Home > Outdoor Living > La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger

HI ! I bought this a couple of months ago. Let me tell you all the problems I found:

1) Changing its operating mode is NOT done in a "scientific way": According to the manual, I got to press the Mode button for a second, right after placing all the batteries, and I got an 8 seconds window to do so. NOT TRUE: Most of the time I cannot achieve mode changing. I press it for a second, softly, then hardly, they I change my pressing time, then I get frustrated and press it repeatedly, etc. SOMETIMES I MANAGE TO CHANGE THE MODE ... but it is rather erratic in behaviour and very frustrating.

2) Values in display, specially for second battery display (counting from my left) go berserk: It even managed to say that a battery mas null (not usable) (when this first happened to me, I THREW away that battery) ... THen it happens it is not true: You pull the other batteries out, place that battery in the FIRST charging place, and it just get charged normally.

3) Once (that is: I was around and noticed it) the wall-transformer started making a noise, like a motor. It was very weird. I was in a hotel room at that time, watching TV, and while the charger transformer started with the noise, the TV got all distorted, so I think that it was doing some class of shortcircuting internally that affected the TV.

In short: I thought I was buying a keeper. IT is NOT RELIABLE. I read over the net, that firmware 32 causes problems 1) and 2) ... and you should get at least firmware 33. I bought mine in amazon. I don't know HOW you can ASK for firmware 33 before buying.

I've been using this charger for a month now and I am very impressed. It does exactly what it advertises, which is to give you total control over the state of your batteries. Prior reviews do a great job of describing the major features, so I'll just add a couple of things I've found useful.

1) I've benchmarked the capacity of all my batteries, so that I can match sets that are comparable in capacity.
2) I've recharged older batteries and averaged about a 16% increase in capacity, extending their useful life.
3) I've been able to charge AAA and AA batteries simultaneously, which is nice.
4) I've been able to hot charge in a rush, but slow charge to preserve the capacity life, as needed.
5) And frankly, I've become hooked on the LCD read-out that tells me what's up with each battery individually. I still have my old light-on/light-off fast charger, but I can already tell it will never get used again.

One other note, the power supply is universal (100-240v, 50-60 cycle) so with a plug adapter (not included) you can use this device anywhere in the world.

I can't recommend this charger highly enough. Considering they throw in 4 AA and 4 AAA batteries (although of relatively low
capacity), it's a great deal at the Amazon price.

The charger is very good as said by other reviewer. I noticed one problem during usage: ther charger refuse to charge over-discharged batteries. These batteries' voltage are near 0 volt. The charge simply display NULL. My other chargers can charge these without problem. I must use other chargers charge them for half minutes and then use this charger to charge them. This is very annoying!

This battery charger does EVERYTHING. It's fun to use (!) and of really high quality. I actually look forward to re-charging my batteries now! My only regret is not buying two when they were on sale. Oh, oh ... there IS a sale going on right now. Gonna grab one for my brother!

I was looking for a charger that handled individual batteries, since I have a few devices that use three batteries. This charger seems to do a fine job.