Best charger I've ever had

I originally had an ALC 2000 Expert of ELV (former original price about 165). This I swapped because of the annoying fan against an ALC 1000 Expert is a (former original price about 99). With this I was also happy for years, until I realized that the capacity determination has become inaccurate (new Eneloops were measured depending on the bay at 1750 -2050 mAh).

Succeeding the ALC 1010 Expert came from ELV and the Charge Manager 2016 by Voltcraft / Conrad in question, as these can also upload Babysitting / mono cells and 9V. I was now able to extensively test and compare both chargers:

General:
The ALC 1010 Expert looks at first glance very modern and high quality. Disillusionment was carried out at me immediately when you open the loading slot cover. This levered when opening again and again from the anchor and fell off. Next, I noticed that the contact carriage of negative poles could not move particularly supple. After connecting to the network eventually made even the large and heavy transformer with a permanent buzz attention. Not very loud, but too loud for the bedroom.
All properties that my old ALC 1000 Expert had not. No hum, no falling off the cover and the contact carriage were lubricated and therefore ran pleasantly smooth. The price of the ALC 1010 Expert rose sometime from 100 to 120th The 20 more were definitely not the quality increase to property, rather the profit increase.

The first impression of the Charge Manager 2016 was much more positive. First noticed more, that it is much lighter than its counterpart from ELV. The contact carriage run smoothly and he is after commissioning no noises. Only the somewhat rickety button and the charging compartment cover are a bit cheap. The charging compartment cover can lose weight but what I have done, because they can no longer completely close when you insert mono batteries.

Display:
The display of the ALC 1010 Expert is illuminated in a pleasant green. The lighting switches itself off after a certain time. By pressing a button it switches on again. However, one should not this the Start / Stop button use, otherwise an active load program is terminated. The display itself is specifically designed for chargers and displays all the necessary information in response (and in German!) To.

The background lighting of the Charge Manager 2016 is permanently active as long as a loader runs. After that, the display shuts off and can be turned on by pressing a button when required. The display itself is a standard text display with 4 lines of 16 characters each. This makes the display flexible but also acts as technical.

Service:
The ALC 1010 Expert is operated by 5 keys. The operation is slightly out of hand and is virtually self-explanatory. An incorrect entry can be changed anytime. However, this can also be provided to close from a running loader. If one four batteries into the device, the settings for all four batteries to be entered separately (unless you want only once load = standard).

The operation of the batch Manager 2016 comes out with three buttons. An incorrect setting can be reversed only by short removing the battery. If one more battery in the device you can select the charging program and the charge / discharge at first. For all other batteries, the same settings are automatically applied (very convenient if you want to load several batteries with the same settings) after a certain timeout.

Battery charge:
The ALC 1010 Expert recognizes different hand pads for the positive pole, the size of the inserted batteries and automatically selects the charge / discharge currents. However, this also vary by the number of inserted batteries. A single cell is loaded with approximately 1.6A. With four mono cells there are only about 1.0 A per cell. Different charging currents provide course unfortunately for inaccurate capacitance measurements. The battery does not heat up noticeably but all too much. The shutdown always worked reliably for me.

Even better gets the store but the Charge Manager 2016 down. I was very skeptical that the smallest adjustable charging current is 500 mA. To my surprise I realized that batteries in Charge Manager 2016 significantly less heat than other chargers and despite significantly higher currents. If you load an Eneloop AA battery with 500 mA to virtually not heated this! If one of the charging current to car is first started with 500 mA. Depending on the quality of the cell increases the batch manager 2016 the charging current gradually up to 2000 mA. Even Eneloop AAA cells are briefly charged with this current. Before smaller batteries are fully charge current goes back to 500 mA. Sensational! Why? Because despite this high charge currents the battery virtually no heat. If one fully charged Eneloops in the loader they are detected within a few seconds as full! Only with old batteries have to be careful. Here it is better to choose manually 500 mA.

Conclusion:
The ALC 1010 Expert is a good charger. Unfortunately, the quality compared to my old ALC 1000 Expert deteriorated although the price has risen. Normally, I would assign four star. However, the batch would Manager 2016, get six or seven stars. He has the better quality, running at 12 volts (ie also in the car), has a USB port for reading out the charging characteristics, the somewhat simpler operation and better charging technique, that really convinced me. Finally it still costs 20 less. Therefore gets the batch Manager 2016 five stars and the ALC 1010 Expert three star.