Customer Reviews

Panasonic BQ390A/2PK NiMH Battery and Charger

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The BQ-390 charger, with its pearlescent white finish and simple lines, is an attractively designed charger. If you were giving this as a gift to your girl friend, it will not look so geeky as the other Sony, Kodak or Maxell chargers you can find on Amazon.com.

Like the Sony Power Charger, it has advanced circuitry inside to monitor charging through temperature, voltage drop, or the cell's internal resistance, so that you'll get fuller charges and less damage from overcharging of simpler chargers. In other words, your NiMH cells will give you better performance as well as a longer service life. This breed of chargers also charge each cell individually, rather than in pairs. Less sophisticated chargers charge in series, so one cell in the pair may not receive full charge, while the other, worse, is overcharged. NiMH, unlike older NiCd's, does not tolerate overcharging. Because they have 3 times the capacity of NiCd's to refill, all at under 2 hours, you can see why chargers are so expensive, and why they're worth it.

Panasonic has recently shifted their cell production from Japan to China, so you might get Chinese cells in the bundle. Still, Sanyo and Panasonic are the 2 major NiMH makers, and you can't go wrong with either. (Sony and GE NiMH cells are all made by Sanyo.)

This charger will only accept 1~2 AAA cells at a time (but 1~4 for AA cells). If you need to charge 4 AAA at a time, look to the Sony Power Charger elsewhere on Amazon.com. It bundles 4 NiMH AA cells made by Sanyo for Sony, but charges more slowly, twice as long as this Panasonic. But that is also why it's somewhat cheaper.

This 4 AA cell charger is the smallest and lightest charger I have seen. It slips easily into a camera bag pocket. It has built-in fold out AC plug prongs, thus, no cord or power brick.

This is not clearly documented, but I have tested the fact it will operate on 120 or 240V.. all you need is a travel adapter, no foreign converter needed. Just make sure it states, 'FOREIGN AC100-240V' on the label underneath before you use it overseas. This charger is not a 'dumb' transformer based constant voltage device, but a smart charger using active electronics. No heavy transformer!

The charger will charge 4 cells in 3 to 4 hours, depending on cell capacity and state of charge. This is a 'smart' charger. It will charge at higher current, getting the cells moderately warm, not dangerously so. When it detects near maximum charge, it switches to trickle mode, evidenced by the fact that the cells stay just barely warm, even several hours after the charge is 'complete.' When first plugged in, the green LED blinks to indicate regular charging, then changes to solid green when charged, and in trickle mode. I don't like leaving cells on trickle charge longer than overnight, so I unplug it. When I'm ready to use the batteries, I plug the charger back in, and the charge tops off after a few minutes (LED blinks for a few minutes, then goes solid when charger detects full charge).

Note that Panasonic states in the instructions, and on the charger label, to "Only use Panasonic batteries, other types may burst." In defiance of this statement, I am using Energizer 2100 mAH cells with perfect results.

I'm sure this is a marketing ploy to sell more Panasonic batteries, as any reasonable person knows that all NiMH batteries are basically the same. In fact, its charging current of 550mA is similar to other fast chargers on the market. Also, the instruction sheet states you can charge regular NiCD as well as NiMH, and gives a chart of charge times for each type and capacity.

I recommend this charger.

I purchased this charger from BJs for about $20 and also received $5 mail in rebate. This charger came with 6 AA batteries and 2 AAA batteries. I love this charger and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Its a great charger for great price. Following are the points to consider:

-It is so tiny that you can carry it anywhere with you
-Works on 110-220v so you can use it anywhere in the world
-It has a green light that keeps blinking once you connect it for charging and the green light automatically stops blinking as soon as the charging is complete. You don't have to worry if you keep it connected for longer than you need to.
-Charger's connector pins that connect to the mains supply, flip in and out of the charger. This way the connector pins don't stick out when you are not using it.
-Charges really fast. The batteries I keep on using get charged in just one hour. Charging time, however, depends on the batteries you have. You can check the manual of batteries you purchase.

Out of different types of chargers I used and tried to shop for this was the best both in terms of quality and price.

cheers

I bought this charger at Costco a few years back with 6 AA and 2 AAA batteries included. The cells I recieved were from Japan so no complaints here. They are still going strong in my Canon A80, they take about 500+ pictures before going low and even more pictures if I use the flash less. They last as long as when I first bought them and the triple A's are perfect for my remote, it lasts forever it seems, must be at least 2 years since I charged the AAAs. Overall I thought it was a great bargain at 24.99, charges extremely quick, never goes hot, lightweight, stylish... no complaints here.

As other reviews have noted, this is a competent charger, quicker than most due to the 550 ma charge current, although this creates more heat than a slower charger. Other reviews have not noted that these cells, like most NiMH (except eneloop, self-discharge over time, and are rated at 1.2V rather than the 1.5V of alkalines. I have found the claim that these give longer life in digital cameras to be false. I frequently have to document a project site, often with well over 100 shots, and have had issues with some of the batteries. I suspect this may also be due to newer, smaller cameras only accepting 2 cells, to the 1.2V vs 1.5V rating, and to getting some underperforming cells in the batch. Because of the slow self-discharge, if you have not used your camera for several months, you may have lost enough charge (especially if already partially discharged) that you may be unable to get many shots, so I recommend: (1) always "top off" a set of batteries which have not been charged recently, (2) leave a backup set of new alkaline batteries (which do not have the same self-discharge issue) in your camera case "just in case", (3) check your NiMH battery voltage using a VOM (voltage meter) to verify you have a good charge. If you track each battery's voltage periodically the day after charging (after the cell has settled down from the surface charge), you can verify if some cells are not holding a good charge. If you check voltage after using them in pairs, and one is lower than another, you may want to mark this one for use it in non-critical applications, such as a remote control instead of a camera. Two of my 20 cells are untrustworthy.) Keeping alkaline spares in the camera case has saved my butt on more than one site visit, party, or outing.