We ordered two of these for our church. I've worked in the electronics industry for 25 years, and in every company I worked for, the mantra was always to avoid fans. They're expensive, unreliable, cannot be installed by robots, and noisy. So imagine my surprise when we received two of these AA battery chargers and found that, during the fast-charge part of the cycle, there is a little FAN running inside. I find it hard to believe that they could not have designed this unit with a heat sink on whatever power device they have inside there, to use natural convection cooling. The manufacturer tells me that competitors' products have fans too, but I find this hard to believe. The good news is that the fan only runs during the fast-charge cycle, an hour or so. After that, though, during the 2-3 hour trickle charge, the unit makes a faint ticking sound. Do they have a relay or mechanical timer in there? The manufacturer has not answered me on that. What ever happened to "solid state"? Another bad thing is that, on one of the units, the fan blade hits the case and makes a noise if you turn the unit upside down or push on it. That's why I said "flimsy construction". Now despite all of theses criticisms, we decided to keep the units. After the trickle charge, the unit shuts down completely, makes no noise and uses no measurable electricity. And it's very nice that there are apparently four independent regulators, one for each battery cell. This will keep the cells in top shape. And I believe I remember reading they have a three-year warranty, so we can send them back if the fan or ticker in there fails. Finally, although I've seen different capacities quoted on different retailers' web sites, the units we received from Beach Audio came with cells rated at 2500 mAH, which is the highest capacity I've ever seen on a AA cell.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes/No - You may also flag this review.

Charging eneloop batteries. Seem to have acquired a bunch of new toys that use eneloop batteries. Recharges quickly, although I didn't think it did well on my Monster batteries, but then they are getting old now. The life of the charge in the eneloops is great. Have been playing with my new toys a lot so they have been getting a workout.Haven't tried it in the car yet.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes/No - You may also flag this review.