Just ordered myself one of these as i'm in the market for a battery charger, has the added convenience of bringing back to life alkaline cells.
review found here: http://www.users.on.net/~mhains/RezapRBC883.pdf
next cheapest with extras: http://users.tpg.com.au/users/p8king/rezap.htm @ $70 + pp
I have had nowhere near that success rate with used Alkalines. The consensus on the net seems to be that the batteries can't be too far gone before popping them in the ReZap. Kinda makes it not so worthwhile. Also had a couple that went bad, started leaking. (Name brand Alkalines mind you). It was no good on a 6V lantern battery, got another 10 minutes at full power and that was it. It doesn't do too bad on normal rechargeables but personally I prefer a charger where I know what it's doing, what charge rate etc. So after I bought this I spent twice as much and got a Maha. Much better charger and I hardly buy Alkalines now and never use the Rezap.
I agree the used batteries need to have some 'juice' left in them so they recharge better in the Rezap. From my personal experience Duracells are probably not the best to use in the Rezap due to the leakage issue. I stopped buying alkalines and moved on to rechargeables ages ago, especially ones that hold their charges if left on the shelf. However whatever batteries I still have in use or in my remotes still go thru the Rezap so I can hold off buying replacements till later.
.
Maha chargers are a different product designed for rechargeables and not for alkalines, so it cannot be a direct comparison, in any case, any batteries saved is better for the environment.
Like Seb, I've had one of these for ages.
I and my father have been using it.
We've put batteries in after knowing they were starting to run flat. But then the batteries would only last maybe 10% as long as the original charge.
We've done this many times with AAs, AAAs and 9Vs.
I'm not sure of the brands.
I did shift to rechargeables a while back.
Been using one of these for a few years. Yes, Duracell don't like being rezapped, but I was warned not to rezap them, so it didn't surprise me when they leaked.
Has worked great with Energizer (including the lithium), as well as el-cheapo alkalines from DSE and Jaycar.
Trying to move to rechargeable, but my kids have too many battery powered toys.
I have not had much luck with lithium batteries either, most batteries I rezap only seem to hold power for only a few weeks.
Bought one of these at HN the other day, although it was a different model, with USB and DC outputs as well as a cooling fan also.
They were selling them 50% off at $55
I bought one years ago from harvey norman and still use it to this day. I agree with the above the batteries have to be fairly new for the rezap to charge them and have had issues with leakage but I would hate to think how many more batteries we would have used if it wasn't for rezap!
I knew the guy who design this. I however do not believe that it is worthwhile to rezap batteries while there is a better option of recharging rechargeable batteries. It is more efficient and uses less juice to fully charge.
How do you do that?
Found this from ebay from Sellers site, same price.
So this is not any further saving. item # 120544546188
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-ReZap-5-in-1-Universal-Batt…
good product and have rezapped many batteries for the last few years.. it gets extra life out of alkaline and misc batteries.. what more do you want?..
I also have one. The main reason to use Alkalines over rechargables in some situations is that alkalines are 1.5v while rechargaebles are 1.2v and some devices won't even startup at 1.2v (an alkaline is pretty much dead at 1.2v). The other reason as that my kids have heaps of toys with batteries and the likelyhood of rechargables being inadvertantly thrown away is high (not pointing any fingers). I also use rechargable batteries for some devices that are happy with 1.2v.
"and the likelyhood of rechargables being inadvertantly thrown away is high"
My missus did a shifty on me (a known horder) and threw out the kids "matchbox car launcher and flat batteries"
She thought it was hilarious…… as "the batteries were flat anyway"……
I was NOT happy as it had 8x 8000mAh D rechargables in it.
After a "discussion", she has now been educated in the different battery types :)
I have been using one of this for over 2 years, I have been able to resurrect old Energizer batteries 10 times over, ordinary AAA's in my remotes, I even managed to recharge a 9 volt battery for my smoke alarm. Saved me heaps of $$$ and kinder to the environment to boot.