On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:56:35 +0000, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

I have a Tronic KH980 charger, from Lidl,
which seems reasonably good.
Is there any point in paying more
for a so-called intelligent charger?

But I was wondering what it means
if you get a flashing red light when a battery is inserted.
Does it mean that the battery is useless?
I get it occasionally even with new batteries.

From the "manual":-

1. The LED blinks alternatively red and green : the batteries are
being disharged for max. 10 minutes (Refresh-Function)

2. The LED blinks green : the charge of the batteries is being
checked and afterwards being charged with a battery-sparing impulse
loading for ca. 3 minutes at a reduced charging current.

3. The LED glows continuously red : the batteries are being charged.

4. The LED continuously glows gree : Batteries are fully charged.

5. The LED blinks red : the inserted batteries are not positioned
correctly in the charging slot or are defective.

Note : should type C or D batteries be charged in the outer charging
slots, the operating condition is displayed by the inner LEDs.