Customer Reviews

Energizer 15-Minute Battery Charger Kit With Car Adapter

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I will only state a Few Important Points as there are tons of reviews on it already. First, YES, it really WORKS in 15 MINS and it is NOT NOISY to Boot (vs the Rayovac 15-minute charger that sounds like an airplane about to take off). And most importantly, it charges ANY RECHARGEABLE "AA" Batteries ! Having briefly owned the Rayovac 15-minute charger which requires EXPENSIVE, SPECIFICALLY Designed "AA" Batteries, you will save TONS of Money with the Energizer 15-Minute Battery Charger. Believe it or not, I just took it for granted that I would have to buy SPECIAL, Energizer Batteries (as I have 2x 7 MP Cameras that USE 4x AA Batteries EACH )as a Spare Set. I'm THRILLED knowing that I don't.

At first this thing was great, in 20 minutes (not 15) it would charge the batteries. The problems came later when batteries started showing up as "bad" according to the charger, even brand new ones. A few at first then a lot more. I have other travel chargers that would charge the "bad" batteries over 8 hours and they would work fine. Often after this the Energizer charger would charge batteries previously identified as "bad." After about a year I discovered that the charger was destroying the batteries. New and old, they would end up bad after a few cycles through this charger, so that even the slow chargers would not charge them. Many times the charger would not charge them at all, just wait 20 minutes and turn green as if they were done. Not good when you discover dead "charged" batteries while taking pictures on vacation. I'd recommend going with slower chargers, inconvenient as they are. The super fast charge time has destroyed a few dozen expensive NiMH batteries. I'm looking for one that'll charge a dozen at once....if they make one that is.

Bought this to charge batteries for a Canon A-95 digital camera. Awesome performance! On one charge I've shot 170 pictures at max resolution, used the screen to review pictures, used the flash and the batteries were still going strong! Recharge is 15 minutes flat. The batteries get warm when recharging, so the charger has a fan to keep them cool.

I don't know why the other reviewers said this charger charge their batteries in 30 to 35 minutes... HELLO!!!! it says 15 minutes not 30.... read it and weave it! I bought this charger and it came with 4/AA 2,200mAH rech/batt. and I also bought a pack of 4/AA UltraLast 2,600mAH rech. for $10 at Fry's Electronics. DaMn!!! I couldn't believe how much power and how long these Ultralast batts. lasted... I put them on my Fujifilm Finepix S3100 digital camera, uses all 4 batt. and I couldn't believe the freakin' power... I took 422 pictures with Flash... yes I said with flash and with the LCD on. Damn! these batteries are the bomb... After I drained the UltraLast batts. I put them on the Energizer 15 min. charger to test if they would charge with no problem and once again I was impressed, it charged them in 15 minutes tops too. This charger is awsome and competes with the Rayovac 15 min. charger but at a more expensive price but Fry's had the Rayovac charger $5 less than the Energizer's 15 min. charger. Either way, buy this charger is worth every cent...

p.s. Someone said that the batteries get really hot!... they actualy don't because the charger itself has a built in fan under it that pushes cool air to the batteries and keeps them cool. Once the green light indicates the batteries have finished charging, let them in the charger until the fan turns off, about 5 minutes more and this gives the batteries its fullest charge.

A fast charger is an ideal way to work with NiMH cells. Fast charging doesn't seem to impractically shorten cell life but I think the 15 minute charger rejects too many good cells. The price of NiMH cells has dropped considerably, while capacity has increased. 4 AA Energizer 2300mAH cells run for under $7, and quality no name brands for half that. So, even if cell life has been reduced from its high of 500 charges, its reasonable to replace cells sooner, to insure high performance were NiMH cells are used. The 15-minute charger is also apt to reject marginally bad cells than slower chargers, further fueling a consumer to buy more batteries.

The fan is an excellent addition, because the charged cells are cooler to touch than the older model 30-minute charger, suggesting they are stressed less despite the faster charge. Alas, it has only one LED indicator, and when it flashes that a cell is defective, one cannot instantly detect which of the 4 charging cells it is: you need to test each one individually to see which one triggered the error light. Further, one has to cell swap to insure its not the charging chamber that is defective. If Energizer dedicated one LED per charge chamber, it would help troubleshoot and identify status of each battery much better.

Quick hint! Put some colored electrical tape around your battery so your family and friends will ask "Why is there tape on this battery?" before they throw it away!

I am a high volume studio and wedding photographer. The greatest AA battery in the world is the new Energizer Rechargables. They are amazing ... I can shoot 2 weddings, large Nikon SB-80DX flash, 600 photos and finally change the batteries. I own about 36 of these batteries and they are in every AA device I own. I highly recommend them to all of my family, friends and anyone looking at batteries in a store.

Now about the charger. I have 2 of this type and 2 of the original (non fan cooled) type. I can never and I repeat NEVER trust the fan cooled chargers. Everytime I put a full set of batteries in them and I come back to get them ... the red LED is flashing and my batteries are not charged. I have to put them in one at a time and wait for the red LED to stay solid and sort out the batteries by flashing LED and non flashing LED.

The flashing LED designated batteries go in my non fan cooled Energizer battery charger and charge with no problem at all.

I realize that heat is a battery killer, but for me, I would rather get 100 charges knowing that if I left the charger working, I could come back and the batteries would be ready. Time is not my on my side when it comes to shooting location events so a charger I cannot trust sits around unused. But if you can't find the older style and you have the choice between the slow overnight style charger or this one ... hmmmm ... let me really think about that ... I'd take the slow charger if I were not so desperate for time. On the plus side of the slow charger ... the batteries normally last longer!

Anyone out there want to get rid of the non fan cooled charger to trade for the newer one ... email me PLEASE!

My hats off to Energizer for making what I feel is the BEST AA BATTERY in the WORLD! Now ... just fix the charger PLEEAAASE !

I didn't give this 5 stars because it doesn't handle 240V input. The older Energizer 1 hour charger's AC adatper could take input for both 120V and 240V. The 30 minute model is a little bigger then the previous model but is still pretty small. It works as fast as it claims and the batteries get very hot. It charges each battery and does not require pairing up of batteries which is good. I wished Energizer kept the ability to handle dual input voltage. If you don't need the charger for use when travelling outside the U.S., then this charger is fine.

Bought this charger for less than $30 for my Canon Powershot S1 IS (which needs 4 AA to operate) and they work as advertised! I even use them to charge the 2300mAH rechargable AA batteries (Energizers of course) n it still takes only 30 minutes tops! I've seen chargers cost more than $30 that would take all night to charge even 1800 mAH batteries. Only one other charger i know of that supposedly charges less than 30 mins is the Rayovac 15min charger but they cost more n so are the Rayovac rechargable batteries (the only rechargable Rayovac batteries u can buy that allows u to charge at 15 mins - is only rated at 2050 mAh- any other kind like nimh batteries take all night). Bought mine at Walmart where it comes with 4 1800 mAh niMh batteries along with the charger to get u started. IMO, the Energizer charger is an excellent accessory for any AA/AAA battery-powered hungry gadget u have without spending a fortune.

If put more than one battery (brand new or old batteries) into this charger, the charger says that one or more of the batteries is not working properly. The only way I can get the charger to work is to only put one battery in at a time. Unfortunately, if I put more than one battery in the charger at once, then the charger doesn't accept some of the batteries when they are placed in the charger individually.

Putting two-and-two together, it appears this battery charger is either killing my batteries when I put more than one battery in the charger, or the charger is unable to identify good versus bad batteries.

I tried the Energizer universal compact charger, and I'm having problems with this unit as well. Frankly, I'm done wasting my time with Energizer chargers now. I've never had these types of problems with other chargers in the past.

Soon after using this product (Previously I had been using an energizer travel charger) it started with a blinking red light when I inserted batteries. I thought it simply wasn't charging my batteries, but they won't charge in my travel charger now either. Little did I know it was destroying the energizer brand batteries I was putting into it. I looked this up online after it happened and found that many other people have experienced this problem. So now I'm left with a charger that destroyed batteries and 12 or 16 useless energizer rechargeable batteries that are only a few months old - what a waste. I would definitely think twice about purchasing this product or at least look around a bit more.