IQ-328 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester AA AAA NiMH NiCd

I've had several AA / AAA chargers over the years and even converted some hobby charger to test suspect batteries. Last decent charger I bought was a LaCrosse BC500 that lasted 1 year before the display went bad. After reading up on this charger that has been sold in Europe and the UK over the last year I decided to give it a shot as it had excellent reviews.Very solid charger, well built and smart in design. Buttons and body are stout, and interface is well thought out. You dont need to select the cell like many chargers, controls work the last cell inserted. You can opt to put in all 4 cells and control all the same making charging setup quick. And yes, you can charge or discharge, test all together at different voltages by setting each cell then moving to the next.Tested actual battery mah to 2 other chargers on 3 separate cells and it's very accurate to other readings. Heat sensor protection makes it safe to operate (haven't gone over 105F yet @ .7 amps). All in all this is a perfect charger for those that want all the info you could use to determine your cells are working well. Easy to use and looks built to last, much more so then any competitive priced chargers I've come across.2/7/13 Update.After buying a 2nd unit and running extensive testing along with some other users I've found some limitations that were unexpected. It seems at times it may false peak running full power 1.0amp x 4 cells. 2 other users reported this and it happened to me as well after many test runs. I've never had any issues running 4x .7amp charges and it's been 100% reliable at that setting (AA). So if your not set on running 4 cells at 1 amp and 3 hour or less charges are fine, it's still a very good charger for those condition.Recommend .7amps for AA and .5amps for AAA. Stick with those settings and you should be good to go. Also, 1.0 and 1.5 amp charges should be fine for 2 cell charges in slots 1 and 4.

I read the reviews for this product end to end, and pretty much knew what to expect when ordering two units.Proper [smart] charging extends battery life, and not only does this charger revive older NiMh batteries, it works for some alkalines too. I'm not sure it was advertised as being able to do that, but I stand firmly by my personal charging experience.EDITOne the chargers - the one that gets the most use - started to leak fluid and failed altogether. I contacted the company for advice, but nothing but Simon and Garfunkel came from them . . . . the sound of silence.EDIT 2: As I still hadn't received a response from the makers of the charger, I searched Amazon for a replacement. For a similar price I found a smart charger that will charge 10 batteries - AA + AAA - plus 2, 9 volt batteries. Excellent! EBL 12 Bay LCD AA AAA 9V Battery Charger for Rechargeable Batteries, New ReleasedIt's made by EBL

After much research, I decided to try this AccuPower IQ-328 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester AA AAA NiMH NiCd. So far, I like it a lot.The main reason I chose this unit over its main competition (namely, LaCrosse) is because the latter received some damaging reviews due to durability.I can't attest to the durability yet. I'll update this review in a year or two. If it makes it to 3 year, I'd say it's a good value.Pros:* It can charge/discharge 4 batteries fully independently.* It has 4 operating modes:a) Charge - in this mode your batteries are fully charged using current that you specify (possible values are 200, 500, 700, 1000, 1500 and 1800 mAh for AA batteries and 200, 500 and 700 mAh for AAA batteries). Lower charging currents are supposedly better in terms of maximizing battery longevity, but requires significantly longer processing time. At the end of the charge, the capacity (in mAh) of each battery is displayed.b) Discharge - in this mode batteries are first fully discharged followed automatically by the Charge function (a). This allegedly eliminates the memory effect, but it also increases the total processing time. Also not recommended to use this routinely, as batteries have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles.c) Refresh - this mode is intended for older batteries or those that have been unused for some time. It consists of consecutive Discharge (b) operations. At the end of each iteration, the battery's capacity is compared with that in the previous iteration. The process stops when no increase in capacity is detected.d) Test - this mode consists of a Charge (a) followed automatically by a Discharge (b) operation. At the end, the battery capacity is displayed.* Can display vital information, such as voltage, current, elapsed and estimated times, and capacity. All that for each individual battery.* Size - pretty reasonable packaging. Not much wasted space.* Value- relatively cheap, compared with competition.Cons:* It can only handle 4 batteries. I will need to buy a second unit, as my camera uses 8 batteries. I bought one unit first to evaluate. I have no reservations in buying a second unit.* In default mode (if you simply insert batteries and do nothing more), it charges your batteries at 200 mAh and takes 14 hours. You'll have to read the manual and play with your batteries to find out a better setting. For example, charging at 700mAh drops the time to 4 hours, but not all batteries can support that charging current. Charging at too high of a current can reduce the battery's life span. Granted, that's more a characteristic of the batteries you use, but the point is that this charger is slow in default mode.* The manual warns that the Refresh process (at default settings) can take several days. LOL* Manual also warns that the charger shouldn't be left unattended during operation. Seriously? It would be nice for them to provide a LED light that blinks to indicate end of operation.* Speaking of reading the manual, you'll have to use some creativity/imagination to fully understand the broken English. The single sheet manual has some German mixed in with English. It's clear they must have another version for the German market, as the main instructions are not translated to German. So why some items (tables, figure captions) have dual language? Unnecessarily confusing.* It can only handle AA and AAA batteries. No 9V, C or D, like some other chargers* Display is a bit too dim. No back lighting available. Requires a well lit room, or a flashlight.* No car charger included. Will need to find a third party 12VDC to 3VDC adapter.On the whole, a very capable charger unit. I may upgrade to 5 stars if it makes it to 3 years.UPDATE (02/02/2013):I bought a second unit (same model).I'm now convinced that a "smart" charger (like this) is a must for anyone who cares about extracting the best performance out of their batteries.Specifically, the ability to display voltage and capacity after a full charge, and an automated refresh function to rejuvenate batteries that have "gone bad".I have brought to life practically all the batteries that I thought were dead and was about to toss in the trash (I did toss a few, but they were over 5 years old).

Initially I really loved this thing. It did a great job of charging my AA and AAA batteries. After a few months it didn't charge as well. At first it didn't really register with me that the unit might be failing. But last night I plugged it in and the display just showed very faintly with all of the LCD segments on. I unplugged it, plugged it in again, pressed the mode and display buttons but nothing changed. Reasoning that the display might be whacked but the charger still functional I inserted 2 new and 2 never before used Amazon Basics AA batteries. After a few hours the batteries were very warm and the charger very hot with a strong chemical smell. I removed the batteries but left the charger plugged in. 2 hours later a small spot on the charger's plastic case was melted.