La Crosse Technology BC700 Alpha Power Battery Charger

Just want to let you know that the La Crosse BC-700 is the latest, newest model, since there are only about 27 Amazon reviews with first review date of Aug 2007. I decided to buy the latest and newest BC-700, instead of the older BC-900.

The La Crosse BC-900 is an older model with about 354 Amazon reviews with the first review date of Feb 2005. (With all due respect to NLee the Engineer who prefers the older model BC-900; but I prefer the newer model BC-700.)

While researching Eneloop batteries, I saw the Maha, and the La Crosse BC-700 and BC-900 battery chargers. I initially ordered the La Crosse BC-900 because BC-900 sounded logical to be newer, and the BC-700 to be older. But after much research, I found out that the BC-700 was newer, and the BC-900 was older, and I had time to cancel the older BC-900. Also, I found out that the older BC-900 has people writing about problems with burning or near-accidents, probably caused by the high end charge rates of 1000 MAH and 1800 MAH and/or defective/old batteries. Also, the older BC-900 problems of newer and older hardware internal chips. I believe the engineers at La Crosse had reasons to make the newer BC-700 and eliminating the higher 1000 MAH and 1800 MAH charge rates. I have stopped using my other Energizer PS4 1-hour "fast" charger, and will only charge my new Eneloop batteries using the Eneloop slow chargers, or the low charging rate of the La Cross BC-700 (I will use either the 200 MAH, or at most the 500 MAH rates, and prefer not to use the 700 MAH rate.)

I am in the process of changing all my NiMH batteries from Walmart 2500 MAH AA & AAA batteries to Eneloop NiMH batteries. My problem was that my regular NiMH batteries did not last too long using 2 AA batteries for my Aiptek DV5100M digital camcorder, and would sometimes die in the middle of videotaping, with resultant lost of video memories.

I ordered some Eneloop NiMH AA batteries and here is the result of my tests. Camcorder set to Record video, and the LCD display on, using 2 AA batteries: Walmart NiMH record time 51 minutes; Eneloop NiMH record time 2 hours, 46 minutes. Eneloop wins.

I was tired of the POS Wal-Mart chargers and thought this might be the reason for my short charge life in my digital camera. Decided to invest in a really good quality charger and batteries (Eneloops).
I'm pretty sure its a good charger but I find it has so many options and settings that I'm lost. I actually READ THE MANUAL!!! If I can learn how to set it for a manual recharge that may be all I need. It appears to be of good quality and features.

I bought this product though it is an older version.But it works pretty good.I havent gotten to understand its advanced features.But I will.I think it gives you total control over getting rid of memory in the batteries and then recharging them.IT CAME ON TIME AND IT WORKS

I bought this product because my older rechargeable batteries were not charging up properly with the original charger. This unit is able to recondition your old NiMh batteries and get back up to their original charge conditions.

It tells you the charge status of the battery and lets you know how long they will take to charge also. It also tells you if you have batteries that have died, etc.

This may be more expensive than most chargers, but it is well worth the money if you do a lot of battery charging.

Great product that does all it promises at a price, that in retrospect, seems too low.