Customer Reviews

Sony 15 Minute Battery Charger with 4 AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This charger seems well built and is nicely designed. I would reccomend this charger to anyone looking for a quality NiMh charger.
The included 2500mAh batteries hold a lot of juice, and seem to be built well.

This charger is expensive, but you get what you pay for.

manual says it charages 2500mAh AA batteries in 15 minutes. 25 minutes for the other listed batteries - 2300mAh AA, 2100mAh AA, 900mAh AAA, 800mAh AAA. Like the Duracell 30 min & Energizer 15 min chargers, the built in fan does help to keep the temperature down. More expensive than others, but rated for 2500mAh - probably be seeing more of these higher capacities in the future.

I use this charger for 6 months now. Works like a charm. Excellent quality, quick charger (batteries are really full after 15-30 min of charging). And the batteries coming with it are also very good quality and last for quite long. The only draw back with this charger: the power adaptor only support AC 100-120 V 50/60 Hz, meaning that it will not work in Europe. If you're planning on using it for a digital camera and you are traveling a lot, you might want to consider another option (although there are 240-120 V converters around).

The batteries that come with this set work great. I was really happy with the longevity, though the Canon S2 IS I used them with purportedly has good battery usage. The charger is a bit large, and hence when I was trying to pack efficiently for a big holiday, I opted to take my smaller 6 hour charger instead. I supppose that the charger needs to be big since there is a built in fan to help cool the batteries as they charge. It is convenient to know that I can get fresh batteries quickly. Now, I only have to charge them within the 30 minutes before I leave instead of all night. I prop the charger against the wall at an angle to get better air circulation around the batteries.

STRENGTHS: Super fast (it took 15min to charge 4 AA Sony 2500 mAh batteries); Charges 4 AA or 4 AAA at a time; Includes free 4 AA Sony 2500 mAh batteries; In-built fan; Extra-long power cord - 6 feet (I measured it); Automatic shut-off function.

WEAKNESSES: Does NOT support worldwide voltage; Input AC 100-120v only; Charges only NiMh batteries (Nickel Metal Hydrate); Exterior grey paint scratches and comes off easily with your nail; why was it painted anyway?!

CONCLUSION: Overall it is a great charger for a fairly decent price. I wish it had worldwide voltage support and made exclusively in Japan (...). Unlike most people I do care about where products are made. This charger is made in China, which hopefully doesn't affect its quality.

My another complaint is that it is layered with grey paint over its black plastic body. And paint comes off with your fingernail and reveals its black plastic body! Is it myopia of product designers or just Chinese workmanship? Thanks for attention.

P.S. I've noticed that included Sony 2500 Mah Nimh batteries do NOT hold charge! I don't know what's the problem but I followed all precautions. After they got charged fully in Sony 15 minute charger the didn't last more then a few minutes in Sony CD player model D-NE306CK.

Then I tried to fully discharge them in Mini MagLite flashlight and recharged Sony batteries in Duracell 1-hour charger. I put them in Sony CD player and put it away. Then when I wanted to listen to music 2-3 days later still the same problem they showed LOW CHARGE. Batteries do not hold charge, and they almost like new because in total they were probably charged less than 5 times. I don't know whether the batteries are defective but I'm not buying anymore Sony rechargeable batteries. They suck, at least mine although I bought them brand new directly from Amazon.

I had much better with experience with Kodak AA 2300 Mah Nimh rechargeable batteries supplied with their 1-hour charger. They hold charge very good and last very long. By brother uses them for his Sony CD player and they keep working for about 1 week!

I hope this warning P.S. is helpul.

The charger works well, it really full charge the batteries in 15 minutes, of course they are very hot.
But i have to confirm the others reviews, for me both big problems: Doesn't plug directly into wall and it's only 110 volts, so if you are or you have to travel outside USA you are in problems.

The title is a pun... Indicating the size and power supply style of this beast. Really wished the Sony Engineers could have come up with a smaller footprint for the product as I will not be taking this on trips to keep batteries charged. Taking a bunch of AA alkaline batteries will take up far less space and weight. 1 Star for size of unit!

Primary use is to charge batteries for our GPSr units. The performance is GREAT! You insert the batteries and plug in the "brick" and you wait 15 minutes or until the light goes out and boom, you have fully charged batteries! 5 Stars for performance!

Comparisons between alkaline and the Sony NI-MH in our GPSr units are too close to call. I think the alkaline battery; we always used Duracell, were just a bit better. We'd normally get 15-16 hours of use on an alkaline battery and now get 14-15 on NI-MH. No big deal there!

I thought it would be impossible to charge batteries in 15 minutes and have them last for more than 15 minutes, but it does, the fan on the charger keeps the batteries cool. Cooler batteries can charge faster.

3 star rating is an average from size of unit and performance. Price is about 3 stars as well. I think there are cheaper units out there, but you're paying for the Sony name and quality.

I demoted to this item to 2 stars... It gave up and died after about 4 years. Purchased another brand and so far that one is working well! When this one worked, I really liked it.

Well, since I've bought this device, I became enchanted by the ability to recharge for only 15 minutes, however my batteries became 75% of a full capacity ones. After you recharge your batteries, you need to let them 'rest' (remove the plug from the outlet) for ~12 minutes.

For AAA batteries, some will BLINK (like they were broken), so you need to turn it off (pushing from the outlet), remove the batteries and start over again. 2 of my 8 AA batteries also showed this behavior, so I use a normal '6 hour' recharger for them, as this Sony recharger is not 'so friendly' sometimes.

The duration of the recharged battery is awesome. In my camera, normal '6 hour' recharger let them useable for 20 minutes of movie recording. With 15 (that is, 27 minutes) it lasted 18 minutes, almost the same for me.

Well, after using the recarger, they became hot after using it, so be careful, before inserting them into your camera or whatever.

I could use two different kind of batteries and types. 3 (GP) AA ones with 1 (Sony) AAA....however the BLINKING effect occurs often that way. You have to be patience in these cases.

1)This is not a world wide charger
2)Weighs nearly a pound
3) Doesn't charge in exactly 15 mins, you need to hold the batteries in the charger for 10 more minutes.
4) only 80% of the battery will be charged, but that should be ok for most of us
5) Giving 4 AA 2500 mAh batteries is good, but better ones, 2600 mAh ones can be bought at microcenter.com for 6$ only.
6) I would suggest to go for quick-world wide charger. if you are at home, you need not go for quick charger, instead you can buy some more rechargeable batteries.

The charger works as advertised, about 15 minutes for a full charge which is a very nice feature to have when you find your batteries low at an inopportune time.

I think some recent trash reviews on the batteries are BS. Don't understand why people would bother. For me, the batteries have been superb. I use them in my Canon Powershot S2 IS, they have been in the camera for two months, I've taken about 100 pictures and 10 minutes of video, half those pictures with the flash. They still have a good charge.

Rechargable batteries do develop "memory". It's always best to let them drain completely before recharging them. If someone was recharging them daily, whether they needed it or not,maybe they could end up with very short usage times. However, I can assure you that these have had good life for me and have NOT exhibited the problem of losing charge during periods of low use.