16 Bay Battery Charger/Channel Genius Fast Rechargeable Unit for NiMH AA Batteries/AAA Batteries - MD-1600L - Portable with 2 USB Outlets

This charger arrived in good condition, well-packaged and worked without incident. It has many things to like about it, very few items on the wish-list, and no cons. I have used it for several months and there's no indication of any manufacturing faults or issues. Reliability appears to be high.Pros include:* Number of batteries, of course -- it can charge a single battery and up to 16 batteries at a time. They do not need to be paired, as with some chargers, and can be of mixed sizes (AA and AAA). Position in the charger is also unimportant; you can have one in every other bay, for instance, to make it very easy to tell which is which in the LCD charging indicator.* Doesn't cook the batteries. This is one of the greatest benefits of a smart charger such as this one. It knows when to stop charging, and then holds a full battery at a trickle charge. The cells hardly get warm, which avoids harming their lifespan.* Charge indication per battery. Instead of a single LED to show that all batteries are charged, each one has its own LCD readout that flashes one through five bars to indicate its level of charge, and then it stops flashing once it reaches a full five bars and has completed the cycle.* Discharge cycle. This unit permits the user to fully discharge a battery and then recharge it from empty. This helps to condition batteries, though I usually am impatient and only charge from wherever I stopped using the battery.* Works with all NiMH that I have -- several brands, including Duracell, Eveready, off-brand, eneloop and so on. Not that I didn't expect this, but some chargers use the "works best with" ploy to push customer loyalty.* Flexible input voltage. It runs on 120V AC and also 240V AC. This flexibility is provided via the wall-wart. It also accepts a voltage-regulated 12V DC source, such as any common cigarette lighter adapter one could use in a car. It comes with a 12V DC charger, as well.* No strange smells. Some chargers I have tried over the years really off-gas a lot during charging. This one is neutral to my nose.* Offers two front-panel USB power sockets. I haven't measured the output current of these, but given that the rear info panel says 400mA max, I have to conclude that's as much as these produce. Note that this isn't really sufficient to charge power-hungry devices (such as a smart phone that's turned on) very quickly; their chargers are more typically rated at 850mA (phone) and 1800 mA (kindle). It is quite sufficient to charge my MP3 player.Wish list (which are really kinda minor, given how good this is) include:* No mAh rating. I wish this had a charge potential indicator so I knew when a battery was spent, could not be reconditioned any further, and was due for being recycled.* Cord storage is not integral to the unit. This is both a pro for some people and a con for others, since having the transformer inside of it would increase cost and make it difficult to replace. I'm fine with an external wall-wart.* Higher USB current output (see last item in the 'pro' list). It's 400mA max, which is fine to charge or run small devices, but not sufficient to charge devices with high power demands.No cons. I haven't discovered anything I would call a con. This is a reliable, flexible and well-designed charger I expect to use for many years. It's great to have on a trip, since it serves double-duty with batteries and USB. It's gentle on the batteries, and charges a pile of them at once.

I would never have thought that in a million years I would spend this much on a battery charger, but...... this one is so worth every penny!First, let me just say that we live full-time in an RV and I have motion-sensored lights installed in all of my cabinetry. Each light takes 4 AAA batteries and we are in need of them nearly constantly for one item or another. If you don't have a ton of batteries to charge very often, perhaps this unit is overkill. For us, being able to charge 16 batteries at the same time is a magnificent time saver!Second, the bad battery indicator is also a big time saver! All of my previous (cheaper) devices would just trip anytime a bad battery was in them, and would not continue charging. I would have to stand and put one battery in at a time to try and identify the defective one, and it was just a pain! With this, just fill all of your ports. If any battery is bad, the indicator will immediately start flashing. I think I threw away 10 or 12 batteries that were in my pile, that I didn't even know were bad! No wonder so many of my devices would not work even after I had gone through the process of recharging the batteries.Third, along the lines with the defective battery indicator, is the feature to recondition your batteries before you start recharging. It only takes a minute or two. I did this to all three batches of batteries and am looking forward to the extended life that is going to give.Fourth, is the convenience factor. This is where the time-saving really happens! I like that you can charge one battery, if that's all you need, all the way up to 16 AAA's. And you can charge a mixture of AA's and AAA's all at the same time. And it does have a big plug so may block both of your outlets while it's running. But there are two built-in USB ports on it that you can plug your other devices into to charge at the same time you are recharging your batteries. Double time-saving bonus!So yes it is far more expensive than the Amazon Basics or Energizer direct plug re-chargers that you can buy. But I would highly recommend splurging a bit. You will save money in the long run by having the reconditioning functionality that extends the life of your batteries.