Hey o! My house recently got back into 4 player Mario kart, mowing through battery's so I dug out my eneloops from when dick smith went under.
This is the charger I'm using currently
I'm aware that it's no great shakes but are they actually gonna ruin my batteries over the course of a week?
And feel free to mention any decent, affordable chargers you recommend.
Thanks!
Nitecore is fine
XTAR vc pretty decent as well. It is a simple charger with not that many features, for e.g there is no discharging mode, all it will function is charge and tell you the battery status.
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Xtar%20VC4%20…
The problem with cheaper chargers is that they generally switch off based on a timer, rather than based on measuring changes in voltage and temperature. Smart chargers usually have functions to condition batteries and recover them if they have been overly discharged. Additionally, a smart charger will usually slow down the charging of the battery as it becomes more charger, preventing overcharging from occurring (similar to a phone charger).
Issues can arise with timed chargers when the battery gets to capacity and can't take in anymore, so the additional energy is released as heat which can impact on the battery chemistry.
Pretty much this. A generic or simple battery charger will not measure the actual capacity or charge in the battery and just give it electrons willy nilly until a certain preset timer or worst case scenario indefinitely which can ruin your batteries in the long run or even make them leak or explode worse case scenario.
Smart chargers don't do this and control the current and voltage of the charging when they reach certain levels and thus are better for the health of your batteries and also reduce the chance of them getting to dangerous or broken levels thus preventing explosions and leakings.
TL;DR get a smart charger so you don't overcharge your batteries which is bad for them longevity wise and integrity wise.
,,,and the crappy chargers make you charge in pairs, which is a PITA as many things (torches etc) use 3 cells, plus one cell could wind up being overcharged.
Forgot about this this can be also very important. Smart chargers are very convenient and much safer than non smart chargers. Don't go generic for many safety reasons and general convenience unless you know how to efficiently perfectly work it in which case you don't need this message.
Not sure "how bad" they are but I know my old Energizer one took foreeevveeerrr to charge!
Nitecore D4 I'm using now and it seems to be quite popular here on OzB
(Can usually get a discount code)
https://www.gearbest.com/chargers-batteries/pp_56674.html