La Crosse BC500 charger - $27.97

I always highly recommend a smart charger and good rechargeable batteries, and this is a great price for a good make. But be aware that this is an obsolete model, retired by the manufacturer (and according to one Amazon review, no longer comes with a warranty):
http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/bc500

And at least a couple reviews say it came with at least one bad battery, which may be because it's old stock and they sat fully drained too long.
That said, there are more good reviews than bad, so there's a decent chance you won't have any trouble - but I'd still suggest using new batteries. And Amazon's brand is quite good.

I think this is close to normal price. Clearly they just jacked up the standard price and discounted it to make it look on sale. The 'normal' price is higher than BC700, which is a higher end model.

https://ca.***************.com/Crosse-T ... B0031ERMO4

Edit: tried to link camelx3, but blocked by RFD...

According to one of the reviewers, this has only a single charging rate of 500mA ....

For me nowadays, I personally prefer those models that charge both NIMH and Li-ion batteries. Quite versatile ...

How does this compare to Nitecore chargers?

OakAged wrote: ↑ I always highly recommend a smart charger and good rechargeable batteries, and this is a great price for a good make. But be aware that this is an obsolete model, retired by the manufacturer (and according to one Amazon review, no longer comes with a warranty):
http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/bc500

And at least a couple reviews say it came with at least one bad battery, which may be because it's old stock and they sat fully drained too long.
That said, there are more good reviews than bad, so there's a decent chance you won't have any trouble - but I'd still suggest using new batteries. And Amazon's brand is quite good.

Any decent smart charger for this price range?
I think I need one now.

konsensei wrote: ↑ Any decent smart charger for this price range?
I think I need one now.

You might want to sift through the historical RFD threads discussing the various brands and models of chargers. Unless some new tech has come along recently, you'll probably learn what you need there. I didn't want to get into the "he said, she said" all over again, hence my terse OP. I haven't looked recently -- just came across this deal incidentally -- but I think bang-for-buck this one probably is still hard to beat (and worrying that a $30 item, with which the vast majority of buyers have not had any problems, may break down in a year without a warranty is a waste of emotional energy).

Used to be good, but not so much. They have a reputation for cooking batteries. That said, it does have discharge/capacity check/condition capability. Used to run 4 of these during RC days but moved on to a Powerex C9000.

@SoroSuub1, Nitecore chargers don't recondition/discharge/capacity check

SoroSuub1 wrote: ↑ How does this compare to Nitecore chargers?

Most Nitecore are multi-chemistry, this charger can only charge NiCd/NiMH.