Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology BC-700 Alpha Power Battery Charger

5 star:		(268)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

UPDATE: (01-12-2012) It has been almost 4 years since I wrote this review. This charger is still working great!

I have owned at least 8 chargers in the past, Maha's, Panasonic, etc. It is nice to see that this charger shows you the mAh on the LCD panel as the battery charges up. Most chargers you only see an LED indicator to signal when charging is done.

Compared to the specs of BC-900, the BC700 can only go up to 700mAH (the max) which means it is somewhat slower than the BC900. But the faster the battery charges, the hotter it gets. And one of the worst enemy of rechargeable batteries is heat. Less heat means longer life for the batteries.

Pros:
- 3 adjustable charging speeds
- Will show you the actual capacity in mAh. This is good so you know which battery needs to be refreshed. You always want to use batteries with the same capacities in pair or in a group.
- 4 independent charging stations with individual LED readouts. "AA's" and "AAA's" can be charged in different combinations. Don't you hate those gadgets that only use 3 batteries like portable radios? (walkie-talkies). You end up with 1 un-used battery if you bought a 4-pack. How will you charge it if your charger only charges in pairs?
- Reasonable price for an excellent charger
- Small and light. Better portability
- Multi-volt up to 240v. Very useful if you travel a lot to other countries.

Cons:

Now I have to stop myself doing impulse buying on NiMh's because I enjoy using this charger too much.

Just in case you were looking for the La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger: please be advised that ths is NOT the same charger.

Except for the color, the BC700 looks exactly the same as the better-known BC900. However, it is actually a "handicapped" version of the old charger. Its charging current can only go up to 700mA in three steps (200/500/700). The BC900, on the other hand, can go up to 1000mA for 4 cells, or 1800mA for 2 cells. Also the BC900 package includes eight NiMH rechargeable cells (4 AA and 4 AAA), eight C/D cell adaptors, and a carrying case. The BC700 does not come with any bonus items.

This is not to say that the BC700 is a bad product. Quite the contrary, it is better than any other NiMH AA chargers in the market except for BC900 and Maha MH-C9000. If you can find it at a substantial saving (like maybe 30% off from the price of BC900), it is still a good buy. But as it is right now, I recommend getting its older brother instead.

[update on June 13, 2008]
Recently the price of BC700 has settled to a level much lower than that of BC900 (partially because the price of BC900 has gone up), so it is now an excellent buy - especially if you intend to buy some low-self-discharge NiMH cells separately. In light of this, the criticism in my original review now seems unnecessarily harsh. Too bad I'm not allowed to change the star-rating for this product.

[Update on April 7, 2010]
I hope my overly critical review above did not discourage anyone from buying the BC-700. As of this moment, it is the best value if you are looking for an advanced battery charger/analyzer. This is because:
- The BC-9009 has been recalled recently due to excessive overheating/meltdown incidents.
- The Powerex WizardOne Battery Charger-Analyzer is more powerful, but costs twice as much as the BC-700.
- The newest La Crosse BC500 has severely limited functions compared to the BC-700 (see my review for details), yet it costs more.

This is a great charger and when I bought it it was about $15 less than the BC-900. Now the BC-900 is less than this charger. The difference between this charger and the BC-900 is the lack of the faster charging speeds and the accessories. Definitley buy the BC-900 and the accessory package for less money. It seems they are constantly playing games with the pricing on these two chargers. The BC-700 charger does a great job of reconditioning batteries and the charging speed is usually between 2-3 hours for the different capacity batteries that I have. (1800mh - 2650mh). Time is not an issue for me as I have about 10 sets of AA's and can just keep swapping them out. From what i've read the slower charging speed is better for the life span of your battery any way.

AFTER careful consideration & making additional observations as well as in the interest of presenting a more equitable view of my recent experiences with La Crosse BC-700 AA/AAA battery chargers over the past month, here is my updated review. Much work has been done to be helpful. It is my hope that this examination of mine is supportive to persons considering purchasing this rather versatile charger. If this is too lengthy of a review & you don't have time for it all then please scroll to the Bottom Line at the end, thanks (sometimes we disabled veterans have too much time on our hands).

Initially, after purchasing & receiving 4 of these little chargers, the BC-700 had me nearly mesmerized, being the first reasonably decent "smart" battery chargers we'd ever owned. Once the novelty wore off though & after making many careful observations, a lot of things began to stand out that just didn`t make sense. For most of us, the BC-700 is a big step up from common "dumb" battery chargers we are all familiar with... but there are some limitations with these chargers that had we known about we would have never purchased them in the first place. No doubt these chargers will perform better than any simple AA/AAA battery chargers on the market, giving one far greater control & selection over the charging processes, offering several charging/discharging modes & generally protecting one`s investment in small, rechargeable batteries. Its default programming makes it quite simple as well as safe to use... but there are problems at present: problems with quality control, problems with the charger's operations & very annoying problems with customer service (as has been noted by other reviewers). Am hopeful that La Crosse will soon these address these problems & that this charger will evolve into a better one. First, the problems, then the better stuff...

QUALITY CONTROL:
* 1 of our 4 chargers has its compartment buttons quite uneven in their seating, curving & dipping this way & that, spoiling a nice, high-tech appearing charger.
* 2 of our 4 chargers have a most annoying, distracting piece of dust underneath the view plate right where the readings are taken for one of the compartments.
* 1 of our 4 chargers requires the Current/Display/Mode buttons to be mashed quite hard in order to get them to perform their functions.
* 3 of our 4 chargers are amazingly difficult to insert AA batteries into as well as removing out of the compartments (negative charging tabs are sticking out excessively).

OPERATIONS:
* One compartment will charge batteries a good amount more than the others three for some reason, even while charging evenly-matched, quality batteries that have been top-off charged only 10 days beforehand & then using "Test" mode to determine capacity. This is always compartment #3 or #4 for some reason, over a dozen tests having been performed to back up these observations. No matter the brand, no matter the type of rechargeable cell (5 different brands & types of batteries were tested), this strange phenomenon is observed consistently. In all fairness, this occurs while using the default 200 mA charging, so perhaps this current is not quite enough to trigger the 4th battery to fully charge up to end the charging cycle consistently. Better results are seen when programming the chargers to use 500 mA of current to charge 2000-2500 mAh rated AA batteries instead of the lower default current, as then the negative delta voltage cutoff seems to trigger in a more balanced fashion using higher current. 200 mA charging, though, appears to work just fine for AAA NiMH cells, both with standard cells as well as hybrid.
* Have had our remaining NiCADs (low capacity solar yard light batteries) reach over 1.7 volts & a couple hitting 1.83 volts while charging... on just 200 mA charging current, no less. Rather high for a 1.2 volt rated cell, is it not? This is being measured while charging them at 1/3rd of the cell's rated capacity (0.33C).
* There is a most annoying, consistent anomaly concerning the final trickle charging (the following figures are observed using new, broken-in/cycled, low self-discharging Sanyo eneloop AA & AAA hybrid NiMH batteries). As the first cell reaches "Full" charge it is then trickled between 17-19 mA until the next battery reads "Full". Then the first charged battery at once reads a 12-13 mA trickle charge as the last cell to read "Full" receives the 17-19 mA trickle. Same with the 3rd, same with the 4th, regardless of timing. Even if the trickle charging goes on for days, the first 3 to charge up will continue to show a 12-13 mA trickle charging & the last to charge will still show 17-19 mA! This is rather unusual, though it strikes me as being a bit bad for low self-discharging AAA hybrid cells (such as Sanyo eneloop batteries) to be receiving this slight overcharge over the course of days, as we have to do sometimes when we are away from home. Not a huge problem, granted, just a minor one.
* The AAA cells make a harsh grinding as they are inserted into the compartments due to the grooves in the positive charging tabs. The AA batteries don't do this, just the AAAs. It is a significant scraping. If the AAAs could be placed into the compartments positive side first then this wouldn't occur, though the design of the tabs will not presently permit this.
* When observing the charging current being displayed as the batteries are inserted while others are charging/discharging OR as they finalize their charging OR are removed while others are still charging, there is in all cases a significant "bump" upwards in the charging current for the remaining cells that takes over a minute & a half to settle back down to where they all were before. To me this clearly demonstrates no true independence of charging compartments, as does the final trickle charging anomaly.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
* "The lack of" would be more appropriate, truly. At least, at present it is. After over 2 weeks of phone calls (just TRY & leave a message on their customer support line & see what happens) as well as numerous emails to La Crosse support, we finally received a phone call from someone (likely a salesman, not a technical person) who didn't know what he was talking about, even arguing with me that the BC-900 is the newer model than the BC-700, which it is not. Additionally, no support email was received back until the morning after my initial BC-700 review was posted late in the evening before. That finally got their attention, it would seem.
* The La Crosse employee who called also said that the trickle charging inconsistency "won't hurt anything". Respectfully, am disagreeing... particularly with the hybrid AAAs over a period of several days. We simply no longer have enough faith to leave the chargers operating while we are gone a day or two & not have a few mildly overcharged AAA batteries waiting for us when we return. You see, we also own a good number of solar AA/AAA battery chargers that split a mere 100 mA charging current 4 ways... 25 mA current charging per cell on a clear day. Our AAA batteries build full charges in them over a period of several days in full Sunshine on just 25 mA current each. While using standard NiMH batteries, which have a fast self-discharging rate, the trickle charging anomaly of the BC-700 is no problem whatsoever so far as can be discerned. However, with the low self-discharging NiMH hybrid cells we are using I beg to differ. We see a difference in what 2 AAA hybrid cells measure already that were left in 2 BC-0700 chargers trickling for days while we were out. There is a small but measured drop in performance of about 3% each for these 2 new AAA eneloop cells that trickled @ 18 mA for 2 extra days. The other 6 AAA batteries, 3 in each charger, actually gained capacity (trickling @ 12 mA), but the 2 at 18 mA each lost 3% capacity according to earlier logged values. A 10-12 mA trickle current for each AAA hybrid battery is just fine, though 18-19 mA over a period of days is too much in these types of cells in my opinion.
* Though the BC-900 has been out for quite a while now & the BC-700 for a fair amount of time, there is not so much as one item that is presently listed in their FAQ for either model charger as of the writing of this review. Now, that is simply difficult for me to understand (La Crosse product models of many various types & functions are individually selected once one is into their website's FAQ section). Am hopeful that this, too, will be remedied soon.

Am rating this charger 4 stars because it apparently DOES perform okay except for the aberrations & limitations noted. One star off for quality control, total charger operations & for lackluster customer support. 3.5 stars would be given if it were possible, but 3 stars as in my initial review now seems a bit too harsh. Sadly, we simply did not have in these chargers what we needed for the large investment we've made in over 5 dozen top-shelf Sanyo eneloop AA & AAA hybrid batteries. We regularly use them all too, so our chargers pretty much run 24/7/365. As we need more precision for our particular applications & goals, we have returned 3 of the 4 BC-700 chargers for the problems listed here in this review. We are keeping 1 of them & continue to put it through its paces with our standard NiMH batteries. Any relevant info we gain as a result will be passed on with an editing of this review. We have since purchased 2 Maha Powerex MH-C9000 chargers (because of our need for truly independent charging compartments as well as more precise options) & they are both performing splendidly thus far.

BOTTOM LINE: The various charging modes of the BC-700 chargers are a real plus, they look great overall, are apparently sturdy enough & will likely perform well for years to come. 500 mA of charging current seems to charge AA 2000-2500 mAh rated rechargeable cells in a much more balanced way than the default programming of 200 mA of current, so one would do well to consider using it for this application. As La Crosse never states that their charger's compartments are fully independent from each other, we do not have a complaint coming in this. If you require the utmost control over your AA/AAA battery charging process, have more options & precision as well as have the extra bucks to spend then consider getting the Maha Powerex MH-C9000 charger-analyzer. For most everyone's improved AA/AAA battery charging needs, the La Crosse BC-700 is a handy, versatile, compact & affordable battery charger that will likely serve you well.

* Edited to correct a grammatical errors *

I am a medium to heavy user of AA & AAA rechargeable cells and also an early adopter - started with 300mah Panny NiCds many years ago - I remember the excitement when 450mah versions were released! :-) Over the years I graduated through the technologies and was using Sanyo NiMH 2500mah cells till I recently discovered Eneloops - they are simply amazing! Now back to the charger review - I have always been an advocate of chargers that have individual charging channels / circuits and can charge 1,2,3 or 4 cells individually. My earlier charger was a Panasonic BQ390-A that still works very well and is very portable. However, faster & adjustable rate charging currents, battery reconditioning, testing etc. drew me to the BC700.

I did not consider the BC900 as the 8 cells bundled with the package were of no use to me (I have enough to last many years) and the 1.8A charging current capability on the BC 900 is something that I would never use.

Amazon was great in it's order processing - as always. I received the charger on schedule. The quick user guide printed on the back of the charger package is a really nice touch. I was eager to test the unit and unpacked and set it up. And that is when I noticed that -ve tab for the AA cell in the 3rd channel was too far behind to connect with the cell. After looking at it closely, I figured that the tab was bent backwards - at least that is what it looked like - very dissapointing for a brand new unit that was packed so well! This is the only reason that I cannot give this Charger a better rating - poor manufacturing processes and very poor quality control!

Having never seen the innards of an intelligent charger, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try and fix it myself. On dismantling the unit completely and removing the PCB - I discovered that the tab was indeed bent back and had not engaged with the plastic channels on the top of the case that hold these tabs in place when the PCB is inserted. After some delicate work with a needle nose pliers the tab was straight once again and it engaged with the channel.

I must warn others toying with the idea of opening their units - DO NOT TRY IT unless your unit is out of warranty AND you really have a need to AND you are a very capable and advanced electronics hobbyist - putting the BC700 back together is a very complex task - especially aligning the LCD panel contacts with the contacts on the main PCB - if that gets spoilt, the LCD display will be dead and so will the charger!

In my case I managed to put it all back together again and the charger works perfectly now. It is very easy and intuitive to use and does everything that it is supposed to. I prefer the 500mah charge rate and it charges 4 AA Eneloops in a little over 4 hrs.

So this is a happy ending to the story/review. As mentioned earlier, my only concern is with the Manufacturing and QC processes followed by La Crosse - it was indeed very disappointing to see such a basic (and visible) flaw in a brand new unit! It makes one wonder whether there are any other flaws that have not been noticed till now ... I guess time will tell ...

I own both the Lacrosse BC-700 and the Maha WizardOne chargers. The Wizard is larger and it spaces the batteries nicely for cooling and the lighted display, very bright and large, is all-informative. I don't mind that the display toggles between cells, rather than displaying the information on all cells at once. This is my main at-home charger. I keep the Lacrosse at work. More compact in size, the Lacrosse's unlit LCD display is also smaller than the Wizard's but it also is very informative. The BC-700 charges at 200, 500 and 700 Ma, while the Wizard can charge much faster if needed. Frankly, most of the time, I charge at a low 200 Ma on either the Lacrosse or the Wizard for the benefit of longer battery life. The Lacrosse is cheaper and a little more compact, but if you need faster charging (higher than 700 Ma) then the Wizard will fill the bill.

October 2010 update: The Lacrosse now has developed a bad habit of undercharging batteries placed in charger bay #4. Even though the display indicates that all the batteries are fully charged, if one toggles to the accumulated charge screen, it shows that the battery in bay #4 is only half-charged. Sure enough, when I charge that battery again, it will take another half charge to fill it. I now have to do this each time I charge batteries--always have to replace the fourth battery in another bay and continue to charge it for about 6 more hours. This works, but is very frustrating. I would not purchase the Lacrosse again.

December 2010 update: The Lacrosse 700 now is totally unreliable. Several charging bays are indicating full prematurely. I now put batteries back in and watch the 700 continue to charge for hours after it initially displayed "full." Even then I can't trust its readings. I have replaced it in my office with a GP charger--I don't get all the readouts, but it does the job. This after perhaps charging only one set a batteries a week for less than a year with the Lacrosse. Sad. Meanwhile, back at home my Maha Wizard One is humming away charging batteries with no problems whatsoever. That is one great charger and worth the extra expense!

I don't know why a company would adopt such a confusing model number scheme, but in terms of capabilities, this is far superior to other models by LaCrosse and Maha.

The BC-700 can charge up to 2500 mAh capacity -- it does so in relatively faster steps of 200/500/700 mA currents (these are not capacities). Unless you are in a really big hurry, let the charger work at the default current of 200 mA, otherwise, you are stressing your batteries. This charger has saved several sets of 2000+ mAh batteries for me that previous had developed a low capacity problem in a Maha charger.

Compared to my old Maha, it's nice to be able to see the capacities and voltage of the batteries. Having a device like this and a couple dozen AA and AAA NiMH batteries saves me several hundred dollars per year.

Make sure you glance through the documentation so you don't misunderstand the various modes.

TIP: you must make selections on the charger within 8 seconds of inserting the batteries, AND hold the mode button for 5 seconds when changing modes.

It's a good product with great features. I would recommend getting the better BC-9000(with BC-9009 charger & batteries) if you can get for it $40 or less.

You have to be smarter than the BC-700 to use it effectively. It's easy to overcharge certain batteries(ie. Duracell AA or RayoVac AAA) if you leave it on default charge rate of 200mA. Most La Crosse chargers and some similar chargers are not able to terminate (or stop charging) with low charge rates and will overcharge certain batteries. So you need to monitor the mAh(capacity)Display and/or Total charging time with new batteries or those that have known issues with overcharging at low charge rates. Even though you can set it to the its highest charge rate of 700mA to help it terminate properly, you'll need to a press 2 buttons a couple of times within the 8 sec time window.
FYI, if you overcharge your batteries, you will shorten its life or even ruin them permanently.

Most Battery manufacturers recommend between .5C to 1C for the preferred charging rate. Setting it to 500mA takes 1-2 steps. The 500mA charge rate is above .5C for most AAA batteries.
Let's say that you're charging four 2000mAh AA batteries. Using the max charge rate of 700mA, you will be charging at .35C(Or 35% of the batteries' 2000mAh Capacity). If you use a BC-9009 or BC-900, you can charge at 1000mA which is .5C or 50% of max capacity. That's more likely for the charger to terminate the charging process for each 2000mAh battery.

Pros:
+Nice LCD Display
+Sophisticated Charger that Refreshes your older batteries.
+Individual Circuits for each battery.
+Price is right when you get it for $25 or less.

Cons:
-Need 1000mA Max charge rate since most new AA's are a least 2000mA. Charging at 1000mA will alleviate overcharging issues.
-Not Non-Techie friendly, [Wish they gave a video tutorial.]
-No Fail-Safe for Overcharging. Want the ability set Max mAh Allowed. (ie. to the max capacity of your highest battery) For AA's I would set to 2600. My BC-700 allows charging over the 3000mAh Capacity even though you're not supposed to use 3000mAh batteries.
-Needs an easy option to jump start really weak batteries which end up displaying "null."
-You can't change to a higher charging rate for additional batteries placed in the empty slots since it restricts the Max Rate to the initial charging rate you set for your first battery. The only way to reset the mA charging limit is to remove all the batteries or unplug the charger.


If the BC-700 had defaulted to the 500mA charge rate instead of 200mA, I would have given it 4 stars.
Plus if it had the Max Charge Rate of 1000mA, I would've given it 5 stars.

I hope La Crosse will make updated models with a toggle switch to set higher default rates.

UPDATED December 11, 2010

I bought three of these chargers in late 2009 to give as gifts.

Two of them continue to work well. However, one inexplicably failed during the one-year warranty period.

When I emailed the manufacturer about it, I was promptly asked a bunch of leading questions implying I had damaged the unit myself.

I responded that the device had simply stopped working after 10 months. I then waited weeks for them to reply with RMA info. Nothing. When I finally wrote a third time asking for service, again I received no response.

It's a nice product---when it works. Otherwise, kiss $30 goodbye.

I am an engineer, and this charger does EVERYTHING I want it to do. Smart charger with individual circuits is the ONLY way to go. And the LaCrosse has all the smart charger features you need, at a lower price than the hyped brand.

We have 4 cordless microphones at my church which take 2 AA's each. Consuming 8 AA's every week, we were spending over $200 a year on batteries. After bad memories of the old NiCd's, I decided to give rechargeables another try after learning about Eneloop and new NiMH hybrid or "low self-discharge" (or "LSD") technology. I chose this LaCrosse charger because of great reviews, solid features, and reasonable price. Three months later, I am extremely pleased and would recommend it to others.

I have been recharging and tracking our 8 AA's every week for 3 months, and now I can share my experience. First of all, the charger and 8 AA batteries have already paid for themselves. Second, I have needed all 4 of the charging modes that the LaCrosse offers.

Here is what you need to know:

1) CHARGE CURRENT: Fast charging is not good for batteries. Slower is better. Fast charging generates heat, which degrades the battery, reduces its life and in extreme cases can ruin it. The LaCrosse has 3 charging currents: 200, 500, and 700 mA. If you just put batteries in and do nothing else, it will charge at 200. This is a "slow" charge, taking 8-12 hours to charge 2000 mAh batteries. The 500 is a moderate speed, taking about 3-5 hours, batteries may be a little warm at the end. The 700 is the "fast" speed for LaCrosse, but it can charge your AA's in about 2 hours which is handy when you really need it. Batteries are pretty warm at the end, but not hot. Keep in mind, 700 is only half of the 1.5 mA or more that the "super fast" chargers pump out, which can't be good for battery life.

2) END DETECTION: Never buy timer-based chargers; overcharging will ruin NiMH batteries. Smart chargers like the LaCrosse are based on "negative delta-V". They detect the peak and voltage drop to know when the battery is full. Once this point is detected, the LaCrosse stops and then puts the battery on a very low "trickle" charge.

3) INDIVIDUAL CIRCUITS: The LaCrosse has 4 individual charging circuits. This not only means the 4 batteries can be on different charge modes and currents, but it also means that each battery gets optimally charged. Beware of cheap chargers that charge batteries in pairs. When paired, two batteries are treated as one. But since it is nearly impossible for two batteries to be at exactly the same level of discharge and/or have the exact same capacity, one battery may be undercharged, and the other may be overcharged. Overcharging can ruin a battery, and so can over-discharge when the same pair is drained together in a device.

4) TEST MODE: To know that your new batteries actually have the capacity they advertise, or to verify older batteries, you need Test mode. This LaCrosse has test mode, which lets you know the capacity of the battery. It first charges to full, then discharges it completely (to measure the capacity), then charges it again so the battery is ready to use.

5) DISCHARGE MODE: Although NiMH's claim to have no memory effect, it is still a good idea to fully discharge them on occasion. Not only will this ensure optimal capacity, but after a full discharge cycle the LaCrosse will show you the battery's measured capacity so you know the battery is still good (or going bad).

6) REFRESH MODE: Conventional NiMH's (non-LSD) need to be charge/discharge cycled a few times to reach full capacity. This charger's Refresh mode will accomplish that with one setup. Cheap chargers don't have a discharge feature at all. Also, NiMH batteries that are over-drained may need to be refreshed. This happened after using a set of batteries in the Wii remote too long. Cheap chargers would only report the battery as full, or as bad. Once again, LaCrosse's Refresh mode saved the day. After just a couple cycles, the battery charged to full capacity again. Another run of Test mode proved the batter was back to 2000 mAh.


What are you waiting for? Buy this charger!