Power 2000 XP-333 NiMH Rapid AA and AAA Battery Charger

The Power 2000 line of chargers have been woefully awful in my experience. My first one worked for a while, then suddenly the batteries would not hold a charge. This was already a bad sign, since NiMH batteris are supposed to be long-life. Because I liked its compact size for travel, I decided to give this charger one more try. I purchased a current model, the Power 2000 XP-333.

Several hours after inserting the batteries properly and plugging the unit in, I noticed a burning electrical smell. When I traced the odor back to the new charger, I of course unplugged it and nearly burnt myself on the batteries, which were scorchingly hot. I fear they might have burst or started a fire had I left them in the charger any longer.

There are too many other dependable charger makers -- why take a chance on this unreliable, dangerous product? This product should be rated zero stars -- it's earned a skull & crossbones warning in my opinion!

I bought the charger, extra AAs and extra AAAs and NEVER used any of them. The batteries NEVER held a charge. Heck, yesterday, before I ditched it all, I had charged the AAAs for a good 24 hours and the flashlight I put them in barely registered a microwatt of power. And the girth of the AAs was too wide to fit any of the devices I tried putting them in.

I've had the 555 unit for about a year. At first it worked well, but now the charger does not charge the batteries fully and can take 1 or 2 pictures and get the "change battery" message from the camera. Now, the red lights on the charger flash and turn off after a few minutes. Even bought new rechargeable batteries, but it won't charge them either.Unable to find any support for this unit. Should last longer than 1 year!

After more than 12 hours, this "rapid" charger did not charge the batteries that came with it. The charger was also very hot to the touch when it was trying to charge the batteries.

The POWER-2000 XP-333 charges batteries in pairs, with one LED per pair, not as described. The XP-555 charges each battery independently and slightly faster (3 vs 4 hours). The XP-333 charger is very lightweight, the XP-555 is slightly heavier. They work on 110 or 220 V and includes plug adaptors for round European type plugs. I have used the XP-333 in the USA and overseas. POWER-2000 makes several other charger models as well.

The XP-333 and 555 AAs are 2500 mAh, and there are XP-33327 and XP-55527 versions now available with 2700 mAh batteries. AAA batteries charge faster as they hold less charge. AAAs from Power-2000 currently come in 850 and 1000 mAh capacities.

I believe that these capacities for AA and AAA from POWER-2000 and other NiMH makers are twice as great or maybe more than alkalines. As I recall, some years ago Duracell copper top AAs have 1100 mAh. I have not found recent figures on the web, but got the old figure by calling the 800 number on the Duracell packages. Duracell Ultras appear to have a bit higher mAh figure, but I do not know that that is.

The 1.2 V for NiMH vs 1.5 V for alkalines seems to make no practical difference as I am told, and I believe it is correct, that alkaline voltage drops rapidly under 1.5 V after initial use while I understand that the NiMH holds its 1.2 V value for some time.