Gary Coffman wrote:
... Ted Edwards ... wrote:
Your friend was correct in recommending NiMH rechargeables,
you can get a decent set of 4 and a charger for about
$10 if you look for sales. Never need to pay more than
about $15.

Please don't do that! Those cheap chargers are either constant current
or timer terminated. Pay somewhat more and you can charge your
batteries whenever you feel like it without worrying about state of
charge. Ray-o-vac has a good charger but, personally, I like the Maha
line. My 204 isn't as versatile as some of the newer ones but it works
well. I paid Cdn$30 for it a couple years ago.
For example, see http://www.thomas-distributing.com/batteries.htm

Absolutely right! Get the MaHa charger. It will make your batteries
live longer because it won't abuse the batteries.

Disagree. I purchased an MH-C204F (and 4 MaHa batteries) 2.5 years
ago from Thomas and stopped using it 2 years ago after it ruined
2 sets of batteries. It apparently didn't turn off the fast charge
rate when the batteries were charged. The batteries overheated and
their plastic covers blistered and I got a very slight burn taking
them out of the charger.

My other charger (3 years old, obscure-brand POWERhaus Rapid Charger
PC-81) still works ok. I bought the 204 so I could charge 2 sets of 4
at once. After the first overheating incident on 25 July 2001, with my
Maha set of batteries, voltages on that set were reasonable (about 1.36V
each, straight off the charger) and the batteries appeared to work ok
for a while, but over the next few weeks or months their capacity
appeared to drop, and they now read 0 volts and won't take a charge.
The next day (26 July 2001) I put a different set of batteries
on the charger and checked every 15 minutes whether the red light had
gone off and green light come on, which happened after 2.5 hours, and
I decided the first incident had been a fluke. But eventually the
204 ruined another set of batteries and I stopped using it.

I agree with the advice to get a good charger with automatic
shutoff, but disagree that the Maha 204 is "absolutely right".
-jiw