Comments on: First Look – Maha MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer

By: P Christensen

P Christensen — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:02:40 +0000

I myself own a LaCross BC-900 and I’m now shopping for a replacement.

I’m a savvy engineer with a bunch of devices around the house that use AA batts. Wii controllers, GPS, camera etc. I have over a dozen AA batts that I need to top off. The BC-900 was a nice charger. I love all the modes that I could use to test discharge older batts, detect when a batt needs to be trashed.

However, the BC-900 started to go on the fritz after a couple years. Firs tthe left current button failed. Then the current button. When I opened it up I found the Stainless Steel dome spring under the buttons digs into the PCB and eventually will cause a failure.

I nursed my unit along by delicately soldering small wires to the PCB and adding a brand new mode/current switch.

But after my surgery, channel 3 failed. It is stuck indicating “FULL” even when there is no battery in the slot

So, I’ve only been able to charge 3 batts at a time with my beloved BC-900. This morning, another channel has died on me. I know it’s just a matter of time.

I’m switching over to Maha in hopes their design is a little more robust than LaCross’s. Your review helped me shop. I appreciate the kind thoughtful tests you did and time you spent documenting what you found. However, like many others, I would agree that to be fair to Maha I really wish you would re-test their product with the new firmware.

By: POWEREX MH C 9000 CHARGER | Materials Find

POWEREX MH C 9000 CHARGER | Materials Find — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:03:50 +0000

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By: PS3

PS3 — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:58:41 +0000

Thank you for this very useful website.

By: Bigga

Bigga — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:11:34 +0000

That Tycho bloke obviously has no idea how a switch-mode charger works then.
He is talking complete rubbish, thicko.

By: DJ-Dwayne

DJ-Dwayne — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:38:08 +0000

Ditto

By: Kasper

Kasper — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:38:55 +0000

Hey Tyco,

The charger has a 12 Volt 2.0 Amp input, and 4 times !!2 Volt!! output 2.0 Amp. So it is possible for this charger to have a 4 slots 2 Amp contineous output.

By: Tycho

Tycho — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:05:08 +0000

I have to say that after a few days of owning this charger, I highly recommend to avoid it. I used to have BH-900, which I accidentally fried by connecting it to wrong transformer. This unit overheats and overcharges batteries thus decreasing their life. A hint should be that the adaptor with 2A cannot in anyway provide 2A for each slot by any other way but pulsating the current.

So f.g. by choosing charging current of 500mA, you will end up having current pulses from 0 to 1500mA. Re-flex charging is excellent thing, but the max charge peak should not exceed the entered rate by that much and not that often it heats up the battery.

Other charger I have (for rc-models) is Duratrax ICE and it’s reflex charge is like it should be. At 500mA charge, it peaks to 1A for a half a second every minute or so. This way the battery won’t heat up at all.

This unit will be hidden in the dark corner of closet and BH-900 will be ordered in, since I use rechargable batteries quite a lot, I kinda like them to stay in shape for as long as possible.

By: Dick Jones

Dick Jones — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:13:14 +0000

I find this very amusing. Guess what Robert [author of this article], your precious BC-900 [version 33] is prone to going up in smoke. Versions 32, 33 and to a lesser extent version 34 have been reported to literally melt batteries and some of these bc-900 chargers themselves have melted. Fire hazard indeed. There is now a version 35 available and although there have not been any public reports of this particular version causing meltdown issues, just wait. The toasteroven complex generally rears its ugly head anywhere from a the first week of ownership to 2 yrs. down the road. If your version 33 has been flawless, count yourself lucky. Another serious issue with Lacrosse is their customer service. Terrible…and that’s on a good day. Steer clear of Lacrosse if you value customer service and reliability of products. Last but not least, Lacrosse Bc-900 algorithm used to calculate/display your lovely mah ratings/voltage is not as accurate as the Maha c-9000. So, you’re welcome to believe those numbers on your screen if you wish. This is not to say Mh-C9000 is without issues, such as repeating digit [in cycle mode = fixed in 2nd version]. Termination problems [in charging mode = fixed in 2nd/3rd version]. AAA batteries sometimes not making proper contact, or losing contact. The negative AAA terminals need to be adjusted forward. This issue has yet to be resolved.
Yet, at the end of the day…I’d rather have a product that doesn’t have the history of melting down, nor a history of crap customer service, like Lacrosse. So…don’t be blind man..open your eyes and look at the pros/cons of all products. You, unfortunately have chosen the lesser product, simply because you own it.

By: Bill Odonnell

Bill Odonnell — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:06:23 +0000

When I turn on the BC-900, I will briefly see the firmware rev in the LCD No. 4 position. Mine says “35″?

Bill

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:44:13 +0000

At the time I returned my unit, my dealer was packing up their remaining stock and returning it to Maha. It wasn’t clear until later in 2007 that the new firmware was actually released in March 2007 with serial numbers beginning with OG. Maha chose to be low-keyed about the firmware rev. They did not and have not released any information on what changes were made or when they were made. A mistake, in my opinion. All the information available was hearsay.

As stated above, I didn’t retest and don’t plan to retest the MH-C9000 because there are other things I don’t like about it. Do your own due diligence and make your own choice.