Go ahead and buy it. I don't see anything much better than either the MH-C9000 or the Eneloops on the horizon. The MH-C9000 is a great charger. There may or may not be a bump in Eneloop capacity this year. Even if there were, it would probably only be to 2100 mAh, a mere 5%. I think NiMH development has more or less run its course as far as new developments and capacity increases. I haven't seen any reliable cells much greater than about 2100 mAh real (not advertised) capacity. Because I feel NiMH has reached close to its pinnacle, I had a friend pick me up the Eneloop/charger combo at Costco a few weeks ago. Don't need another charger, but I love the Eneloops.
Maha Powerex have a pretty decent customer satisfaction rating. I still think they fall a bit short on their advertised ratings. According to testing, the Powerex 2500s came in at around 2300. Don't know about the imedions. I do know that low-self discharge cells from other manufacturers besides Sanyo are slightly higher in capacity but also self-discharge somewhat faster. There's always going to be that trade-off
I do, C & D low discharge cells from Accupower (not as highly rated as other brands, but Sanyo ain't doing them right now, neither is Maha...though I'd expect Maha will in the future). All I can say, is it's about time! Now all we need is a 9v transistor radio size, and we're good to go-though I'd prefer a lithium poly in that size if I could have a universal charger for all of these sizes and chemistries.
http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/...22_141.html?osCsid=11i7k67r38pacn7dr90bkpib03
On another note, I thought jtr was worried about his carbon footprint, no car and the like. Why buy enloops with a charger you don't need, as there is a penalty to pay in carbon foot print (which negates your LED Christmas lights, btw) for it's manufacture. Just get the loose cells that cost more/cell at CostCo, which I mentioned in another thread post.
Better yet, check jtr's link above...details have changed! An Amazon affiliated store has the 8 pack of AA enloops for $15, buy two of them and you qualify for FREE shipping(USA only). Sign up for an Amazon MasterCard credit card...with no annual fee, which you could just cancel a month later, and get $30 off your 1st purchase at checkout, making those 16 cells cost you NOTHING
. Which means that with the $30 savings, jtr could have spent that saved money on getting $25 worth of dim sum takeout in Queens for New Years
and for another $5 stopped by the new local Traders Joe's in
Queens, and bought a bottle of TJ's 2006 "TBD" (
to
be
determined
) Zinfandel, which is actually a blend with a small amount of Petit Sirah in it, @$5 it is a bargain...I like it, lush, soft, jammy ripe spicy fruit that would go well with some of those deep fried dim sum items or any other BBQ of any cusine...if you ask for the right kind of sweet/sour BBQ sauce to go with it- Tim Shun Soy (phonetically it's like that, and with my cold virus a few weeks ago, I was almost speaking with a Chinese accent that the cashiers could understand
! I will scan up the written Chinese characters if you like, always best, unless you have a cold virus, my normal speaking voice sounds too 'foreign' to them, they just give me a confused stare, lol). *note* Chinese sounds, not to mention numerous dialects, etc is the most difficult language to learn, 6 main pronunciation sounds for similar words, pronounced incorrectly, means entirely different word, which gets a confused look from the native speaking recipient. The "Tim" above sounds/is pronounced as something 1/2 way between Tim & Pim...not easy to duplicate for a non-native speaker.
Of course, sweet-sour sauce is kind of like mustard, there are an infinite variations, some taste better than others...matter of personal preferences; and most dim sum restaurants in So. Cal area have a sweet-sour sauce I don't care for, too strong, too bitter/sour, too much vinegar, etc.
