Product Description

MH-C9000 WizardOne Battery Charger & Analyzer is suitable for the casual consumer users, enthusiast and professionals, WizardOne is capable of charging, conditioning, analyzing, cycling, forming and discharging one to four AA or AAA batteries, all while digitally displaying the battery capacity and voltage. All four slots can be operated independently in different modes and settings. Those seeing the unit for the first time will be struck by its large LCD screen, backlit by ultra-bright white LEDs. Measuring over 3.5 by 1.5, the display is more than three times larger than its closest competition and shows a wealth of information that is easy to read. In addition to the standard charging, conditioning and discharging, the WizardOne charger-analyzer also offers two unusual operations modes. The Break-In mode allows the user to input the capacity of the battery and performs a forming charge designed to properly break-in new batteries. The Cycle mode allows user to charge and discharge batteries consecutively while storing the capacity for up to 15 cycles. There are ten selectable charging and discharging current from 0.2A to 2.0A and 0.1A to 1.0A respectively. The charger also features four independent temperature sensors using Mahas latest temperature rise detection algorithm in addition to the usual peak temperature detection. It also armed with additional patented termination algorithms found in other Maha chargers. The unit can be operated in a basic and advanced mode. In the basic mode, user merely needs to insert the batteries with no further key press. The charger will select the appropriate settings automatically, making it suitable for the casual users.

Product Details

• Brand: Powerex
• Model: MH-C9000

Features

• Four independent slots for AA or AAA NiMH batteries
• Large backlit LCD
• Digitally displays battery capacity, voltage, current and time
• Special forming charge and cycling mode
• 30 selectable charging and discharging speed

Customer Reviews

Great Charger
I was extremely reluctant to buy this charger based on the comparison review by "NLee the Engineer." My takeaways from that review were:
1) The Powerex MC-C900 is HUGE. It might need its own table.
2) The Powerex MC-C900 is bright and will double as a table lamp.
3) Being able to see the status for only one battery at a time will be a huge inconvenience.
4) Setting the program for each battery will be complicated and time consuming. (Read: many, many, many keystrokes.)

I bought this charger anyway because I was concerned with reviews of the La Crosse charger over heating. (I will be charging my batteries constantly - and the possibility of something over heat when I'm out of the house is something I'd like to avoid.) Also, as a photographer I wanted the advanced functionality with this charger.

After receiving and using this charger, I want to say that all of all my concerns based on the "NLee the Engineer" review were eliminated. It's no bigger than my previous charger. I don't feel that the readout is at all too bright. And most importantly recharging batteries is very, very easy, and very fast. Getting a status for each battery is easy and fast.

Finally, the cycle mode takes about 10 seconds to set up -- it's not cumbersome in the least.

I won't say that one charger is better than another charger. But the concerns in the "NLee the Engineer" review are overstated.

Bottom line: there is nothing inconvenient about this charger. It's easier to use than my alarm clock, and I would recommend it to friends.

FAILS TO PERFORM
Although this charger has a gorgeous LCD display and is powered from 12 volts, it fails to perform the function for which I purchased it - charging NiMH AA batteries. Perhaps I am unable to operate it as intended because of the minimal instruction sheet provided. Or perhaps it fails because the firmware which operates the device is not as smart as it needs to be. Or perhaps I just got a lemon?

I have many radios which use AA batteries in sets of 4. The radios all have the ability to recharge batteries, but they are not very friendly to the batteries. I purchased this charger to: a) recharge the batteries separately; b) analyze battery capacity (and age); c) keep from overcharging them in the radios. I have 42 AA batteries of various brands from brand new to about 2 years old that I used for this test & review. These are batteries I've been using and have not been stored.

After carefully reading the entire instruction sheet and readying the charger, I put in a single AA battery. After selecting "Refresh/Analyze", 500 mah charge and 500 mah discharge, the charger returned to the original prompt as if it had not accepted anything I entered. I knew that if I did not make any entries within 10 seconds it would select "charge" mode with 1000 mah values. After several attempts I set that battery aside and used the next one from the set of 4. The same thing happened for all 4 batteries! The charger needs a more intelligent response in this situation, it is VERY CONFUSING to a first time user.

After going through my entire library of batteries, it turned out that the charger would only "accept" 10 of them. In other words, it was telling me that 32 out of 42 batteries were "high" and could not be charged. The instruction sheet mentioned such batteries and suggested either discarding them or using discharge mode first. It didn't matter if I started out with charged, discharged or average batteries, they failed in every mode. But the fact remains that these same batteries charge fine in the radios, get quite warm (meaning they don't have that high of an impedance), and operate the radios for several hours. So much for a so-called "refresh" mode.

This charger can be set to charge batteries from 200ma to 2000ma in 100ma steps and to discharge them from 100ma to 1000ma in 100ma steps. I note that this charger only accepts AA & AAA size batteries, so I wonder why the large amounts of current? One set of my batteries states to rapid charge them at 340ma and slow charge them at 150ma with others recommending charging currents of 270ma, 220ma & 205ma. The charge current of my radios is typically 150ma, so it seems the use of this charger will only "fry" these batteries more, not less. The high currents might explain why some people experienced melting/etc when using this charger.

Below is a list of batteries used for this test.
BRAND CAPACITY MODEL COLOR CONDITION
Chicago Electric 2000 mah 1.2v Green & Black GOOD
DuraCell 2050 mah 1.2v White & Green FAIL - "high"
DuraCell 2650 mah DC1500 Green & Black FAIL - "high"
Energizer 2500 mah NH-15 Silver & Green FAIL - "high"
Panasonic 2300 mah HHR-35PA Silver GOOD

I can NOT recommend this charger. However, I do not know if there is a charger out there which can do what this one preports to do. I sincerely hope this design is upgraded so that so many batteries are not reported as "high" and the user interface is made more friendly.

Powerful Charger
This charger is amazing. It only handles AA and AAA batteries, but does both extremely well. It has accurate analysis, and the break-in function does a great job and reviving older NiMH batteries. The functions are easy to understand and use. Nothing confusing about it.

It isn't a simple plug-into-the-wall charger. It is a for-serious, consistent charger. I use it to recharge batteries for my Wiimotes and for my camera flashes. I have been very impressed with its performance so far.

5/5.