Which Maha Powerex battery charger should I buy?

Maha have several AA battery chargers to choose from. So which one is best for you?

This is a question we get asked a lot, so I thought I would pen a quick guide to help you work out which battery charger models models offer which functions and features:

Do you need to charge 8 AA batteries at a time? 800S 801D
Do you need to charge your AA batteries in an hour? 204W 801D 9000
Do you need to charge batteries from a 12V car adaptor? 204FA 401FS 9000
Do you need something super small for travelling? 204W
Do you need something affordable but still ’smart’ and reliable? 204FA
Do you need to charge cells individually, rather than in pairs? 401FS 9000 800S 801D
Do you need something to recondition batteries, identify problem batteries, and match your batteries into similar capacities? 9000
Do you also need to charge C and D cell batteries? 808M

11/2/08 EDIT: We have added a  Battery Charger Comparison Chart so you can compare the Powerex battery charger models you are interested in.

How do AA NiMH rechargeable batteries compare to AA Lithium Batteries in a camera?

We now sell Energizer AA Lithium batteries for $17.95 for 4 batteries. My Pentax K100D DSLR will get about 1400 non-flash shots on four of these lithium AA batteries. No other AA batteries can provide that many shots: I have taken about 660 shots from a new set of eneloop slow discharge AA batteries, and should get more once they have been used a few more times. Imedion slow discharge AA batteries should give me more photos than the eneloops based on reports on the whirlpool forum, but I havent tested that myself yet, as I’ve been too busy to do much photography lately. They’ll get a good workout over Christmas, and then I’ll update this post.

Since I take an average of about 500 shots per month, I would use about four sets of AA lithium batteries per year, and the cost to use lithium batteries would be $72 per year. Compare this to the cost of using rechargeable AA batteries at $21.95 for a set, and 4c to recharge them 4 times, and I am in front by $50 in the first year, which would be enough to pay for our most popular 4 bank AA battery charger. So while lithium batteries are great to keep for a backup, I’ll keep on using rechargeable batteries for now.