Better charger for NiMh

[skom25 2177]

Hi,

Currently I have SkyRC e450 charger. It is totally fine to just charge battery, but I started to have feeling that I need two features more:

1. Voltage during charging. Current charger has Light, which shows 4 Levels: 0-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100. Problem is that sometimes it jumps from 0-25 to 51-75 etc. It is really hard to say anything about charge level, to the moment when battery is fully charged. In that case, I started to think that I just need display with numbers.

2. Battery voltage. I try to charge my batteries to have them always ready. However, sometimes I charge them and then leave for around week. In that case, I am not able to tell if there is 80% left which is fine or 50% and I will waste my time running it just for a moment. I need information about voltage, without starting charging process.

As you can see, my requirements are not huge. Is there something more which is nice to have to keep NiMh packs in good condition?

I checked what is available and e.g. SkyRC iMax B6AC v2 seems to meet my requirements and looks like a good charger for years. What do you think? 

[Twinfan 2013]

I would say it's not worth bothering with for NiMH.  I trickle charge mine on a basic charger and store them fully charged.  If they've been left a while I trickle charge them again before use, if they've only been stored a short time I fast charge them before use.  I don't feel the need to check voltages, I just charge them if I think they need it.

Works for me and my batteries seem to be in excellent condition still.

[Jonathon Gillham 4697]

There are a lot of inexpensive chargers which do all chemistry and what you want. I'm a fan og dual chargers as I never charge one battery at a time, but have single chargers too.  Anything SkyRC with a screen to show the information should be fine, I have the S60 which is great but the D100 would be better as its a dual

[sosidge 669]

I would always get a charger with a proper display, even if only charging NiMh, as more info is always better when charging batteries.

Not sure why a B6 charger is coming up in your searches because they are very outdated, but SkyRC do a variety of modern chargers that have a proper display and the ability to take good care of any type of battery.

[SlideWRX 919]

I think that is all you need for NiMH - Charge,Discharge,Re-peak, and it shows the mAh of the charge so you can see if it isn't holding the same charge it used to.  NiMH is pretty straight forward.