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I may not use most of my rechargeable AAs for 2-3 months then use the heck out of them (camera and external flash), then go 2-3 months before I need them again. I have a handful that I use on a regular basis. When I was using the high capacity Duracells and Energizers, I was spending a large chunk of my life charging the stupid things every month because they would run down on me in a month. They generally would last only a little over a year before I would start getting failures.
I tried the Eneloops and loved them. It takes at least half a year for them to run down on their own. I gave away all my other rechargeables and replaced them with Eneloops since I don't want to have to keep one set of batteries to use in devices I use frequently and another set for the devices that get only occasional use. It is far more convenient for me. I've had some over two years and have yet to have one fail on me.
I have a La Crosse BC-900 charger that I love. The early units had an overheating problem but the later units, like mine have been fixed. Since getting my BC-900, La Cross has replaced by the BC-9009. Again the early units had an overheating problem. Appartently, the ones now being sold at Amazon have been fixed.
In the OPs case, a simple slow charger with no adjustments (plug and play) would be best for his mother. Ideally, it should charge no faster than 500 mA. 200 would be better. It takes longer but the batteries will last much longer. Fast charging is murder on batteries.
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