Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I originally purchased the V6988 charger about 10 years ago and based upon my experience with the same Tenergy batteries that it is still bundled with it I would have rated it no more than one star. It took me several years to realize that the problem was completely associated with the batteries. It was only after starting to buy some better-known batteries, like Rayovac, and even better lesser brands like AccuPower, that I began to see the light. Part of this slow realization also involved acquiring other quality chargers and seeing the same very high and frequent failure rate of additional purchases of new Tenergy batteries, both AA and AAA, on other chargers as well.
To get more to the point, this charger has turned out to be an excellent and durable smart charger with pretty much all the features that a battery user--as opposed to a battery expert--would want or need to have.
The V6988 can charge any combination of one to ten AA and AAA rechargeable NiCAD or NiMH batteries at the same time. For the purpose of just charging, they can be started at the same time or not. The charging current for each of the ten independent charging bays is rated at 210mA, with is a fairly slow, but appropriate for charging so many cells in such close proximity. At this rate, a nearly depleted AA cell with a capacity of 2600mAh can take up to a day to charge. On the other hand a AAA cell (or ten of them) with a capacity of 800mAh, is done overnight.
The V6988 Charger has the ability to refresh (or restore) batteries that have lost some (or even most) of their capacity, which can happen very easily with NiCADs, but also seems to happen with NiMH cells (particularly non-precharged) either from frequent topping off or from sitting unused for months at a time. To invoke this mode, first load the batteries that need refreshing and then press the red button. This will change the default function from charging to discharging the battery's capacity. It is very easy to see what is happening in each charging bay. During the discharge operation the LEDs above each bay will blink red on and off. As each battery is fully discharged, the charging operation starts automatically. This is indicated by the LED changing from blinking red to staying red. As each battery completes its charging, the LED changes to green and the battery can be removed.
Recently, I acquired a more advanced Charger, a La Cross 9009, which has both charging and analytic capabilities. This allowed me to actually measure how good a job the V6988 does at charging and restoring lost battery capacity. The conclusion is that it does quite well. If the battery's depletion in capacity is only moderate, one or two refreshing cycles restores the lost capacity. If the depletion is severe, it can take several refreshing cycles. However, my tests have also confirmed that you can guesstimate quite well how much rejuvenation a battery needs by noting the duration of the depletion-recharging cycles. If both the depletion and recharging times are relatively quick, you're being informed that the battery is badly depleted. If the discharge and recharge times increase for each subsequent refresh cycle, then you're working with a battery that is on its way to a good recovery. If repeated cycles don't indicate progress, you're dealing with a bad battery.
One last observation is worth noting. In my experience, the newer Pre-Charged (or Low Self-Depletion) batteries mark a real advance in rechargeable technology, not only for its shelf life, which is of course very important, but also for their improved resistance to lost capacity. This also makes the V6988 charger, reviewed here even more likely to be the only charger you'll need. Its main limitation is that it's a slow charger, but this is offset in part by its ability to charge 10 batteries simultaneously, not to mention that slow is always the safest way to go. Lastly, with the newer batteries, the refresh capability is still useful as these batteries still tend to show some loss of capacity with use and time. With such batteries, refreshing them once after every 5 or 10 charges, will efficiently keep your batteries functioning at near full capacity for several years.
I would now rate the V6988 Charger as 5 stars if it were not for the fact that they still come with batteries that in my opinion are worthless. Ask for a battery upgrade or even a discount for selling the charger alone. In any event, invest in good, pre-charged batteries. Most of the name-brand batteries are safe bets. Sanyo's eneloop is an especially reliable and respected battery. Recently, I've found that the GP Recyko's are a particularly good value for their quality and their higher than usual capacity for precharged batteries.
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