Powerex MH-C9000PRO Professional Charger-Analyzer

Powerex MH-C9000PRO released oct 2020 is the new version of the MH-C9000 which has been consistently rated as the best nimh battery charger in most online "top list". it gets this rating for good reason, its simple and lets you choose how you want to charge your batteries. unlike the previous model this updated version no longer has the "cycle" function where you can tell it to cycle your cells a given amount of times. however this isn't really required as "refresh and analyze" run multiple times could do the same. with the new version you do get a much better design, and a light that you Don't have to fiddle with buttons to turn off. what you do get are four simple modes, "Charge" - real simple put your battery in and select your charge rate from 200 milliamp to 2.0 A in 100 milliamp increments "break-in" - after inserting a cell you will have to enter the capacity of the cell. from there the charger applies a 16 hour charge .1C then a 1 hour rest a .2c discharge of the battery, a rest again followed by another .1C charge. C being = to the batteries capacity. this will overcharge the battery to its maximum, any excess being converted to heat, or hydrogen gas bleeding off through the vents. "Discharge" - a simple cycle to discharge the battery and not recharge it, just select your discharge rate. "refresh and analyze" - a very simple charge, discharge, charge cycle at the charging and discharge rate you choose and a capacity will be displayed at the end. the charger does have a 10 milliamp trickle charge while the cycles are finished, except discharge. a bit unnecessary for a low self discharge battery and a 2 hour top off charge of 100 milliamp after the charge cycle cuts off at 1.47 volts. which the cut off could be triggered by the battery temperature. for a 60 - 70 dollar charger its not bad, but the top off charge and trickle charge are not really needed with the new low self discharge batteries. its better then a timer cut off, but could use the ability to stop at the voltage drop. short of spending more then twice as much on the sky rc mc3000 or the slightly cheaper sky rc mc2600 where you can set a charging program custom to what you want, this is about as good as it gets. your only other option would be use an ardunio to build your own charger. with cheap cells being just over a buck and good ones just over 2 bucks is it really worth it when most of the time youll be charging at 500 - 1000 milliamp, I don't think so. so go ahead grab two, you know you'll use them.

I went into buying this product off of reading several forum about prolonging the health of my rechargeable batteries. The Powerex came up as an advanced recommendation.( Do not discard of the manual as it has excellent instruction on charging, discharging, and checking battery health and operation) So far I have been able to categorize my batteries by quality/charged capacity thanks to the Powerex - which is when pairing rechargeable

The lowdown — This Powerex stands out among premium smart charger-analyzers. It is built like a tank and has several improvements over the C9000, its older sibling I gave away. A variety of operating modes gives your rechargeable AAA/AA NiMH and NiCd batteries their healthiest and longest life, more so than similar devices. And Maha Energy Corporation, maker of Powerex, is a global leader in battery and charging solutions on an industrial scale. This is their specialty and it shows. • Operating modes — it has four, but one deserves a shout-out. Maha calls it Break-In. Batteries work better and enjoy a longer life when they are properly conditioned before first use with a so-called forming charge. This is a charge/discharge/charge cycle at very low power based on the rated capacity you enter. It takes a long time, almost two days, so plan ahead. This cycle can also be used to attempt salvage of older batteries that have stopped working. This feature is not found on other chargers. I imagine it stems from Maha's deep expertise in industrial-size battery installations. A new and unique feature is that it now remembers the last settings you used, charging rates and so on, even after powering down. This is very handy since we tend to use these chargers in the same mode most of the time. The other modes are Discharge, Charge, Refresh and Analyze. Both charging modes lead to a full battery but only Refresh and Analyze lets you determine its exact capacity. This is essential when assembling matched sets where the weakest cell determines overall performance. To achieve this it tops off the battery first, then discharges it completely to obtain its capacity in mAh, and finally charges it once more. These extra steps take a lot longer than charging alone but are the only way to get an accurate number. Note that simple charging will also produce a mAh figure. But this overstates capacity because charging consumes more energy than what gets stored. • Cutoff circuitry — overcharging batteries is a surefire way towards destruction. Smart chargers stop the charging process for NiMH and NiCd once there is a tiny voltage drop after a steady rise. This is called the delta-V method. Unlike others in this genre, the Powerex also monitors temperature of each individual cell as failsafe. • Display — the LCD is large, backlit, and highly legible. It shows operating mode and progress for each battery in a repeating and easy to understand cycle. • Built like a tank — cast from heavy-grade ABS plastic it feels unusually solid. It is also slightly larger than similar units and has more heft. All contacts are nickel-plated and have very strong spring loading. This lowers contact resistance so improves charging rates and accuracy. Its famous older brother which I have been using for years is flatter and wider. The PRO is a little higher but with a smaller footprint. You could call it more elegant. Summing up —This Powerex is your best choice if you are likely to use the extra features and are ok paying more for sophistication and build quality. _________________ Charging rates — This is the question asked most often. A good rule of thumb when using a charger with automatic cutoff such as this one is to charge at half C, where C stands for battery capacity in mAh (milliamp-hours). So if the capacity is 1,000mAh then go for 500mA. Anything higher runs the risk of heating up the battery too much. This can cause capacity loss. A bit lower, say, 0.3C will increase the amount of charge but takes longer. A much lower current makes it difficult for the charger to sense proper cutoff, inviting the risk of overcharging. NiCd versus NiMH — NiMH cells are almost always the preferred choice because, being a modern development, they simply work better. For instance, their energy density is much higher than that of NiCd. This means they will last longer before needing a recharge. And NiMH batteries suffer fewer so-called memory effects that irreversibly reduce capacity over time. They are also much less polluting since they do not contain heavy metals. NiCd cells still has an advantage is in applications requiring very high discharge rates. This is almost never the case in consumer electronics. The device would have to mention it. They also keep working in Arctic temperatures.

This is a nice smart-charger with a lot of display features, and it works as advertised. Well built. My opinion is that the controls/buttons/features are not entirely obvious and the time-lag between settings is a bit odd. You can get used to it, but the controls always require a double-check to see if settings are right.

I have been using a La Cross charger for years with my Eneloop black batteries. Some of my batteries were not performing so well after 8-10 years. The Powerex charger helped me cull out the bad ones and see how well some of the old ones are actually holding up. I have done many Refresh-Analyze cycles on my old and new batteries. I found the capacity readings much better on this charger than on my old one. It is not the easiest charger to use as you have to enter the charge and discharge rate everytime, but I think it is the best for your batteries. I also highly recommend the black Eneloop batteries, I bought another brand with high advertised capacity only to find the 8 year old eneloops had more capacity than the new ELB's which have about 70-80% of their advertised capacity. Great Charger!

Looked the most well-made charger on the market, but... 1. Fast charging my eneloop pro AA, it failed to stop even at the set capacity, became so hot the battery blistered 2. A dead cell could discharge in definitely without completing the cycle 3. After 3 months, it kept restarting in 1 min cycles amd finally couldn't power up

not sure if the charger is good or not, because I can't use it. I'm in UK and it was sent a power supply with a shaver socket. The daft thing is that the model clearly supports interchangeable heads.

Algo caro, pero es un producto muy profesional y funciona muy bien

This is by far the best charger/analyzer I’ve ever owned — even better than my Powerex MH-C9000PRO, MiBOXER C8, and TN438 units. It’s perfect for conditioning brand-new batteries, keeping stored batteries healthy, and reviving ones that have been abused by family members. I liked it so much that I bought two more almost immediately. Highly recommended for anyone serious about getting the most out of their batteries.

The Tool to Have