I agree, most of the Duracell chargers are garbage (though the cells themselves are pretty good). But the charger I linked to (CEF23DX4N) is definitely the exception; I own three and have been using them for years with good results. Naturally they stopped making them.


The Nitecore charger linked by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor looks very promising. It gets a "thumbs up" from the folks at CandlePowerForums -- extensive review here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/show...age-comparisons

What shelf life do the 18650's have for self discharge?

I can't offer a real-world opinion, since I'm not running "proper" protected 18650s and chargers yet. I standardized on AA/AAA NiMHs some years ago and haven't seen a need to change. Have to say, though, that prices on lithiums and chargers seem to have finally come down to earth.

If they're anything like the unprotected Samsung Li-ions I have been charging (very, very carefully) direct from my solar panels, their charge retention should be excellent.

A quick survey of CandlePowerForums suggests that 18650s should retain at least 80% of their charge after a year in storage. If that's correct, it's impressive -- better than LSD NiMHs such as Eneloops.

nitecore is definitely on my shortlist, Maha & LaCrosse seem to have some good offering... but waiting until morning to read some reviews.

thats good to know. I'm going to have to lurk around the forums.. If they retain their power that well, I might go for 18650 instead of cr123a.

I don't have figures, but the high quality 18650s I have exhibit low self-discharge over the medium term. I recharge and cycle them through my devices quarterly; the unused ones top up in a few minutes. I would not recommend 18650s for long-term storage without maintenance.

Thanks. I've got a 2x123 light that sees occasional short use and biannual long use and my supply of 123 batteries is near restock levels. I'm debating whether to add rechargeables to the mix. The last time I bought 123's they were about $1.25 in bulk with an Otterbox for storage.

For CR123A batteries, I've been buying these http://www.batteryjunction.com/tpen-tcr123a-.html exclusively. I get nearly the same performance that I used to get from SureFire batteries at significantly less cost. No affiliation other than as a customer.

Nice price. IIRC that's about what Battery Station house brand was years ago without the case.

I use a Maha C401FS for NiMH. Great little charger that has performed perfectly for many many years. I have several different brands of NiMH's that were bought over the years and still function fine. But when I buy new NiMH's, it is only Eneloops that I buy now.

For my LiIon (14500's in my case), my thoughts are if you buy cheap batteries (no protection circuity) then you need to buy an expensive charger. Conversely, if you buy good batteries with protection circuits (I like AW), then you can get by using a cheap charger (one of the cheap Chinese "UltraFire" models for example). Personally, I use god AW batteries and a cheap UltraFire charger. I only charge LiIon when I am present in the house. And I have a metal box that the charger goes into while in use, so if fire/explosion does occur, well, metal doesn't burn. It's one of those metal tins that fruit cakes and things like that come in around Christmas time.

I know you can get 12v car adapters for the Maha C401FS. I do not know about for the UltraFire LiIon charger (although you might be able to find a generic Radio Shack adapter that will work).

Thats not better than eneloops because eneloops are rated at 80% or better after a year also.