On 04/04/2014 11:30, Davey wrote:
Our Duracell NiMH AA/AAA recharger has died. I have recently added some
1700 mAh batteries to the mix of original 1300 mAh ones, which may or
may not have precipitated its death. I am looking for a replacement
charger, able to sensibly recharge these, preferably in any mix.

The capacity of the battery should not affect the charger particularly -
only the length of time they take to recharge.

They must be incredibly ancient batteries to only have a stated capacity
of under 2Ah though in AA size. I didn't think they made AA NiMH in
capcities smaller than that certainly not in the last decade.

The smallest NiMH AA I have is 2Ah and the most recent ones are 2800mAh.
These days it is worth buying the slightly lower capacity but long life
low discharge types (again Aldi/Lidl sometimes have bargains).

Are there any brands/models known to be good or bad?

I'll look at Maplin, CPC, etc, but personal recommendations are always
welcome.

Lidl/Aldis own brand smart charger will do all sizes of battery
automatic NiMH NiCd detection and in any combination. It seems pretty
well behaved apart from being a little conservative about recharging
really badly discharged cells that have been seriously abused.

If you need an AA only on then Maplin do one that isn't too bad and
cheap - professional ones cost more and will do controlled fast charge.
I have the predecessor of this one for travel use:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-nim...-charger-n42bx

It is hard to buy a dumb as a rock one that will just keep adding juice
until the battery explodes these days. Product liablity prevent them
being sold, but I expect you could find nasty Chinese ones on eBay.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown