Review on Elefly Battery Charger For Black And Decker 18V 14.4V 12V 9.6V 24V NiCD NiMH Batteries - Compatible With HPB18, HPB18-OPE, HPB14, HPB12, HPB96, HPB24 - Replacement Charger For Black And Decker 18V by Tony Buckley

I bought this to replace the "dumb chargers" that come with outdoor B&D power tools, which use the HPB18 battery. The problem with the original supplied chargers is that they don't tell you when the battery is charged. So you tend to leave them on the charger indefinitely which ultimately shortens the life of the battery. This charger works best with 3 prong batteries. The third prong is a temp sensor that determines when the battery is fully charged based on its temperature, and gives you a green LED "charged" indication. It will charge 2 prong batteries but it will not tell you when the battery is fully charged and so it will keep on charging it. Bad. They describe the charging cycle to be about an hour which I find to be true based on charging a 3 prong battery and seeing the green indicator come on in about an hour.I do not yet have long term experience with this charger as I just bought it. I hung it in the garage using the hole it has for a mounting screw. When you do that, all the printing on the charger ends up upside down, a minor flaw in the design. But when I pull my car into the garage I can plainly see if the green (charged) indicator is on, a reminder to me to take that battery off the charger. With the old "dumb" chargers I tended to put the batteries on the charger right after use and then forget about them until the next time I used them. That will not happen anymore so I am hoping to get longer battery life. Winter storage of the batteries should be done with the batteries OFF the charger and about 50% charged. An occasional full charge during the winter would not hurt.What I DON'T know about this charger is whether the quick charging circuit reverts to a trickle charge when the green "charged" indicator comes on. That's why I think it's best to remove the battery from the charger when the green LED comes on.