La Crosse BC-9009 Battery Charger Review

This time round I would like to review an interesting product which every serious photographer should have: a good AA battery charger which are used for all external flash no matter what brand. More so a Pentax k-x or k-r or *ist DS2 user, since they also conveniently run on AA batteries!

Why should I buy one when I already have a charger?

I used to have one of those battery chargers that came with my rechargeables. Mine was a Sony (wow, must be really good right?) and I was pretty confident these babies would take care of my beautiful new Sony batteries. Yeah right. I found out the hard way that these suckers literally suck the life out of my batteries fairly quickly, especially if you charge the batteries BEFORE the battery's juice has run out.

You see, these chargers that normally come along with your rechargeables are just plain dumb chargers most of the time. What they do is charge at a single current (some very high, for those super quick charge ones) and with just a timer built in. So it doesn't care about the condition of your battery and will give it a charge at the same consistency for a period of time. Now why is this bad for your batteries? Coz batteries hold charge pretty much like how our tummies hold food. If we keep eating and eating even when we are not hungry, we will get bloated up. If you still stuff your tummy with more food like some Japanese torture (I mean game show), then surely your will either puke it all out or end up in the hospital.

Ok, now you know why your battery charger sucks. So now what?

I did quite a long research on the net and found that there are two solutions to our problems! Yay! They are branded Maha and La Crosse respectively and they pretty much do the same things, pamper your batteries. 

After a week of research, I decided to buy a La Crosse because it is the best bang for the buck. I bought it from Amazon since there wasn't a distributor there a couple of years ago (but now you have one in Malaysia!) and they were cheaper than Maha with tonnes of freebies thrown in like free 4 AA and 4 AAA batteries. Talk about a good deal.

Usage Experience

I've been using my La Crosse battery charger for the past two years and it's really reliable. It's easy to use (just dump the batteries and let it charge through the night) and the status indicators really help you know what your battery state is like. I don't have to worry about over charging the batteries and everyone is happy. If I am in a rush, then I just boost up the charge current to 1000mAh which is 5x the default settings and I'll get it charged in a couple of hours.

I've also tried to do battery refresh with my batteries, but the process takes days. I am to believe that this will help improve my batteries lifespan (it's like giving them a Thai massage or something), so I did it once for my batteries. 

There's a battery test function, which you can actually use to check how much juice your batteries can hold. It's not a quick check though, coz you'll have to wait till the charger discharges your battery first and then charge it to maximum again. This typically takes a day to complete.

Usage features according to La Crosse website

One interesting thing I found online is some people gave bad reviews for this charger because there has been known issues of the thermal protection failing and causing the thing to melt. I had never have this issue before and I found that the latest version (BC-1000) has a different circuitry from my version and is believed to have fixed the issue. But in my two years of using mine, I found no problem (I guess just have to monitor the heat by touching the batteries once in awhile if you charge at full blast).

Summary

Pros:

• Allows for slow charge to maximize lifespan of battery
• Allows for quick charge if you need a quick fix
• Just leave your batteries after charging with no worries
• Full of features, like battery refresh
• Quite easy to use (I read in comparison with Maha's more complex user interface)
• Tonnes of freebies!!!

Cons:

• I can only think of one, which is some batteries which are overly depleted cannot be charged although the battery is actually still usable. To fix this, I had to use my crappy battery charger to force some current into it for about 3 minutes. Once done, I have to plug that battery back into the La Crosse and it'll charge as normal. So don't throw away your old battery chargers just yet, it may be useful. But this case seldom happens and is only if I really left a depleted battery uncharged for long periods of time.

Where to buy?

Currently Pentax2u is doing an intro offer of the very latest model (mine's one generation older) right here in Malaysia! I suggest you go check Pentax2u out. Do quote my blog if you decide to buy ya. 

Please do let me know if you have any comments or questions. I'll be happy to help. :)