Customer Reviews

Sony Cycle Energy BCG34HLD4KN Power Charger with 4 Pre-Charged 2000 mAh AA Batteries

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When it comes to battery chargers, the word 'Value' typically means 'cheaply-made junk'. I have previously examined many so-called value chargers from major battery manufacturers (including Duracell CEF14, Rayovac PS131, Energizer CHVCMWB, Sanyo MQN06, GP AR01, etc.), only to be disappointed by all of them. Those chargers all share a common problem: they can only charge in pairs. That means you are out of luck if you have appliances that require 1 or 3 cells. Charging in pairs may also lead to over-charging, which is bad for battery lifespan. So although those chargrs are cheaper to buy, they end up wasting you more money in the long run.

The charger in this package (Sony Cycle Energy BCG34HLD4KN Power Charger with 4 Pre-Charged 2000 mAh AA Batteries), on the other hand, is actually a decent product. It has 4 independent charging channels, which allow you to charge 1-4 AA or AAA cells. During charging, the voltage profile of each cell is monitored. Charging stops as soon as each cell is fully charged - although the indicator light only goes out when ALL cells are done.

The average charging current is 360mA for each AA cell (actually 1.44A pulsed at 25% duty cycle), 140mA for AAA cell. That means it takes about 6 hours to fully recharge the included Cycle Energy Pre-Charged AA cells. This may seem slow, but it is actually faster than other 'value' chargers - most of them require 8-12 hours of charge time.

Some other reasons I like this Sony value charger:
+ Compact, one-piece design with fold-down AC plugs - no need for power cords or wall adapters.
+ Low-profile (just 1.1" thick) so it fits in camera bags easily.
+ Accepts 100-240V universal voltage.
+ Bad cell detection (indicator light flashes if you insert an alkaline cell).

The included SONY Cycle Energy Pre-Charged AA cells are low-self-discharge NiMH type, similar to SANYO eneloop and Rayovac Hybrid. That means all the good things you heard about eneloop and Hybrid are true for SONY Pre-Charged cells, too. They are advertised to have a capacity of '2100mAh typical, 2000mAh minimum', and a lifespan of '1000 cycles'. The average capacity I measured, using my La Crosse BC-900, is about 2080mAh.

If you're looking for a simple charger with high-quality pre-charged cells, then this Sony package is currently the best value. If you like to step up to a better charger, then consider the Sony BCG34HRE4KN package. The BCG34HRE offers faster charge time, individual cell status indicators, and a 'Refresh' function.

I wanted a small and cheap charger that had 4 independent charging circuits. Almost all of the inexpensive chargers on the market can only charge batteries in matched pairs. If you have an odd number of batteries or a pair that are discharged to a different amount, they will not charge property. But this charger can handle any number batteries in any condition. I verified this myself when the product arrived.

Another positive thing about this charger is that it is very small and light. I can't imagine one getting any smaller. It accepts any sort of wall outlet voltage and the outlet prongs fold down for compact storage. So it is a great travel companion.

The biggest drawback of the charger is that it has only one indicator light. So the charger cannot tell you if some (but not all) of the batteries are charged or if one of the batteries is bad. In practice, the biggest drawback of that is that if you load in a mixed batch of batteries, some mostly charged and some mostly discharged, they all need to stay in until the last battery is done. Some of the bigger and more expensive chargers have four lights or even four little graphs to tell you the state of each battery. That is very nice but probably would have added to the size and cost of the charger, so I can't complain too much.

As to the batteries, I have only had the product for a month so I cannot say much. The batteries all worked out of the box and appear to hold a charge well. Their voltage and charging characteristics are very similar to Sanyo Eneloops I own (my favorite battery). I have seen some people claim the Sony batteries are in fact re-packaged Eneloops. If they are, or at least behave the same over the long-term, that would make this package an amazingly good deal.

The combination of the 4 charging circuits and the low-self-discharge batteries, make this product an almost fail-safe way to get reliable power. These features have been available in other products but I've never seen them at a price anywhere close to this.

Got these and love them. They work when I want them too and don't lose
a charge sitting on a shelf like regular re-charables.
Really great for a flash that you use intermittently, but need it to work
when you're in the field. Theses hold a charge very well in camera as well.

After reading reviews and taking the advice of the engineer who posts here I got these and another set of Enloop batteries. I put them together with my camera purchase and just took them on my trip. Everything work flawlessly and could not have been more pleased with these batteries and charger combonation. Even after I dropped the charger right out of the box, it was strong and worked like a champ. The delivery of the product was also very fast. If you need long lasting batteries, these are it.

You can't beat this combination of a charger and 4 batteries. The charger has voltage monitoring, safety timer, alkaline battery detection, individual charging circuits, and uses pulsed current. I also bought 4 enveloop batteries. Counting the cost of the batteries, I only paid $3 more for the charger. I topped off both sets of batteries within a short time. The Sony batteries are in portable radio which I played about 4 hours in the past 4 days and shows about 75% battery life left. Another nice thing about the charger is that it can take any combination of of up to 4 AA or AAA batteries.

I thought that the fact that the cells were monitored independently was enough to satisfy my requirements. The problem is that if the LED blinks, it means some number of the cells are no longer working correctly. But you don't know how many or which one(s) are bad. The only way to figure it out is to then charge each one separately -- many, many hours. My previous Lenmar charger had independent LEDs, but it failed abruptly after relatively little use. It had never identified any of my stock of batteries as being "bad", but the new Sony charger claims they are nearly all bad. I will assume its assessment is correct, but it took forever to check them all one at a time. Bottom line is that although it is great that you can charge any number (1-4) cells at a time, unless you have an LED for each cell, you are at a big disadvantage if any fail.

I found the Sony Precharged 2000 mAh AA batteries very good. They hold the charge very well. The Sony Power charger is excellent because I can charge any number of batteries up to 4 at a time. Other brands can charge either 2 or 4 at a time. The price sold at Amazon.com is also very reasonable. Recommended.

EDIT: Okay, having owned the things a week, I've revised my opinion of the batteries upwards. When you first get them, they're empty and barely seem to work at all. However, after several charge/discharge cycles, they actually improve a lot and start holding a charge. Not quite Sanyo Eneloop level good, but decent enough to serve as a backup while the Eneloops are charging. Apparently they just needed a "breaking in" period that they didn't get in the factory.

The smart charger is very nice and worth the price of the package by itself. A little slow, but it stays cool and doesn't overheat the batteries as a quick charger tends to.

The Sony Cycle Energy battery charger was purchased for my dad, who is very picky and particular. He his very pleased with the quality and price point of the product.

I bought this because it was reviewed better than the Sanyo charger that was packaged with the Eneloop LSD batteries. It has 4 separate circuits, so can charge any combo of batteries, not just in matched pairs. It's also a little faster than the Sanyo and others, around 5-6 hours to charge. I've been very pleased with the charger and batteries, use it with the Sanyo Eneloops, Sony CycleEnergy and and Tenergy low self-discharge batteries. It only has one indicator light that goes off when all the batteries are fully charged, but not an issue for me, as I just plug in overnight. Love it!!