$2 universal battery charger
I just got a few of these universal battery chargers for $2.01 including shipping (no taxes) that draw power from a USB connector. So far, it looks great and I can charge most of my lithium ion batteries. My new Canon 500D Rebel T1i has a battery with some vertical narrow strips and that unfortunately won’t work with this charger without some very creative pin bending on the charger which I can’t recommend.
While this isn’t something you would want to use as a routing way to charge your battery, having this little device in your bag on the road is a life saver when you forget one of your normal chargers. Of course if you forget your laptop charger or 110-220 volt AC to USB adapter, you’re out of luck.
Deal Extreme also has another charger that’s $2.60 which is rated pretty well and they offer $0.01 shipping all over the world. I pay them via PayPal and it’s all very convenient. My experience is that it takes anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks to get a product in the mail box in a plain brown envelop. But for the price and virtually free shipping, it’s worth the wait. They’ve got lots of other useful things most of which are very good deals. Some of the more expensive items don’t seem like good deals to me so make sure you do some price research before you buy.
Still waiting for next year when most cellphones are supposed to change over to USB plug chargers. Life will be so much better then. I am still fighting this with my current Samsung cellphone.
@nucrash
USB is very nice, but the phone makers often use a proprietary USB plug on the phone end and that still forces you to buy some kind of adapter. It would be wonderful if all you needed was a standard mini-USB head on one end and standard USB on the other. They don’t do this because they turn accessories into a profit center which is dubious these days because you can always get after market solutions.
Take my Canon 500D for example. The battery for that camera costs $50 at BHPhoto.com but Deal Extreme has an after market product for under $7. It’s just a standard Lithium battery. Canon has made it hard for you to use this universal charger though since they are using very narrow slits that are very close to each other on the battery. This really sucks because you can’t even use your old Canon Rebel chargers and batteries.
Particularly handy if you are abroad and have forgotten your plug adapter.
@Iain
I was in London earlier this year and forgot my camera charger. I got one of those Universal Chargers that use the UK AC plug for the battery, and it worked, but it cost me 10 quids I think which worked out to about $1.40 at the time. Now it’s useless because it has the UK plug and I can’t use it here. This little guy will ship anywhere in the world for 1 penny and it works absolutely great. I bought like 5 of them so that I can give some away as presents.
Nice information on battery charger. One best thing about this charger is that it is universal so it can be used in many devices for charging purpose. Thanks for sharing.