Rechargeable batteries are great but they’re kind of an investment especially if you buy good quality ones. I have four sets of four batteries and for that kind of cash you don’t want to ruin them with some junk charger you found in a bargain bin. The La Crosse BC-900 battery charger isn’t new, but I’ve been using one now for almost a year and I’m very impressed with it.

The BC-900 is like a massager for your batteries that takes care of them after a long hard day takes their shoes off and brings them back to life. It does this by allowing you to vary the charging current. The lowest charging current is 200mA which charges 2600mAh batteries in about 15 hours. This is the slowest setting and should keep your batteries going for 200 charge cycles. If you need a quick charge, then crank it all to 11 1000mAh which will charge them in 2-4 hours. Each battery slot is completely independent of the others so you can monitor each battery as it charges and check how long it’s been charging, the charging voltage and current and most importantly how much charge each battery has stored. It will even cut the charging if the battery gets too hot. There’s also a battery rejuvenator setting that I haven’t tried as yet, that can sometimes bring dead batteries back to life. It cycles the batteries, charging and discharging them 20 times.

I know it all sounds very complicated and geeky and sure there’s plenty of fun to be had if you’re into that kind of stuff, but you don’t have to use any of it. If you just want a good quality battery charger that’s simple to use then this is the one you need. Just stick your batteries in and wait until it says FULL, you don’t need to do any more than that.

The package comes with a carry bag, four AA and four AAA batteries as well as four C and four D adaptors. The adaptors allow you to insert AA batteries into a device designed for C or D cells. The BC-900 is $US79.99 from La Crosse but shop around because plenty of places sell them. Highly recommended.

• Works with all NiCad and NiMH “AA” and “AAA” Rechargeable Batteries
• LCD shows capacity for each battery when charging is complete
• Charges AA & AAA rechargeable batteries simultaneously
• Will not charge defective batteries
• Select different charging current for each channel

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