Most inexpensive chargers use a very high rate of charge that over heat your batterys and shorten there life.Fast chargers are not good for your batterys.This charger charges at a safe rate and your battery always stay just warm.Sony gives you a set(4)of 2700 mah capacity batterys that is the highest capacity at this time and great for power hungry electronics.The BCG-34hrmf4 is differant than most fast chargers in that each cell has a seperate charge curcuit.This charger has a cell discharger called a "refresh" (button).These batterys are different than cell phone batterys.These batterys should be discharged (the device tells you to change them) before charging but not totally dead.When you charge your batterys before they are drained or discharged they will not charge at full capacity so every 3 or fourth time of charging use the refresh button.If your batterys are not discharged but you expect to use then good the next day discharge then with the "refresh" then they will charge to full capacity.This charger will take 2-3 to recharge your batterys and about 4 hours to discharge and charge partly charged battery.If you have a charger that charges in half this tine its cooking your batterys....

More than pleasantly surprised with the quality of the charger and amazed by the modern high-tech batteries supplied in the kit. It does everything in the advertising hype plus more. And the price is very reasonable. So I have nothing but good things to say about Sony and I believe Sanyo batteries I bought through Amazon. I have had mixed results with Sony in the past with two laptops unexpectedly going to computer heaven when needed desperately. But as far as this charger and the batteries supplied with it I can find no fault. And the service suppled by Amazon is outstanding as well. Thank you and Happy and Prosperous New Year to all involved including other Amazon customers.

Rick Draganowski
(Soli Deo Gloria)

Good to charge AA and AAA batteries. The charge cycle is quite fast and the design is good-looking and functional.

I have only being using this charger for a few weeks, and it's the first one that I own. So far it's working great. It takes a few ours to charge the four batteries at a time. Turns off automatically when is done. A little bulky but not too bad.

This charger is a little pricy compared to the garden variety found at local retail outlets. But after my batteries were quitting after only a few charges, I knew I needed something better. This solves the problem. There is a refresh function which brings lazy batteries back to life. I think if batteries don't get worked hard enough, they no longer take a full charge. That appeared to be happening with my batteries because they would run down after only a short time in my digital camera. The best thing about this charger is it requires no attention at all. Just install the batteries and plug it in. Then come back in a couple of hours and they are fully charged. You can monitor the progress with the neat display. Not all batteries charge at the same rate, but this unit compensates for that. Then it automatically shuts off when the charging is completed. Overall, simple to use and gives excellent results.