Thanks for all the great info everyone!!! I never thought this much development was going on with regular consumer rechargeable batteries. So I was not imagining things… I didn’t have a leprechaun playing around with my Duracells at night.

Remember I hadn’t bought any rechargeables for years, everything these days seems to come with their own built-in batteries or special packs that are proprietary configurations, or some Li-Ion pack. Little did I know how much better new NiMH are compared to my old ones to power my everyday AA/AAA battery devices!
Back to the charger question, does anyone have any experience with “EBL” brand stuff? I saw this on Amazon as I want to get something that won’t kill my new Duracells and the specs sound really good for under $30 Canadian (charger and 4x AA and 4x AAA):
- 4 Slot Independent charger: can charge 1/2/3/4 AA/AAA Ni-MH Ni-CD rechargeable batteries. It can charge the number of AA AAA batteries randomly you needed, you don’t need to charge batteries in pair anymore.
- Smart LCD display: With LCD screen to show the charging process, battery status can be easily monitored.
- High capacity rechargeable batteries - 2800mAh AA battery & 1100mAh AAA battery, has long lasting and superior performance. EBL 1.2V Ni-MH AA AAA rechargeable battery can be recharged up to 1200 times.
- Low self-discharge - Batteries will remain 90% juice when you leaving it for no use 1 year.
- Package: 1 x FY-409 Battery Charger, 1 x 4 pack AAA 1100mAh rechargeable batteries, 1 x 4 pack AA 2800mAh rechargeable batteries, 1 x User Manual, 1 x Micro USB Cable.
https://www.amazon.ca/EBL-Slot-Battery-Charger-Screen/dp/B08BQYGWHJFirst, I don’t believe the mAh rating on any of those batteries. I don’t really need any more batteries, I just want a decent charger. It says will retain 90% “juice”

after 1 year so I assume they are LSD type and the charger that comes with it will not kill them or my Duracells. The Panasonic smart charger alone is about $20 so for only a bit more I can get a bunch more batteries, assuming this EBL brand charger is any good. The only drawback is it uses USB inputs so I’ll need a wall-wart adapter from some other device to plug into the wall. My other chargers would just plug into 120V mains.