Lloytron Fast Alkaline/NiMH Intelligent LCD Battery Charger

Just about the only alkaline battery charger I could find, and at a good price. It has worked fine so long as I follow the instructions - ONLY Alkaline batteries and if in a battery is 'iffy' then don't try ! I had one battery that decided to 'hiss' and failed to charge. After this the battery charger seemed to fail - and the LCD display would not light up properly. I ended up resetting the charger by completely powering off for a day or so. It then decided, after a few attempts, to work again. Since then it has been fine but I have been careful to keep an eye on it when it is charging and remove any doubtful batteries. So long as it lasts a year it will have paid for itself :-)

To be honest I was expecting something a little bit better than this. Could have been a little bit cheaper for its quality.It definitely works as it should. What I've noticed is that it is actually BUILT for a UK company, however one can clearly notice a spelling mistake on the side of the package. Something that makes you think if LLOYTRON is anything but a serious company.The LCD works great. You can put in 1, 2, 3 or 4 AA batteries, or AAA batteries (AA and AAA are not mixable). It also has 3 status LEDs that show what it is doing (it even show if the batteries are damaged, but I haven't tried this). I am trying to charge 3 x AAA batteries and they are taking hours. It is not showing that the batteries are damaged. These are Energizer batteries. I think they've been running for around 4 to 5 hours, although the instructions state that batteries should be charged in around 1.5 hours to 2 hours (depending on their strength).The build quality is OK. The front bezel that opens to put the batteries is is not strong at all. You must pay attention cause it is easy to break. It is made of cheap plastic and the door first opens from the left hand side, then you have to carefully open to right hand side, if you know what I mean. It won't open evenly. Also, I've noticed by investigating it thoroughly, that the LCD screen is slightly chipped on the inside at the top (but it's not visible). So this is an answer that it was manufactured by a cheap factory (China anyone?)The design is nice though. And if you just need a battery charger that takes AA and AAA batteries, than this should work. As I've already wrote at the beginning, I was expecting more from this product, especially when it is being sold by a UK company. Eventually, I think these are just re-branded Chinese products.

The unusual feature of this charger is that, as well as standard NiMh, it can handle alkaline batteries. People have been doing this for many years now, and if you read both the instructions on the box and those enclosed inside you will have success. however, the rather strict conditions that apply are not spelled out emphatically enough. Years ago it was sometimes done with zinc-carbon (or zinc-chloride) cells IF they had armoured steel "leakproof" construction, but the makers of this charger do not recommend its use for this purpose. In the recent past there have been at least two attempts by manufacturers to market alkaline cells specially designed to be recharged, but they had similar limitations to ordinary alkaline cells, as described below, and do not seem to have caught on.You cannot recharge alkaline batteries that have gone flat, or that have any signs of leakage. Best results are obtained by recharging after less than 50% of the available power has been used, so you need to check the voltage (or use a battery condition meter) and recharge well before the battery approaches the "exhausted" state. Probably best to recharge before the voltage drops below 1.3 V on open circuit. Certainly before 1.2 V is reached.The recharging also has to be done at a relatively low current, so a charger of this type will not usually be capable of high-speed charging. Thus the possible 10 recharge cycles are not as exciting as one might initially imagine. As soon as there is any sign of leakage the cell must be discarded. It would not make sense to try to recharge cells that are nearing their expiry date. One practical solution is to keep two sets of batteries, one set for use and the other for charging.The relatively slow charge rate is not really such a disadvantage. Your NiMh cells will also live longer if they are not charged at too high a current. For the money, this is a good buy. PS I cannot find any information that it is safe to recharge 1.5V Lithium cells, so these are best avoided, unless you know different?

All round a good charger. It has independent charging channels, a clear screen showing charge state and proper delta-v termination for ni-mh cells. The fact it can charge alkaline non-rechargeable batteries too is an interesting bonus (though don't do this if they're fully flat or have been recharged more than a couple of times already).However, it has one major problem. The battery slots are too short! I don't understand what they were thinking when they designed this as they are simply way too tight. Most of my rechargeable cells (eneloop based) will fit in with a good push, but they are really hard to prise out again when charged and have been in so tightly that removing them leaves deep scratches on the base of the battery and will more often than not tear the wrapper as well, which could end up not being very safe in the long run.Seriously, in other aspects it's a good charger. Why could they not have tested it before production to be sure not to make such simple mistake?... Actually, I have just found a way to sort of fix this. I simply used a pair of pliers to squash the negative contacts down a bit. This makes it much easier to remove batteries and stops them from scratching so badly or ripping the wrapping. It is still a tighter fit than any other charger I've tried but much better than before.