Powerex MH-C980 Turbo Charger Analyzer for AA/AAA Batteries

With this very electronically-based lifestyle many of us have adapted, I realized I was frequently buying new batteries for our remote controls, 'emergency' flashlights, etc. I no longer need to purchase new AA/AAA batteries after purchasing this amazing Powerex MH-C980 Turbo Charger Analyzer. I have the plastic containers of fully recharged batteries near my TV remotes and in my office. This. energy positive practice makes me satisfied that I am not wasting more natural resources but reusing what I have and saving money.

This charger has fewer settings than the Maha Powerex MH9000 which I also have, but it does the analyze or charge at both standard and turbo modes, the turbo being double the standard charge rate. This would only be useful if you need a lot of quick turnover. I typically use the standard charge or analyze. Be aware that the analyze function takes quite a while. I mainly use it overnight. Definitely a 5 star product!

Great charger! A little noisy, as others have mentioned, but well worth the purchase price for the conditioning feature alone. I have a lot of old Energizer rechargeable NiMH batteries that I reconditioned after attempting an initial charge on them. My results were: Initial charge (AA batteries) on the Powerex MH-C980: Charged mAh (mfg rated mAh) 1. 338 (2000) 2. 318 (2000) 3. 299 (2000) 4. 343 (2000) 5. 1294 (2000) 6. 353 (2000) 7. 2975 (2500) 8. 1250 (2000) Reconditioning 1. 2200 (2000) 2. 2136 (2000) 3. 2225 (2000) 4. 2050 (2000) 5. 2095 (2000) 6. 2172 (2000) 7. Not reconditioned (2500) 8. 2109 (2000) I was pleasantly surprised at how effective the reconditioning was. My only issue with the charger was that the instructions did not say anything about how to insert AAA batteries into the charger. I must be a little dense, because it took me a while to figure it out. To recharge AAA batteries, you simply insert the negative end of the battery first (at an angle with the positive end of the battery up) and slide it until the negative end touches the smaller negative charging terminal and then push the positive end of the battery straight down to make the contact at that end. I was imagining that the negative terminals would somehow pop up to make the contact, but they do not. The little black button in each charging bay near the negative terminal is depressed when you insert a AAA battery, directing power to the AAA electrodes instead. Duh!

When it works it is great. BUT . . . it does NOT have overcharge protection. I damaged/ruined several batteries by overcharging. Some were charged to over 5,000mAH/5AH. One was charged to over 8,000mAH. These were 2800mAH batteries. They were so HOT, that I could not touch the batteries. I had to use a towel to remove the HOT batteries. I will NOT do an overnight charge. I now have to check the charger after 2-1/2 to 3 hours, to see if the charger stopped charging when the battery was charged, or if is overcharging the battery. This is the second charger that did this. 2 fails out of 2 chargers = will not buy one again.

What I like: Simple, Easy to Use Has a condition mode Has room for eight batteries What I do not Like: The eight slots really are not independent No mode for enoloop batteries The fan is loud and starts up as soon as the charge cycle starts Hard to tell what mode it is in That said I will be keeping the charger, it will be replacing my Panasonic charger, which has many of the same problems. Much to be said about being simple. You really do need a charger with a condition (Break In) mode. When in the condition mode a battery will finish the charge and rest mode, but the discharge mode will not start until all the batteries finish the charge and rest cycles. Then they all start the discharge mode at the same time, not so independent slots. My more expensive Skyrc has special settings for enoloop batteries because they have slightly different chemistry. This charger does not. My Skyrc charger uses the temperature sensors to control the fans, so they only run when needed. Yes, it has two fans so that they can run slower and make less noise. This charger runs the fans during the whole charge cycle. Maybe there should be a mode where the charge current is reduced when the batteries get hot instead of having a fan. The display shows charge mode even in the rest mode, wish it had an indicator for rest and discharge modes. I ran the condition mode on a set of batteries. I had no idea what shape the batteries were in, so I recorded the capacity and ran the condition mode again. Repeated until the capacity stop increasing. One battery had readings of 1933, 1952, 1959, and 1963. Wish the condition mode would remember capacity readings and could auto repeat. After the batteries stopped increasing their capacity, I put the batteries in my Skyrc charger, hooked it up to my computer to chart the voltage and ran three cycles of discharge, rest, charge, and rest. A few batteries fail this test with erratic discharge voltages. Back to the condition mode for them. I wish the charger had some indication when the batteries were healthy. A chart is attached to show the voltages recorded by my computer and the Skyrc charger for a battery where the capacity stopped increasing with repeat condition cycles but was not healthy. Wish I did not have to run my computer overnight to find out the health of a battery.

a good charger for AA/AAAs is a thing I own for latest two decades. I owned a LaCrosse BC-700 (twice), a Maha Powerex C800, C940 and the C980. the 980 is my favourite. it's easy to operate. the downside is that you cannot set a couple of batteries to 'condition' and leave the rest only to charge. there's only one mode active for all batteries, it might be a plus or a minus. selecting the settings for every channel on LaCrosse if I wanted just to charge 4 batteries was sometimes complex as well. eight batteries isn't that much. and the charger is light and compact. and fast, right.

I previously had a Powerex model that had just 4 battery slots but more advanced features. But I like this one better - I can charge 8 batteries at the same time, and the usage is dead simple. Basically just put in the batteries. I like how when finished charging, the display cycles through the slots showing the number of mAH that each battery accepted. Simple and convenient - glad I bought it.

I've had this product for a few months and a few hundred battery charges. This charger successfully resurrected a couple of dozen "dead" AA batteries. All features function as promised. The user interface is not fully intuitive, and I had to take a quick peek at the user manual to understand how to use the features (like setting feature upon inserting the first battery). Not an issue, just something to read and understand. Overall this is an excellent smart charger.

Arrived promptly, good price, product as advertised. Like other reviewers I note that some AAA size batteries will problematic in this charger because the negative terminal is so small. However, it does accomodate my my Amazon Basics AAA batteries. Provides useful charge and discharge info. I wish that it could report voltage, but the charger works well and as-advertised.

I bought this one because I wanted a charger that could actually tell me if th ebattery was any good. Speed charges that came with the NiMH batteries tended to say the battery was no longer useful (for a speed charge) after only a few months. Great for the manufacturer, not so much for the consumer. I had to always go back to the slow charger that came with the battery (old school) because it at least apeared to charge the battery. This charger actually tells you how much charge (in mAh) EACH battery took. Simple comparison of that figure against the battery capacity, and you know if the battery works or not. First thing I did was to charge all the batteries I had using the Conditioner mode to see if they were recoverable. That takes 24H. Charger showed that 2 out of 15 were no longer useful. I highly recommend this charger. Really easy to use. Of the eight slots, each slot is handled like it own charger. Mix and match AA and AAA as much as you want. The charger keeps track of everything.

Concept is good, but implementation fails. Ran two full sets of AAA NiMH batteries without issues. On the 3rd try (this time with AA), it stopped working - screen blank and just a quiet ticking sound from the box. Returned for refund, but still waiting for funds.

As always a great product from Maha. Charges all your batteries perfectly and conditions old batteries to work again. Only downside is this unit is much louder than older models due to the cooling fan.

This charger is certainly a great item to have with the rechargeable batteries, the turbo mode is super fast, and the refresh mode works perfectly. 5/5!