Which Charger/cycler is best
 

Looking to purchase a charger/cycler and I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Any thoughts greatly appricated.

Thanks

Steve
cannon

That depends...
 

The answer to your question can only be provided once we know what kind of setup you want to charge, and your expectations from the charger / cycler. What battery technologies? What capacities? How many packs at once? Bench charging or field charging? Fast charge, or C/10 charge?

Also, the more appropriate forum for this question is in the "Batteries & Chargers" forum: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forumdispl...?s=&forumid=24

Which Charger/cycler is best
 

Dennis, thank you for your reply. I fly both airplane and helo's.
1-JR Tx and Rx
3- Futaba Tx and Rx.
All are Nicads from 600-1100 mah for the Rx's.
I assume the Tx 's are Nicads. Iwill have to check.
I will only be bench charging and two at a time would be nice but not neccessary.
I am not sure what C/10 charging is, please explain.
As far as my expectations, I am looking to prlong the life of the batterys and to provide as much run time as possible.

Thanks again for your concern and I await your reply.

Steve Cannon

Which Charger/cycler is best
 

C/n (where n is a number) charging indicates the charging rate used. C represent's the pack's total capacity. Recommended normal charging is at a rate of 1/10th the pack's capacity. For example, a 600mAh pack would be charged at a 60mAh for 10 hours for a full charge (theoretically). However, chargers are not 100% efficient, so we leave it for an extra 3-6 hours.

Maximum charge rate of the pack is dependant on the type of cells in it. Some are designed to withstand faster charge rates, but typically it is not recommended to exceed C/1 charging unless you know your batteries are comprised of "Fast Charge" cells.

I am by no means an expert, merely someone who spent alot of time reading before purchasing a cycler myself. If you don't need fast charging, I would recommend the Einstein XL from FMA. It can do 2 packs at once, both NiCd & NiMH. https://www.fmadirect.com/site/Detai...1136&section=3

You will get far more help (and opinions) on this matter if asked in the proper forum: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forumdisp...p?forumid=24

Triton
 

I really like my Triton. Tower Hobbies carries them but they keep running out of stock. I guess they're pretty popular.

Triton at Tower

Great Planes Web site

C.P.

Which Charger/cycler is best
 

Thanks to both Dennis and C.P. for your suggestions.

Thanks

Steve

Re: Which Charger/cycler is best
 

Steve,
Just tossing in my 2 cents here.
You may want to consider holding off on the recycler.
NMH batteries are taking over.
The big plus about them is they have no memory problems to deal with.
You can use the charger that you have now but it will take longer to charge the NMH pack.
I just built up several 2,000 mil packs and with 12 volts @ 50 mil charger it takes close to 24 hours from full dead to full charge.
But you can go as high as 100 mil charger and be fine.
Just my 2 cents

Which Charger/cycler is best
 

A cycler is good for NiMH batts too. Not for conditioning but for checking of capacity