed for non-rechargeables, it will be expecting 1.5V per cell (6v if 4 cells). If you decide to use rechargeables, the cells max at 1.2V which is 4.8V for 4 cells. Hence the "low power" indication.

The other option for most handhelds is a 12v lead and a waterproof(-ish) socket in the cockpit,
 
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thier postage was always reasonable

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Do they do next day delivery to Banff ????

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I've found Maplins about the mean pricewise and, by the time you've paid the postage, on lower price on the internet you're out of pocket. Your closest Maplins is in Aberdeen, don't think there's one in Inverness or Keith.

I'd second the suggestion you go for hybrio batteries as a good one, if you leave the batteries for any length of time, after charging.

Both Uniross and Maplins do chargers which operate off mains and a cigar-lighter socket.

As a rule of thumb, the slower the charger the longer the total life of the rechargeables. I've found one gets about 250 cycles out of them, the 2100μamp batteries seem to be the most successful in both life-cycle and charge-retention compared to either higher or lower capacities, with Uniross batteries the best in life and failure rates.

Whatever you do avoid NiCd cells.
 
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