Steve, you are about on board.

The slow charge of 100 to 125 for the first charge is just that, for the first charge. It is a good idea to cycle them once before putting them in service. I'd have to go back and look at your manual, but I didn't see a cycle function on your charger, so that means you need to just peak them off before flying. Your charger is OK for that and after the first charge, a quick charge is OK.

I charge my NiMh at below the recomended amperage. I've got a 6v 1000mah NiCad in one plane and a 1200mah NiMh in the other. I flew my plane with the 6V yesterday and today. I charged it after the first flight yesterday and I'll be good for a couple flights tomorrow. I carry my charger to the field with me and use my starter battery for power. It seldom takes more than 10 minutes at 1.5amps to top them off. I set up the plane, fuel the tank, fuel the battery and while I'm waiting for the BEEP BEEP, I do my "hi, how are ya's"

When I first started flying, my instructor was good for four 15 minute flights a day. My little 600mah was wheezing by the end of the day and my TX wasn't far behind. I got a 2300MAH NI-Mh for the tx and on the first flight of the day, about three minutes into the filght, the alarm went off on my TX. My hearing is shot, but my instructor is hollering at me "WHAT"S THE FOR" A third guy got to the line and saw that the TX voltage was just over 8V, just about ready to shut down. My instructor made a power on dead stick and as soon as the plane stopped rolling, he started chewing some ass. Being a rookie, I went home with my tail between my legs. After I got home, I pulled the new battery out of my TX and saw a bluge something like yours. I had overcharged it and blew out one cell. I salvaged a 4.8 pack from what was left, but I've never had the nerve to put it to the test in a plane. SO, you are not the first, nor will you be the last to cook a battery.

As to which charger to buy, I would think yours should do OK. Just use the wall wart for the first charge. I started with an AcuCycle and it has it's ups and downs. It will cycle a battery, It will charge both the TX and RX at the same time. It will charge my 6V RX packs. BUT it won't do pead detection, only 15 hour timed charges. For the bench, it 115V only, It's OK. I have another field charger that I picked up at a going out of business sale that does some more, It will self detect 1 to 11 cells. It will quick charge up to 5amps. It will cycle the batteries. BUT it is 12V only, and it will not do Li-PO's

I think that a couple moderatly priced chargers that do certain jobs well, and between them you can get done what you need in different task, then you are OK. Your charger is a good start. I would look into a method to cycle the batteries. THere is some inexpensive home made devices to knock down a pack, but they won't tell you how much charge was left. Right now, you know the limitations and abilities of your charger. Just keep yourself in sync with those limits and it should serve you quite well.

Don