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Powergenix- 5 Hour Fast Charger with 4 AA 1.6v NiZn

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Powergenix- 5 Hour Fast Charger with 4 AA 1.6v NiZn

(38 customer reviews)

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SKU:

ZR-PGX5HRAA-4B

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Features

Fast 3 - 5 Hour NiZn Charger w/ 4AA NiZn Batteries
Charges 2 or 4 AA or 2 AAA NiZn rechargeable batteries at a time (Charge in Pairs or all Four)
Simple LED lights indicate charging status
Universal voltage for ease of use while traveling
Easy to use charges NiZn cells to 80% in 3 hours trickle charge to full in 5 Hours

Description

PowerGenix Fast Charger delivers an efficient charge at a great value. Charge your AA or AAA NiZn batteries in about five hours. Charges to 80% in 3 hours trickle charges to full in 5 Hours. Charges 2 or 4 AA or 2 AAA NiZn rechargeable batteries at a time (charge in pairs or all four). Features a built-in "switching" power supply which will automatically adjust to any voltage from 100-240VAC for international use. The PowerGenix Fast Charger is intended for use with eco-friendly NiZn batteries only. NiZn technology is perfectly suited for high-tech devices like MP3 players, digital cameras, toys, and LED lights. Experience the Power by making the change to cutting-edge, environmentally friendly PowerGenix NiZn Chargers and Batteries today!

Product Details

Product Length:	1.75 inches
Product Width:	3.75 inches
Product Height:	7.0 inches
Product Weight:	0.45 pounds
Package Length:	8.2 inches
Package Width:	4.1 inches
Package Height:	1.5 inches
Package Weight:	0.45 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 38 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 3.5

( 38 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 111 found the following review helpful:

Pick the package with '1-hour' charger instead Feb 05, 2010 By NLee the Engineer
The Powergenix ZR-PGX5HRAA-4B 5-Hour Fast Charger package is priced slightly cheaper than the one with an '1-hour' charger (PowerGenix ZR-PGX1HRAA-4B). Some people may feel that slower charging rate means less stress to the battery, hence better for its lifespan, but that's not necessarily true in this case.

The difference between charging rates of PowerGenix '1-hour' and '5-hour' chargers is not as great as the names suggest. The '1-hour' unit charges at 1500mA maximum, but only for 1-2 cells. For 3-4 cells the current is reduced to 700mA. So it takes about 2 hours (in constant-current mode) to charge 4 cells to 80%, and then another 30 minutes (in constant-voltage mode) to top-off the charge. The '5-hour' unit charges at 500mA for 2 or 4 cells. So it takes about 3 hours to charge to 80%, and then another 1-2 hours to top-off.

Does charging a NiZn cell at higher rate make its capacity deteriorate much faster? PowerGenix has not provided any data so far, so we can only estimate the effect based on data for NiMH cells. It is true that faster charging rate generally means shorter battery lifespan for NiMH cells. However, the penalty is most severe when charging at current greater than 1C. For example, '15-min' (4C) or '30-minute' (2C) chargers are very bad for battery lifespan. Between '2-hour' (0.5C) and '5-hour' (0.2C) chargers, the impact is negligible.

According to spec sheet for Rayovac 1800mAh NiMH AA cell: if a cell is slow-charged at 0.1C, its capacity will drop by 5% after 200 cycles. But if the cell is fast-charged at 1C, then the capacity will drop by 10% after 200 cycles (discharge rate=1C in both cases). The difference is small enough, so it is fine to choose an 1-hour charger to save some time.

In this particular case, the PowerGenix '1-hour' (actually more like a '2.5-hour') charger is a much better value than the '5-hour' charger, but not because of different charging rates. The real problem is that the '5-hour' unit can only charge in pairs. So if you start with two cells having different amount of charge in them, then one cell will be over-charged. Unlike NiMH cells which are very tolerant to over-charging, NiZn cells are not as forgiving when over-charged. That, is the real reason why this slower '5-hour' charger is more damaging in terms of battery lifespan.

[Update on Jan 31, 2011]
Here are some additional details on the charging process of NiZn cell, which should help to explain the fundamental flaw of this PowerGenix '5-hour' charger.

NiZn cells must be charged in a 2-stage process, similar to that for Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries:
- Stage 1: charge in constant-current mode (at a fixed 500mA in this case) until the voltage across each cell reaches 1.90V
- Stage 2: charge in constant-voltage mode (at a fixed 1.90V), while the current gradually decreases with time. Stop when current drops to below 10%, or when timer expires (5 hour in this case)

When two NiZn cells are charged in series, only their combined voltage is monitored during charging. The charger will proceed to stage 2 when the combined voltage has reached 3.8V. If the two cells have different amount of remaining charges in them (due to variation in capacities or self-discharge rates), then one cell voltage may have risen to 1.90V, while the other one is still at 1.80V. But the charger will not proceed to stage 2, because the combined voltage is still below 3.8V. So from this point on, the first cell will be overcharged, which subsequently lead to reduced capacity and lifespan.

20 of 20 found the following review helpful:

Good batteries -- bad charger Dec 30, 2009 By Eric D. Hubbard
I liked the high voltage -- however the charger suffers from what for me is a fatal flaw. It only charges 2 or 4 batteries at a time. This means if you have 1 dead battery and 1 good battery -- it will see the good battery and not charge the dead battery.

Sucks for me -- as I have a few devices that take 1 or 3 batteries. I also had to figure it out the hard way.

I'd like to get a better charger and experiment with the batteries.. they have high promise. They sure made my book light bright!

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Outstanding replacement for devices expecting alkaline batteries Jan 18, 2010 By JustDave "mengineer"
While I have only been using these batteries for about three months, I can tell you that they have more than lived up to their billing. Their higher voltage has made the difference in operation of our walkie-talkies, remote controlled cars, cameras, and even an external battery pack for my iPhone that now actually WORKS when using these (instead of NiMH rechargeables). They have also worked very well with my external keyboard and mouse. Warning: The higher voltage does not always make a difference (you'll have to determine that), but where it does, it is night-and-day in performance difference.

I will update this review when I finally hit 100 recharging cycles on a set, but I am not there yet. Still, I am at just over 14 and the charger still seems to be working with a 100% consistent delivery of batteries with at least 11.7 amps (as measured by my Fluke multimeter) measured 24 hours after complete charging.

So far, I am extremely happy with these batteries and wish they would have come out a decade ago!

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

wow, great batteries Mar 09, 2010 By James "merddyn"
I'm REALLY surprised that these things last as long as they do. It's not QUITE as long as a non-rechargable, but WAY WAY longer than normal rechargables. We got 4 and a charger and a few weeks later ended up getting 8 more. Wish these came in AAA size!!! Best rechargables we've ever owned.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

reusable, recyclable, saves money Mar 11, 2010 By Javi
PROS: Works great! So far I have tried them on speakers and flashlights. Having something reusable and recyclable these days is a must. Plus it saves you money anyway from having to buy all those alkaline batteries.

CON: Voltage may be too high for some devices. I was gonna use them in a Nikon Speedflash, but the manual specifically says not to use batteries over 1.5 Volts. It would be nice if these batteries could be used in more items. At 100% charge, these batteries actually reach ~1.8V. Just make sure your device can handle over 1.5 V before you use them.

See all 38 customer reviews on Amazon.com