FYI: Powerex MH-C9000 AA / AAA Charger Operation

[travelinbeat]

BACKSTORY:
I will be the first to admit that I am pretty inept when it comes to understanding things like mah and voltage and charge, and so it was with a rather distinct feeling of reservation that I almost begrudgingly slipped from disposable AA's to rechargeables.  I did lots of homework and was satisfied with the reviews I read here for the Sanyo 2700's and the Powerex MH-C9000 charger, so that's what I went with.  After a couple of months though, I found the device to be finicky as hell, sometimes telling me that a battery is charged only to have it die a very short time later.  I read and read and re-read the instructions to no avail, and finally called the company, explained what I was doing, and was politely and professionally informed that I was doing it wrong (no surprise).  The big surprise was that no where in the instructs does it ever give the straight-forward operating procedure that I was told on the phone, so I'm posting it here to document it and archive it in the great brain of taper-dom that is TS.  Hopefully it helps someone in the future.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS:

• Charge your batteries at 1/2 of their capacity when prompted to enter "charge rate" (my Sanyo 2700's get charged at either 1300 or 1400ma)
• Discharge your batteries at 1/4 of their capacity when prompted to enter "discharge rate" (my Sanyo 2700's get discharged at either 600 or 700ma)

simple right???  I have no idea why they wouldn't just print that in their manual!

[fmaderjr]

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS:

• Charge your batteries at 1/2 of their capacity when prompted to enter "charge rate" (my Sanyo 2700's get charged at either 1300 or 1400ma)
• Discharge your batteries at 1/4 of their capacity when prompted to enter "discharge rate" (my Sanyo 2700's get discharged at either 600 or 700ma)

simple right???  I have no idea why they wouldn't just print that in their manual!

These instructions are very puzzling to me. They should work fine, but as I understand it, these rates have more to do with how fast the charger completes its operations than how successful the charger will be at charging the battery adequately. Using faster speeds, though, will reduce the number of times the battery can be charged or recharged.

This charger is very inconvenient to use compared to the LaCrosse BC-900 (which is why I got the BC-900), since you have to enter the rates separately for each battery you are charging, so I think many if not most, users simply use the default rates and it apparently works fine that way.