You mentioned operating in cold conditions. You might consider having a set of disposable lithium AAs (if your camera can accept them) as a sort of second backup. Lithium batteries are quite good in cold weather, although I think Eneloops will work fine for the limited times you mention.

I am phasing out conventional alkaline AAs and AAAs, and using primarily rechargables and lithiums. Vastly cheaper to operate equipment that way.

I bought a set of Eneloops that came in a case with a small charger from Costco about 3 or so years ago. I started using them last year, and they still had their original charge on them. I've been very pleased with them.

Now, for those recommending more in the way of charger than that little charger that came with the Eneloops (it says to charge in pairs) - can you recommend a couple of chargers?
Any from this website you'd recommend, or steer me away from as being too much or to little charger?

Lighthound chargers

Thanks

Dave

Right at hand is my Maha C401FS - individual charging channels (4), choice of slow or fast rates - purchased about three years ago for around 25 bucks. I could not find it on the Lighthound site.

You might check out candlepower forums. They will tell you more than you want to know about battery chargers and batteries, but it is good advice. A lot of people rave about the Maha 9000.

Yes, CPF is a good place to go, though it's a bit intimidating at first. There are usually "sticky threads" for common topics like chargers.

My Maha 9000 is suitable for me because I'm interested in the nerdy details and fiddling with the many options. FWIW I got it for $50 shipped and that included four high capacity cells.

I think most people would find the Maha 9000 to be more charger than they need. Something like the 800S would be a better fit, though it's not inexpensive. The other option, as I mentioned, the Duracell Mobile Charger CEF23DX4N is simple to use, versatile, and well regarded (though it's not super fast).

Except CPF will ask why your not using CR123 or lithium ion, I don't hang out much there anymore.

C401FS is a nice little charger too, I have that and the c9000. going to buy one of the simpeler 8 bays to put out where the kids can use it.
I use eneloops in all my gear and the maha imedion in all the kids gear, that way i can tell mine from theirs easier. They both have those leapster handhelds and vtech kidzoom digital cameras, each taking 4 AA's.

There certainly is a high tech crowd there that keeps pushing us into the future, but there is also a faction that includes me that prefers the commonly available battery configurations. I like being able to have the ability to swap batteries between radio, GPS, and lights. Generally i have found the conversation on CPF to be fairly civil and informative, verging at times toward impossibly nerdy (a bit like ETS..)

Consumers Union tested different battery types and developed costs per picture for alkalines, lithiums, and rechargeables. Eneloops were by far the cheapest in that application.

What I need now is a good solar panel to feed juice to my battery charger. This would be really handy in a power outage. Any suggestions?

Sanyo Eneloops are great batteries, but the rebranded "Duraloops" sold under the Duracell brand are an easier way to buy them locally. I don't recall ever seeing Eneloops in a store around here, but I do see Duraloops at places like my local Target.

However, you need to be careful because Duracell sells different kinds of rechargeable batteries and only one of them are Duraloops. The other kind of rechargeables are "normal" NiMH batteries. They can have a higher rated capacity but they do self-discharge over time, which most folks find annoying and inconvenient.

Just one thing to add to dougwalkabout's description. Besides looking for white tops to the batteries and "Made in Japan", also look for the words "Pre-charged" or "Active Charged" on the package.

Don't be surprised if you find black-topped batteries or white-topped batteries that say "Made in China" mixed in with the Duraloops, all with very similar packaging. That's why you need to look carefully so you get what you want.

Running an AA battery charger takes a tiny amount of juice. The combination that is cheapest and easiest is an amorphous solar (PV) panel tied to a lead-acid battery. The battery can simply be the one in your car, riding lawn mower, or even the UPS for your computer.

You could probably squeak by with a 5-watt panel if you have lots of direct sun, but you can get a 15-watt panel for nearly the same price. And often, you can find great deals on 45 or 60 watt amorphous panels ganged together at retailers like Costco etc. These often include a charge controller so you don't fry your battery. Note that amorphous panels are relatively large and heavy for their output - fine for home and car camping, but not for backpacking.

I would strongly suggest getting a basic multimeter if you're doing anything with solar panels. These can be had for under 10 bucks, and they will let you confirm polarity and check the voltage of your main battery (esp. important if you don't have a charge controller).

There are smaller and more efficient solar panels out there, but before you buy keep in mind that there are some big technological improvements in the pipe that should drop the cost per watt way down. So buy only what you need now, and save your shekels for the next wave of photovoltaics.

Thank you for the information. Ideally I would like a panel that would make sense for backpacking and bike touring, but for most of the trips I make, my pack is actually lighter if I just carry extra batteries.

I will keep an eye on pending developments....

The difficulty thing is getting a panel large enough to sustain the input to the charger to complete a full charge cycle. Too small of a panel and a cloud may drop the voltage low enough to reset a smart charger. Thats why a of solar battery chargers use just a simple trickle circuit (think cheap cordless phone where the batteries go bad after a year), or higher end have a battery in between.
If you do go solar charger I'd recommend then getting a home charger like the c9000 so you can test and refresh the batteries after the trip so see what damage the trickle charging did to them.
Eneloops take labels very well, a sharpie stays on them longer than other batteries I have, or maybe you can just see the faded sharpie against the white better, I don't know. But I number all mine as I buy them then mark a purchase date in a spreadsheet then run them through a refresh cycle on the c9000 and note the initial capacity. Then I'll refresh them once a year or so and note the capacity to watch for any that have dropped in capacity.