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Energizer 1 Hour Charger
by ryeb
When I took a box of used batteries to the local recycling point, I realised just how many our household uses. For the sake of my wallet and the environment, I decided to buy a battery charger and some rechargable batteries. I owned one some time ago but I was not impressed with how long it took to actually charge the batteries. [Most of ... the day!] I also found the the batteries seemed to run out very quickly and didn't hold their charge well if you powered them up in advance. So I decided to do a bit more research into my purchase of my next charger. In the end I settled for the "Energizer 1 Hour Battery Charger Accu" - don't ask me what the name Accu comes from as I have no idea. There are several models of this charger around - mine is number CH1HR3/818029. The main difference between the difference versions seems to be what batteries, if any, you are supplied alongside the charger itself. Mine came with 4 x 2300mAh AA batteries, but other versions I have seen are supplied with just 2 x AA or with batteries with a different mAh rating. Some also come with a in car adaptor, but mine does not.
WHY I CHOSE THIS CHARGER
I wanted a battery charger that could cope with both AA and AAA batteries as these are the two sizes that I use the most. I considered buying a more expensive charger that would also charge 9v or C/D size batteries but I thought about the devices that I own and decided it wasn't worth the extra cost. I realised that cheaper chargers do not work out as such a bargain when you consider the fact that the rechargeable batteries are often not included. This may not matter if you already own some compatable ones, but as I no longer did, I decided a charger that came complete with the batteries would offer the best deal. I noticed that there was a great difference between the advertised charging times that the various models offered - anything from 15 minutes to 15 hours. I decided to opt for a 1 hour charger as I find that if a battery is going to run out on a device, it tends to be when I want to use it quite soon afterwards but I am seldom in such a hurry that a 15 minute charger would be worth paying more for. Lastly, I wanted a charger that would be capable of charging the higher powered batteries. A bit of research told me that the mAh rating given refers to the power of the battery and those that have a higher number eg 2300 or 2500 mAh will need charging less often. After all, I noticed that the rechargeable batteries have a limited number of times that they can actually be charged - up to 500 times in the case of those supplied with my Energizer charger. So the deciding factor for me when choosing the Energizer Accu was the fact the model came with 4 x AA 2300 mAh batteries, rather than 1300 or 2000 mAh as the cheaper options did. You can in fact use my charger with batteries of a different rating than the ones supplied, so the batteries mAh may not matter as much if you have your own to use already. [I have succesfully charged 2500mAh and 2000mAh ones.] I paid £24.99 in Argos, but the price is now £29.99.
FEATURES SUMMARY
Charges between 1-4 AA OR AAA batteries at a time
Automatically detects battery charge status, and checks for "bad battery" or incorrectly inserted ones.
Auto shut off of each charging cell when charging complete
Charges batteries within an hour
EASY TO USE
The charger comes in a plastic pack that is a bit tricky to cut open but that only has to be done once! In the catalogue picture the charger looks silver grey in colour but mine is black. It is a neat small size - it is about 12cm tall and 7.5cm wide, so it is no trouble finding somewhere to lay it down while it does it's work. It is ready to use straight from the box - bar removing a small piece of clear plastic which is protecting the battery terminals. The supplied batteries are sitting inside the charger already, but I had to remove them to get to the plastic. The brief instruction sheet doesn't actually mention this and I can imagine someone failing to notice that the plastic is there and wondering why their charger doesn't work. That aside, you just plug it in, insert the batteries and turn the power on. There is an big and easy to read LED display consisting of 4 battery symbols which flash to indicate the status of your batteries. A rapid blink by one of the lights suggests that you have a bad battery in the corresponding charging port. "Bad" in the sense of one that can't be charged either because it is faulty or worn out. I haven't had this happen to me, but I do think it is comforting to know that the function exists. Presuming the batteries are good, the display indicates how far from being fully charged the batteries are. The instructions say that this feature isn't intended as a instant battery tester and that the results will be most accurate when used with fully discharged batteries. In other words, if you just want to see what charge you have in a battery, popping it in the charger may not give you an accurate reading. I never want to do this anway - I only charge batteries when they have actually died on me. In that case the charge indicator LED will light up each battery symbol in progression and when all 4 are lit, the batteries are fully charged. As the charging each cell is completed it is switched off automatically, this means you can charge batteries with different capacities at the same time. They don't have to be Energizer brand by the way, we also have some Duracell AA's that work fine.
THE DOWN SIDE
While the charger is simple to use, there are two things which mildly irritate me about using it. One is the fact that it is quite noisy as it emits a periodic high pitched whine whilst in use. The sound is not continous or loud, but it is simply annoying. For that reason, I relegate it to charging in another room from me. The second down side is the fact that both the charger and batteries get very warm while they are charging. I would be careful of using this anywhere that children might accidently come across it. From my point of view, it means I prefer to wait for a few minutes before removing the batteries once they are charged. It doesn't get to a temperature that means I am worried about actually burning myself, it is just less comfortable to handle.
THE UP SIDE
The charger really does finish charging within the advertised hour. In fact, fully discharged AA 2300mAh take 55 minutes in my experience. A small chart in the instruction sheets suggest they would take 60 minutes, as would 2400mAh. Less powerful batteries may take even less than that - it is suggested that a AA 1300mAh would be ready in 50 minutes. The batteries do not come ready charged by the way, which I noticed was an advertised feature of some chargers. That didn't worry me, considering how fast they are ready. The supplied batteries last longer than standard alkaline batteries for me [such as Duracell Plus], I would say by about 50%. I do not find that they last quite as long as some alkaline batteries that are sold specifically for high drainage devices, such as Duracell Ultra Power, but the short charging time doesn't make this a problem for me. I tend to charge batteries as I want them so I can't tell if they would hold their full charge for a long time, but I have noted that they are still registering as fully charged after a week.
WOULD I RECOMMEND THE CHARGER?
I would as it works well and does what it says on the tin - the batteries are ready in an hour. I think it will save me money in the long term and I am happy with the price I paid. I wish it did not get so warm in use, and I certainly would like it to be silent in operation, but these are relatively minor concerns when I think of how efficiently it works otherwise. I would recommend it if you want a fast charger, and can put up with some noise while it works!
N.B Some of Dooyoo's special quick rating criteria do not apply in this case eg picture quality, so please ignore.
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Sony NP BG1
by Huomenna
What is it?
The NP-BG1 is a Sony rechargeable lithium ion battery designed for use in a variety of their compact cameras including the HX20V (my current compact camera). From doing a little bit of digging around online it appears the NP-BG1 is being classed by Sony as an 'old model' (even though it's used in their new cameras) and ... it would seem they have replaced it with what they call an FG1 - this seems to be the exact same battery in all but name. Unfortunately Sony have a frustrating habit of constantly changing battery model numbers, which can make things very confusing when trying to source a spare or replacement.
Where can I buy it from and how much will it cost me?
You can order the FG1 direct from Sony's website for £39 although I'm unaware if postage applies or not. I've been unable to find an original Sony NP-BG1 for sale online, although in shops it tend to retail for around £50-60. You can get third party equivalents and I saw one for as low as £3.76 + 99p P&P on amazon market place, but to be honest I wouldn't trust something this cheap. You have some reputable battery manufacturers marking equivalents eg. Ansmann and Park Cameras are selling a version by them for £45.90
How do I charge it?
My Sony HX20V charges directly from the camera when plugged into the mains so you simply leave the battery in the camera. This is good from the perspective of space saving, but a bit of a pain if you have multiple batteries and want to charge one up while using another in the camera. I haven't seen a Sony original, stand alone, docking station that will do the job, although I did come across a third party one online for £11, again I'm not sure I would trust it though. Knowing a little bit about Sony, they apparently put chips in their batteries which can impact on use - they only like you using their products and I have heard of instances where third party chargers have been used, but they have been unable to charge the battery more than 57%. In general a full charge should take less than 2 hours although I've honestly never timed it!
How long does it last?
This is such a subjective question as it really depends on what you're doing with your camera - video, lots of play back etc will all serve to decrease the battery life sooner than simple photo taking. I've owned my camera since last October (so about 3 months now) and I've charged it approximately once a month in that time, having taken around 1000 photos and maybe 10 minutes worth of video in that time. While this is no where near as impressive as the batteries from my SLR (which can easily do that amount on an individual charge) I'd say it's pretty decent for a compact camera battery as it is of course a lot smaller than one from an SLR.
All that said, sods law dictates that the battery will always run out at the most inconvenient time so I find it is quite useful to have another one fully charged as back up, although you still have the possible charging issue to get around.
In terms of how long it should hold up before the need for replacing - they say the average life of this type of battery is 3-5 years, being that I haven't owned my camera anywhere near this long I have no way of knowing how long this particular one will keep on going. If you think about it though - very few people own their compact cameras for this long, so the chances are that the battery will last for the life of the camera concerned.
So is it a good battery?
I'd say yes - it lasts well for the type and it's not too big or heavy. My main concern is that it can be very expensive, finding it to purchase doesn't seem to be very easy and it would seem the cameras it fits don't come with a stand alone charger, so whenever charging is in progress you'll be unable to use it (the camera).
Right I'm off to charge mine up!
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