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Reviews For: Maha MH-C777PLUS

Category: Batteries & Chargers for Amateur Radio

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Review Summary For : Maha MH-C777PLUS
Reviews: 28MSRP: 89.95
Description:
A charger that will charge, condition, analyze, and digitally display capacity, voltage, and time for almost any Lithium Ion, NiMH, and NiCD battery packs. Based on the invaluable inputs of thousands of Maha product users and engineers, the MH-C777 PLUS is designed with you in mind. From its universal charging capability for almost any shape Lithium Ion, NiMH, and NiCD battery packs to its digital voltage and capacity display, the MH-C777 PLUS is a true winner. Best of all, with all of these advanced features the charger is available at a affordable consumer cost.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mahaenergy.com/products/radios/amateur/chargers/mhc777plus.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00282.2
K6SDW Rating: 2013-05-10
Junk! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this POS since buying it at the Dayton Convention in 2005.........sometimes it works great, then many it cooks batteries by over-charging then!! I mean, red-hot cooking.

In the garbage (I mean, recycle bin) it went.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by K6SDW on 2003-06-11

Bought mine at Dayton and so far so good -- really impressed with its operation and I saved $40 buying at Dayton! Only complaint is that it can be really difficult to align the pins of the battery with the charger....but then given it's a universal-style charger I don't know what else can be done to this design that would improve this situation?

All-in-all it has charged a variety of batteries without any problems.
KC9KTV Rating: 2013-01-18
Best non OEM charger Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this charger over 2 years. I charge Ni Cads, NiMH and Lithium Ion batteries with it. Have had no problems with this charger, it has even brought some old junk batteries back to life. It has been worth every penny that I paid for it at a hamfest.

Charges batteries to full capacity the first time, and it charges my Kenwood F6A batteries faster than the stock wall wart charger.

Don't know why other people are having problems with this great charger. Wished I could buy another to have two to keep batteries charged.

James
KE4RWS Rating: 2011-04-18
Still works good after 9 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I originally reviewed this product in May 2002 and liked it. You'll have to see my previous review here to see my comments. However, I wanted to follow-up after nearly 9 years of use to say mine still works well, and that I still consider it a useful part of my battery charging/conditioning tools.

As I stated in my original review, I see the opinions prior to and after my review have been both good & bad. The C777Plus seems to have been one of those products where you either got a keeper or one that was utter trash. I guess I was lucky enough to get one that has served me well through the years. I have enjoyed it's use through the past nine years though. And like before, I continue to use it every few days as needed for various types of batteries.

I see this model is no longer made, possibly as of 2008 I believe. However, I see the MH-C888 is still produced. The C777Plus appears to be either a good or bad charger, depending on how it was used and possibly what lot the user received. But I can say if I was looking for an all-around charger again, this would NOT be on my list as it seems there is just too many terrible reviews by people who've had bad experiences with this model. Although mine has been fine for so long, I wouldn't take the chance on this model if I were in the market for one again :(

One a side-note, I still only use this product if I am physically in the room or nearby, as I have read too many stories from people both here and elsewhere where they stated their C777Plus continued rapid-charging even after a certain threshold. Although I have not experienced this, I'd rather be safe than sorry (or dead).

Cheers :)

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Earlier 4-star review posted by KE4RWS on 2002-05-24

I purchased my charger new approximately 3 months ago and haven't experienced any of the "burn-out" problems others have indicated. Since my charger is relatively new it's possible I haven't had that experience yet, but so far the charger has worked very well.

I've charged NiCAD, NiMH & LiIon type batteries in the charger, which it is designed for. These batteries ranged from camcorder batteries to handie/talkie batteries. The charger seemed to handle the various voltage & Mah batteries very well. I also charged four AA type NiMH batteries using a four-cell holder from Radio Shack, and the charger again did very well.

My main intention for buying this charger was to charge my H/T batteries which I use every day. The cost of this charger was $74.95 at the time of this writing, which was a great deal when you consider what a rapid charger/conditioner would cost for all of the applications I am using it for (which is at least five different battery types). But again, I seem to be fortunate enough to have not had any of the bad experiences others have documented here (at least not yet).

The things I really like about this charger is the LCD readout of the charging time, voltage and capacity in Mah. The charger's ability to essentially "adapt" to virtually any battery is great for those who have multiple battery types. The charger's overall construction appears to be good without any obvious flaws (again, so far!). Additionally, I like the chargers ability to condition my batteries. This is essential for my older NiCAD type batteries. I have several batteries which require conditioning every few months, and this charger seems to fit the bill in this capacity.

The thing I don't like about the charger is the obtrusively LOUD audible beep indicator to alert you to various functions. There is no external adjustment, and this sucker is L-O-U-D !! In fact, I have to keep the door closed to the room where the charger is to not disturb the rest of the household. In my opinion it's so loud it sounds like a smoke-detector sounding off! Aside from the loud beeping, there's really nothing else I don't like about this charger.

Based on the advice of others, I never leave the chargers power supply plugged into an A/C outlet for fear of burning the house down. In fact, as a rule I NEVER leave any device plugged in which isn't in constant use. So far I haven't used the chargers 12 volt cigar-lighter cord for charging, so I can't comment on how well it works in that configuration. As soon as I use the charger in other capacities such as mobile I'll write a follow-up review at a later time.

In the end my MH-C777 Plus has performed exactly as advertised. I read the previous reviews and asked two individuals who actually owned them about their take on this unit. Based on various other factors I decided to give this charger a try for myself, and thusfar it's worked out wonderfully in way I use it. I hate to recommend a product that's had such a checkered past as this one has, but I can honestly say I haven't experienced any of the failures others have. But again, the caveat here would the addition of "yet" which is why I always provide follow-up reviews after having further use of any given product.
K7FO Rating: 2009-03-21
Avoid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I guess this product has been beat to death but people should know to avoid this thing at swap meets, etc. I just about ruined some nice ni-cad packs with mine. They got too hot to touch. It also nearly caught fire a couple of times. It also would not charge li-ions. I trashed mine. I was afraid to even give it away. My experience with Maha products has not been good. I had three different Maha handheld battery packs for Yaesu and Icom that failed early and they were slow charged with wall warts.
WB2AIU Rating: 2008-09-05
DISCONTINUED Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received an e-mail from Maha today confirming that this model has been discontinued. Replacement is in the works for later this year.

Would like to find something similar with better reviews.
KE4IOK Rating: 2007-03-25
Save your money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Yes, I bucked the current; after reading the negative reviews on E-Ham, I decided I knew better than everyone else and purchased the charger. Well, they were right. After several failed tries to recharge my LiMH battery pack (rebuilt) from the Nicad Lady, I gave up and put them on the shelf. Now, a year later, I gave them another try. Going through the discharge/charge cycle takes 15 minutes, then the readout says "Full." After placing the pack on the radio, 2 minutes later, I get a "Low Battery" indication and the radio dies. I will toss both the battery pack and the charger away. My advice: save the $70 on the charger and $40 on the rebuild and buy Duracells. $110 will but a lot of fresh batteries!
VE3LNY Rating: 2006-09-08
Failed on NiMH batteries Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought one of these a number of years ago when I only had NiCad batteries. It worked great. Run them down, charge them up, it even read out the charge! I was 100% satisfied. Until I bought my first NiMH batteries. It would only charge them 10%, 20%, sometimes 30% if I was lucky and then stop. I contacted Maha technical support and their best advice was "charge them again". After replacing all my NiCads with NiMH, it would not charge any of them properly, and I had to get another charger. I finally relegated it to the scrap heap.
N7OZH Rating: 2005-09-19
Clip Leads Are Backwards. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My new C777 Plus II always had problems when using the clipleads. The voltmeter shows correct voltage on the leads, but error codes show up when they are connected.

Since the charger is a "smart" charger, I decided to try connecting the Maha red lead to the battery holder's black wire and the Maha's black lead to the battery holder's red wire. Worked like a charm. NOTE: The polarity switch has nothing to do with the clip leads. They are red and black for a reason. Red = plus, black = minus. Only mine are wired backwards.

Anybody else seen this?

I checked the wriing on the battery holder and it is correct, red = plus and black = minus.

I'm beginning to think I should have bought the LenMar unit instead.

N7OZH
O. D. Williams
K8YSE Rating: 2005-01-26
Dangerous Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is similar to a previous report.

I had a 12v 5 amp hour battery connected to the charger using the clip leads. It had been on the charger for about a week. I needed an AC outlet so I unplugged the AC cord. The battery
remained connected to the charger.

A minute or so later there was an odor of something burning. At first I though it was one of my computers but I could not find anything wrong. The odor persisted and eventually there
was smoke. The smoke was traced back to the MAHA charger which was very hot. If this was not discovered, it would have likely ignited.

Emails to tech support and sale were ignored. MAHA evidently knows about the problem and has decided to ignore it and it will go away. Perhaps a class action suit will change their minds.

Don't ever leave a battery connected to this charger when you are not present. A power failure could result in a fire.
K6RSG Rating: 2004-10-04
Current Production Units are Great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had two (2) of these units for well over a year. They were purchased from HRO in late summer 2003. At the 2003 ARRL SouthWestern conference in Long Beach, CA, MAHA's representative and product engineer suggested he swap the units for their current version, as there had been some production changes which corrected the run-on charging findings I had observed when using the units with the 3100mAh BatteriesAmerica.com battery packs for the Kenwood TH-F6A.

At the show, HRO and MAHA arranged for the units to be swapped with current HRO inventory. MAHA handled resupplying HRO with the two units. Thanks to Janet at HRO Anaheim and Rick for their excellent Support as well as MAHA for their help in the matter.

Aside from the run-on charging of the 3.1Amp batteries with the first set of units, both sets of MAHA units have done a great job on a variety of NiMh, NiCd and Li-Ion batteries. They've never damaged any batteries connected to them nor ever run hot. They have even proven very effective in reconditioning nearly depleated tired NiCd cells.

The only issue was their prolonged charging duration which failed to end the charging sessions, however, they did ramp down the charging current to nearly nothing.

I'm very satisfied with mine and would recommend them as a multi-purpose charger/conditioner to any HAM who has had their fill with the proliferation of single equipment dedicated transformers.