Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey

Powerex Battery and MH-C800S Charger Overview

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2011

BACKGROUND:

I wanted a NiMH AA/AAA charging system that would remove the "mystery-of-the-charge" and provide more confidence in the rechargeable batteries I purchase. So, I did a little research like everyone does (or should do) before buying an item that's intended to last for years (find "The Best (aa/aaa)Charger Guide by John Dziadecki on Amazon - excellent read). I decided to buy two 4-packs of Powerex AA 2700's and two of Powerex AAA 950's to supplement some Duracell 2650's, Kodak 2550's, Energizer 2500's and an assortment of generic 2300's. I also bought two chargers: the MH-C9000 and the MH-C800S.

For years I've used an assortment of chargers with idiot lights. I had no idea HOW MUCH of a charge those batteries were getting or whether they really held the advertised capacity. But, it was very clear (and frustrating), that some of these batteries and/or chargers were very limited (junk?). I'm not sure how many times I installed newly charged NiMH batteries into a digital camera only to have the low battery icon show up after a couple shots: "Hmmmm...how many of these batteries are duds?" And, generic battery testers really don't tell you much, i.e., how 'good' is "Good"; How 'low' is "Low"? .....So, it took me a while to get fed up.

MH-C9000 Charger:

This thing definitely took most of the guess-work out of my rechargeable AA/AAA energy supply. I was able to get rid of six old NiMH AA's in the first week and "rescue" seven others with this charger. The directions with the charger are a little sketchy but, if you know the advertised capacity of your battery and its age, you'll be able to figure out how to best charge it and how many mAh's are available to you afterwards. You'll also be able to determine if the battery is shot. This isn't something you get to do with idiot-light chargers (which work just fine for lots of people). I remain very impressed with this charger.

MH-C800S Charger:

I bought the MH-C800S to supplement the -C9000 because of its 8-battery capacity. This charger does not provide battery capacity values at the completion of a charge cycle. It does however, have a 16-hour 'conditioning mode' designed to re-juvinate and cycle (discharge and recharge) batteries: it works very well. If you don't care about actually 'seeing' the specific capacity of your batteries, the MH-C800S is a good choice at the right price. It too will tell you if your battery is shot. This charger is all that most people will need or want for AA and AAA re-chargeables.

CAPACITIES:

I have not used Powerex re-chargable batteries long enough to comment on their discharge rate. But, thus far I haven't seen a difference between my older 2300 and 2700 mAh re-chargeables and the Powerex batteries. It's also too early to determine if the Powerex batteries will last through 1000's of charges.

The Powerex AAA batteries have an advertised capacity of 950mAh. They charged out between 956-967 in the MH-C9000's "Break-In" mode. Allowing for heat attenuation, full capacity is about 920. I'll know more when I recharge them.

The Powerex AA batteries have an advertised capacity of 2700mAh. They charged out between 2556-2650 in the MH-C9000's "Break-In" mode. Allowing for heat attenuation, full capacity might be about 2300. I'll know more when I recharge them.

Some of my older batteries charged out at significantly higher rates than advertised after putting them through the MH-C9000's "Refresh and Analyze" mode: these older batteries are holding charges longer and they discharge more consistently. I can tell that those instances of partially-charged batteries screwing up the camera's current requirement will be fewer. At least now, I'll be able to sort out the weak, lame and starving in the herd.

SUMMARY:

Of course, there are other ways to do what I did. The Powerex battery purchase was based on the charger purchase: I figured it best to stay with a certain brand and keep the system homogenous. Not necessary at all. The price was right for the batteries and they came with convenient storage cases. In time, if Powerex batteries don't perform well, I'll probably start replacing all my batteries with an assortment of Sanyo Eneloops. I'm in the process of learning what a good rechargeable AA/AAA battery really is.

There are several other chargers that perform similar to the MH-C9000 and -C800S: LaCrosse, Sony, and/or Sanyo. Reviews for the Powerex MH- products appealed to my technical comfort level and budget. Good stuff!

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Does exactly what it should do.

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2008

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

This is a pretty large battery charger, but if you need to charge a lot of rechargeable AA or AAA batteries often, then this one will do it, and do it well. I have an outdoor walkway solar lighting system that requires 24 rechargeable AA batteries. Since I swap these out with 24 other rechargeable batteries fairly often, I really needed this product.

You can charge one battery or eight batteries or any number in between, and they can be a combination of AA or AAA NiCAD or NiMH batteries -- no other type (but there is no worry about where they are placed in the charger or in what order). The Powerex gives you 3 modes of charge: Rapid, Soft and Conditioning (refresh). Its default setting is Rapid (just put in the batteries -- there is nothing further to do). If you want to Soft charge, place just one battery in and push the button on the right within 5 seconds (release the button when you see "soft charging" printed in the window), then add the rest of your batteries -- they will all Soft charge). If you want to Condition, go through the same procedure, except you push the button on the left. I don't use the Rapid mode. I use Soft mode (easier on the batteries and I think this should have been the default mode) and no doubt I will condition these batteries if they begin to show signs of not performing as long as they should.

How long does it take to charge your batteries? The manual states 1 to 2 hours on Rapid mode, 2 to 4 on Soft mode, and up to 16 hours on Conditioning mode. Time is also dependent upon the mAh of your batteries. It will take a lot longer to charge 2700mAh batteries than it would to charge 600mAh batteries (for batteries under 800mAh always use Soft mode, never Rapid mode).

Unlike the La Cross BC-900U (which I also own), this unit is very simple to operate (but costs more). The La Cross has more flexibility (allows wider range of charge rates starting at 200mA, not just a Rapid 1.0A (1,000mA) charge rate or a Soft 0.5A (500mA) charge rate, but it's more complex and more restrictive to use). Between the two, I prefer the Powerex MH-C800S (and the ability to charge twice the batteries). Plus, the La Cross display bit the dust after a month of use and needs repair already.

Batteries fit tightly in the Powerex and are fairly difficult to remove (not so on my La Cross), and the screen fonts are so tiny that they are next to impossible to read (depending upon your vision). Luckily, the screen displays 8 large battery icons to let you know what is happening to each battery during the charge and when they are done. The batteries do get very warm right after being charged (they cool quickly though). I would not recommend using this and going to bed. It's also a good idea to place this on a non-flammable surface. But I think that would be the case for any battery charger. Better to be safe than sorry.

All-in-all, a quick convenient way to charge a lot of batteries with a unit that is very simple to operate. Between 1 and 10, I give the Powerex an 8. It's far too early to tell how long this charger will last (or if I'll have problems like I did with the La Cross), but hopefully I'll get many years of usage of it.

67 people found this helpful

Helpful

ebiker

Quality Charger

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2023

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

I have been using this charger personally for a couple of years and I really like it. The only gripe I have is that the display is a little hard to see sometimes. Others will agree. It is also easy to push the buttons on accident when loading the batteries. Main reasons for 4-star rating. I work in a TV station and we also have a bunch of these chargers that are used every single day to keep microphone batteries going. They work great. I noticed there must be a new and improved version that has a light-up display. I would probably choose that for my next one if this one dies.

Helpful

W. Kuo

Finally a charger for all my AA & AAA needs (caution!)

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2010

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

After being cheap and buying a 4-cell charger (Powerex MH-C204W $35) from Maha which restricts you to NiMH and has to charge in pairs; I finally got over my buyer's remorse and purchased this one and it's been great. ($65)

Don't bother with chargers that requires you to charge 2 at a time. What I've found is that nothing ever drains the batteries evenly (one would always seems to get used up first); so when you charge them as a pair, the more "empty" one seems to never fill up and the cycle repeats itself! The battery reader I have doesn't tell me too much details and besides, how am I suppose to know which cell is more empty than the other unless I have some specialized ultra-sensitive battery tester?

This is more anecdotal than actual science but I swear after a few charges, even brand new batteries don't hold as well so I decided to go with chargers that analyze each slots independent of others.

So go with chargers that has independent control for each of the slots; this way each one gets it's own full charge.

For me I liked the slow-charge feature and what I ended up doing was leaving at least one cell in the charger always so that any future add-ons are charge with the slow cycle (max 2 hours it appears.) If you take all the cells out, next time around any new inserts means you'd have to push the slow-charge button to set it up properly. With 8 slots I find that's plenty to go around and two hours charge time isn't going to be inconvenient.

This one does NiCD as well as NiMH. Going to retire my Powerex MH-C204W to the garage for cells that I don't care much as about (flashlights, aaa based MP3 players for example) and use this one for the digital cameras & Flip video cameras.

Also I've tried (over the last 5 years) various $10-20 chargers from Energizer, Duracell, BigLot-House brands, etc...those are all "junk" so to speak for digital camera usage. They're fine if you want to charge batteries to use for flashlights or where things don't get worked as hard. If this had been around years ago, I'd save a lot of money and headaches from experimenting with different brands and having the dreaded "battery depleted" message even with batteries freshly removed from the cheap chargers just a few hours earlier (imagine the irritation from the wife when the shot of the day is missed because the stupid battery and the spares you brought along are comatose...)

I must have wasted at least $50 in batteries thinking it was the batteries when it was most likely the "dumb" chargers to blame....

Update 2012-01-18: This thing stopped working 5 months in. I am careful with the unit; wasn't dropped; stayed indoors only and unplugged whenever not in use. But after 5 months, each individual battery slots would just blink on the LCD screen; no charging; I was so livid that I will never buy something this expensive again; went back to the old trusty 4-cell MAHA charger. Was hoping to take advantage of individual battery control but maybe future generations will be more robust.

45 people found this helpful

Helpful

S Kennedy

Powerex Customer Service Came Through....

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2013

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

I've been using the MH-C800S charger for approximately 2 weeks and am not impressed with it for a couple of reasons. First the build quality is rather inferior to what would be expected for the price. The lcd display seems to be of cheap quality and is extremely faint on the 2 slots to the far right side. When viewed at an awkward angle I can faintly see the battery symbol during discharging and charging, however the writing above is completely absent and never becomes readable for those 2 slots until 'done' appears at the very end. This wouldn't be of such great concern except that while conditioning the batteries, there is quite a temperature variation from one side of the charger to the other. The left side batteries are quite cool relative to the very hot temperature of the batteries on the right side. Since the display on the right side isn't readable, it's impossible to know if the discharge and charge cycles are happening as expected. During charging, even when using the soft charge option, the batteries are quite hot by the time 'done' appears on the display. This high temperature must shorten the overall life of rechargeable batteries. I am using this charger with Sanyo XX batteries. When I use the Sanyo charger supplied with these batteries they are always cool to the touch - from the beginning of the charge cycle until the end. The reason I purchased the Powerex charger was for the convenience of charging 8 batteries at the same time rather than only 4 at a time with the Sanyo charger. Not sure I trust it enough to keep using it with the apparent quality issue and/or defect of the lcd display.

I contacted Powerex customer service to tell them about the issues with my charger. They asked me to send them a copy of my original sales receipt and they would send me a replacement unit. The new charger arrived today and it works as it should. Upgraded my rating from 2 to 4 stars.

Helpful

Kenneth P Shaw

Older model with poor display, but can charge at a lower 500mA rate

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2021

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

I deducted one star for the absolutely terrible display this has. It is not backlit and the viewing angle and amount of ambient light is critical to see the display. I use a small flashlight to illuminate the display otherwise it is nearly impossible to decode the tiny letters and flashing symbols. My main reason for selecting this particular model is that it can charge at a lower 500 mA rate using the Soft Charge mode. Also, I wanted a charger with 8 slots. The default charge mode is 1.0 Amp or 1000 mA which is quite enough for my needs when I need a faster charge rate. However, I prefer to charge NiMH batteries a lower rate to extend their longevity. If you're impatient or need a super fast charge capability this is not the charger for you. This charger also has a conditioning mode that fully discharges and charges the batteries. All eight slots must be used for the same function during a cycle. As with other Maha / Powerex products this is well built and works as intended. Aside from the horrible display, I recommend this for those who want a lower 500mA charge rate with 8-slot capability and the ability to condition batteries.

Helpful

Floridafraze

Excellent functionality/value - Lousy display

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2022

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

I have owned one of these for nearly 15 years (made under the Maha name brand) and until recently it worked flawlessly. The old one began to overheat the batteries a couple months ago so I bought this new one. It is identical in every way to the old one, but the price is about a third of what I paid for the old one.

If this unit lasts even half as long as the old one it will still be an excellent buy.

My only complaint is the LOUSY display. The contrast is terrible and what you see in the display is greatly influenced by the angle from which you view it. With a bit of tilting back and forth you can always figure out what's it's trying to indicate, so it's not totally useless.

CONCLUSION: Even with its terrible display it is an excellent charger and it will give your batteries a great/full charge AND excellent life.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

AbleMob

Best of the best-for 8 months

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

Tried another brand that was the worst of the worst. Ridiculously long battery charge times and the batteries got HOT!
This has a nice soft charging mode that is pretty fast (<2 hours), and the batteries remain cool. I primarily use Eneloop Pros. I have two of these now and can charge up 16 AA's quickly for my event photo shoots.

Edit-this is my second one. The first one is 10 years old and going strong. This one has gone flakey. The charge is stuck at one of three bars, and the batteries get really hot!

Helpful

Sara

Hard to see, died after a year

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2023

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

"it worked fine" for about a year. the screen is hard to see, you have to look at it at just the right angle to read it. but that didn't bother us since it worked.

but, after only a year it doesn't appear to work, the lights flash/flicker, batteries aren't charging, even on "soft charge" the batteries will sometimes get raging hot, way too hot to even touch. Cheap piece of junk.

Helpful

Gabriel's Dad

Doesn't need to charge batteries in pairs

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2021

Style: Charger onlyVerified Purchase

The one single best thing about this charger is that it can charge any number of batteries at a time, up to 8. So many other chargers require you to charge batteries in even pairs, which is a problem if you have a device that uses only 3 batteries, of which many of my LED flashlights and my kid's toys require.

Also very handy is that when you first put the batteries in to be charged, the LED display will tell you how much juice was left in them. This turned out to be more helpful than I though it would. It turns out that when my LED flashlight goes dim quick, it's just one battery that has lost most of its charge and not all three batteries equally. So then I can "recondition" the one bad battery and pretty much restore the three batteries to the same level of charge and discharge life.

The price is a bit steep, but I think this charger is a worthy investment and will likely save me money in the long run by maximizing the life of my expensive rechargeable batteries. I've owned this for a year now, use it about once every 3-4 weeks depending on battery needs, and haven't had a problem yet. The auto-off function is nice since 99% of the time I forget that I'm charging batteries until about 2 days later and the charger isn't sitting there just cooking my expensive batteries.

Helpful

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Powerex MH-C800S 8-Cell Smart Charger for AA / AAA NiMH / NiCD,Grey

›

Customer reviews