IQ-328 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester AA AAA NiMH NiCd

I have two other more expensive chargers but they don't work any better than these. I liked it so much, I bought a second one. The first one I've had almost 2 years now and not a glitch or missed cut off. I chose this model because first, the low price and second because of the higher charging current capabilities. The higher capacity batteries would take all day with other chargers. These have the 1000mA x 4 or 1800mA x 2 capability plus everything else as described. Four independent and separately controlled slots is great because I have AAA batteries as well and some devices use 1 or 3 batteries. Charges each battery to whats needed plus checks capacity and reconditions as well. Everything you need and want in a charger and nothing else. Has worked great with all brands I have (Duracell, Energizer, Rayovac, Sanyo, Tenergy...) Bought with Sanyo Eneloops' and all were shipped fast. Definitely recommend this product and seller.

I bought this after reading reviews about rechargable batteries and chargers untill my head ached. I figured out that was futile, and I couldn't go wrong just going by what Nlee The Engineer recomends. I still think that's great advise and want to thank him for taking the time for all his great reviews and I hope it doesn't seem like I'm second guessing him. I bought this when his earlier reviews gave it 5 stars. He's since lowered it to 3 stars because of problems when charging 4 batteries at 1000mA. I might have bought a different charger, but I'm really happy with this charger. I've got 32 Enellops and a bunch of older Rayovac and Energizer AA batteries, so I use the charger a lot. I'm not nearly as smart as the smart chargers, and have only used the charge and refresh modes. I use 500mA most of the time and ocassionaly 700mA. I couldn't be happier with this charger and the Eneloops. It does what I need it to do, and was priced right.

I've had several AA / AAA chargers over the years and even converted some hobby charger to test suspect batteries. Last decent charger I bought was a LaCrosse BC500 that lasted 1 year before the display went bad. After reading up on this charger that has been sold in Europe and the UK over the last year I decided to give it a shot as it had excellent reviews. Very solid charger, well built and smart in design. Buttons and body are stout, and interface is well thought out. You dont need to select the cell like many chargers, controls work the last cell inserted. You can opt to put in all 4 cells and control all the same making charging setup quick. And yes, you can charge or discharge, test all together at different voltages by setting each cell then moving to the next. Tested actual battery mah to 2 other chargers on 3 separate cells and it's very accurate to other readings. Heat sensor protection makes it safe to operate (haven't gone over 105F yet @ .7 amps). All in all this is a perfect charger for those that want all the info you could use to determine your cells are working well. Easy to use and looks built to last, much more so then any competitive priced chargers I've come across. 2/7/13 Update. After buying a 2nd unit and running extensive testing along with some other users I've found some limitations that were unexpected. It seems at times it may false peak running full power 1.0amp x 4 cells. 2 other users reported this and it happened to me as well after many test runs. I've never had any issues running 4x .7amp charges and it's been 100% reliable at that setting (AA). So if your not set on running 4 cells at 1 amp and 3 hour or less charges are fine, it's still a very good charger for those condition. Recommend .7amps for AA and .5amps for AAA. Stick with those settings and you should be good to go. Also, 1.0 and 1.5 amp charges should be fine for 2 cell charges in slots 1 and 4.

This seems like a great charger, it has lots of options and does charge each bay individually. This also provides information about the status of each battery, voltage, milliamps, and milliamp hours. It allows you to charge, deplete and recharge to condition the battery, and to analyze the battery. The part I was mistaken about was the analyzing of the batteries. I figured I'd put one in there and get a reading of the MA/MAH. Turns out though, to get this you have to allow the charger to "do its thing" which is I think a condition cycle and then a re-charge. Doing all of this takes a long time. So finding out the status of a battery isn't that easy or quick. The charging part is handy, you can charge at different rates - 200, 500, 750, 1000ma rates - a great feature if you want to slow charge a battery vs. doing it quickly. So the features of this are amazing and at an amazing price. This isn't a simple fast or slow charger and that is all - it is way more. But sadly I really wanted to know easily and quickly if some of the older nimh batteries I had were worth keeping or recycling - and this isn't quick or easy to find this out. I'm sure it is worth the money, especially since you can drain and re-charge (condition) a battery and maybe give it new life instead of assuming it is ready for the recycle bin. UPDATE: I have spent some time working with this charger. It can be a simple plug and charge unit, but it is worth going beyond that. You can change the charging amperage going from a slow charge to a fast charge, and everywhere in between. Fast charging is super fast. You can re-energize older batteries by using the conditioning mode. Activating features and understanding the many display options are a challenge - I'm a tech guy and I struggled to understand it all. But I did and have found this to be a great unit. The end of whatever cycle you use (there are 4 modes) it is possible to see the MAH rating of the battery so you can decide to keep or recycle based on how well it rates (press display even when it displays the word FULL until you see MAH). Just note that the MAH will change from MAH to AH automatically when it exceeds 1000mah, which is typical on AA nimh batteries. I would HIGHLY recommend this if you are inclined to take the time to learn the charger and allow the batteries to go through a process of conditioning - which can take a day to drain and recharge (or whatever else it does) to condition these batteries. You won't waste getting rid of older batteries that are still okay or new batteries that aren't up to par.

I read the reviews for this product end to end, and pretty much knew what to expect when ordering two units. Proper [smart] charging extends battery life, and not only does this charger revive older NiMh batteries, it works for some alkalines too. I'm not sure it was advertised as being able to do that, but I stand firmly by my personal charging experience. EDIT One the chargers - the one that gets the most use - started to leak fluid and failed altogether. I contacted the company for advice, but nothing but Simon and Garfunkel came from them . . . . the sound of silence. EDIT 2: As I still hadn't received a response from the makers of the charger, I searched Amazon for a replacement. For a similar price I found a smart charger that will charge 10 batteries - AA + AAA - plus 2, 9 volt batteries. Excellent! EBL 12 Bay LCD AA AAA 9V Battery Charger for Rechargeable Batteries, New Released It's made by EBL

Initially I really loved this thing. It did a great job of charging my AA and AAA batteries. After a few months it didn't charge as well. At first it didn't really register with me that the unit might be failing. But last night I plugged it in and the display just showed very faintly with all of the LCD segments on. I unplugged it, plugged it in again, pressed the mode and display buttons but nothing changed. Reasoning that the display might be whacked but the charger still functional I inserted 2 new and 2 never before used Amazon Basics AA batteries. After a few hours the batteries were very warm and the charger very hot with a strong chemical smell. I removed the batteries but left the charger plugged in. 2 hours later a small spot on the charger's plastic case was melted.

I've bought about 30 NiMH batteries over the years, but still end up buying alkaline cells because I had no way to reliably assess the health of the NiMH batteries. I just couldn't depend on them, especially in view of the fact that cells with different capacities used in series can lead to reverse charging and permanent damage. I dreamed of building a computer controlled battery charger / analyzer but never got around to it. My investment in rechargeable batteries was just not panning out. Enter the IQ-328, which I settled on by reading excellent customer reviews on Amazon. It has transformed my NiMH experience in just one short week. i have put all my batteries through the Discharge / Recharge cycle to find out where they stand. Several of them had, in fact, been pulled down to such low voltages that they needed a jump start in a dumb charger to come up to the threshold that the IQ-328 would recognize and work with. After crossing that particular hurdle, it's been a very smooth operation to assess the cells. A few of them are candidates for the Refresh procedure that sequentially Discharges and Charges them until they have had maximal recovery. I look forward to finding out how much improvement there is. All the remaining cells have been recharged to their rated capacity, including 8 which are over 10 years old at this point. My one observation to pass along is that charging terminated prematurely in perhaps three of the cells. The main signal that the charger relies on to stop charging is a drop in cell voltage as charging approaches full. This may have happened early for some spurious reason. At any rate, it was pretty obvious that these cells didn't take the same charge as their peers. Running them through another Discharge / Charge cycle showed that they were actually fine after all. There is a bit of a learning curve, because the instructions are ambiguous as they relate to processing multiple cells simultaneously. At first, I was ending up with cells being Discharged and Charged at different rates when I wanted them all to use the same rate. I can usually get it to work the way I want on the first try now, though I'm not 100% sure I know its logic. Another insight I have gained is that NiMH cells (except for the low self-discharge ones such as Eneloop) lose their charge relatively quickly. That being the case, it seems wise to give the cells a boost charge just before they are to be put in service. With these very minor issues in mind, I'm very pleased with this device. It has transformed the way I approach the use of batteries in my many electronic gizmos.

[Important Update on June 20, 2013] My initial impression on the IQ-328 was most positive (hence the original 5-star rating). However, I have now determined that the design has a serious thermal limitation. When charging 4 cells at 1000mA, it may trip over-temperature protection and shutdown. So I have to reduce the rating to 3-star, meaning 'It's Okay'. But I can no longer recommend it over the BC1000 or BC-700. I used an Infrared gun to measure the battery temperature during charging at 1000mA. A few cells reached ~60 degree C and tripped thermal shutdown. This by itself is not a big problem since it shows that thermal protection is working. But after I removed the back cover of the charger, I detected several 'hot spots' (around 70 degree C) on the circuit board right under the battery contacts. So the charger is actually sending heat through the batteries contacts, causing the batteries to over-heat. This is just bad thermal design! In contrast, the BC1000 also has hot spots on its circuit board, but the heat is directed away from batteries. I should point out that: although battery at 60 degree C is too hot to hold, it is a far cry from 'Fire Hazard'. The charger still works correctly if you don't exceed charging current of 700mA. Or you may use a fan to blow the heat away from batteries. ==== Original Review follows ==== I got interested in this product ( AccuPower IQ-328 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester ) because it advertises exactly the same functionality and specifications as the La Crosse Technology Alpha Power Battery Charger BC1000 . That makes me suspect the two products have the same control circuit inside, just with minor cosmetic changes. It turns out that I was right... mostly. The two chargers are basically identical, except for the following differences 1. Unlike the BC1000, the IQ-328 does not have any 'slot-selection' buttons. That means whatever MODE or CURRENT you select will be applied to all four cells. Personally I like to have the flexibility of BC1000, although most other people will probably never miss it. 2. The IQ-328 package only contains the AC adapter and charger unit. It does not come with any bonus items found in the BC1000 package, namely: 4xAA + 4xAAA cells, 4xC + 4xD cell adapters, and a carrying bag. Other than the above, both chargers have exactly the same functionality: [Size] Both products have the same 2-peice design (AC adapter + charger unit). The two charger units are similar in shapes, with AccuPower IQ-328 being a tiny bit larger. See the picture I uploaded to 'Customer Images' section for a side-by-side comparison. [LCD Panel] Both units have a LCD panel that displays the status for all four cells simultaneously. The two panels are laid out differently, but they convey exactly the same information. See my uploaded image and you'll notice what I mean. You can press the DISPLAY button to scan through the status information for all cells, including Current (mA), Voltage (V), Capacity (mAh) and Time (h). There are no backlights, so numbers can be difficult to read under dim light. [Charging Current] The default current is 200mA. After you insert the batteries, you can press the CURRENT button (within 8 seconds) to step up the current to 500/700/1000mA for 1-4 cells, or up to 1500/1800mA if only slots 1 and 4 are occupied [Operations] The same four modes are available for both chargers. You have to press and hold the MODE button over 3 seconds to select mode. - CHARGE: This is the default operation. If you insert a cell and don't press any buttons in 8 seconds, the unit starts charging at 200mA. Note that for AA cells this current is too low. So you should press the CURRENT button to increase the charging current to 500mA or 700mA. - TEST: Use this operation to measure the capacity of your batteries. It starts by giving the cells a full charge, then discharge it to measure its capacity (mAh). In the end it charges the batteries back to full. Note: it is a BAD idea to run TEST on a fully charged cell. - REFRESH: This is the most useful operation if you need to revive under-performing cells. It starts by discharging the cell (measuring its capacity at the same time), then recharge it back to full, and discharge it again, If the two capacity numbers are close enough, the operation stops. Otherwise it will repeat the Charge/Discharge cycle until no more improvement can be observed. - DISCHARGE: Discharges the battery at 100mA default current until its voltage drops to 0.9V, then recharge it back to full. Personally I never find this operation to be of any real value. [Accuracy] I tested a set of four eneloop AA rechargeable batteries , by putting them through REFRESH operation and measure their capacities. The capacity readings I got from both chargers are remarkably consistent, typically within 1% from each others. This suggests that the two chargers are using the exact same control algorithm and circuit inside. [Quirks] Sadly, the same limitations of BC1000 are also are found in the IQ-328: - If the charger is already running at 500mA, for example, you cannot subsequently increase the current to 700mA. You need to remove all cells in order to do that. - If you insert a cell that is completely drained (terminal voltage below 0.5V), the charger cannot detect it and the display says 'null'. [CONCLUSION] Except for the minor differences noted above, the AccuPower IQ-328 is practically identical to the La Crosse BC1000. As of this writing, the IQ-328 is priced at just 60% that of the BC1000, similar to the less-capable BC-700 . That makes it an excellent value if you don't care for the bonus items included in the BC1000 package. [Update on Feb 20, 2013] I need to point out a potential problem with the IQ-328. If you recharge 4 AA cells at 1000mA, the cells may get hot enough for the charger to enter 'thermal hiccup'. That means it stops charging for a few minutes until the cells cool down, then resumes charging. The capacity reading (mAh) is preserved and the cells do finish charging eventually. So you may not even notice this unless you monitor the charging current closely. It appears that the thermal shut-off threshold for IQ-328 is set lower than that for the BC1000. In any case, it is better to use 700mA for AA cells.