IKEA TJUGO AA and AAA 8-Bay NiMH Battery Charger - Analysis and Teardown

[@lanemurphy8395]

Heat shrink is to prevent light leaks so the whole case doesn’t glow

[@manickbarry]

I agree

[@NathanCroucher]

Pulse charging is normal, something to do with breaking up the crystals that form when battery is low voltage. Would be nice to see extra leds to show individual batteries charged, but one will do.

[@blaser80]

The Lacross charger also pulse charges, it just does it so fast that a multimeter cannot detect it.

[@karlanovakova220]

You are wrong - check Your second charger with oscilloscope. I have the same charger and it uses pulsed charging too - only pulses are 1 milisecond in length - several hundred Hz repeating frequency - Your current meter shows correctly average value of these pulses - that is 200 mA. Pulsed charging makes NiMh batteries live longer.

[@bangmedia1]

Teardown, yes. Analysis? Hmmm. Is this charger fast or slow, safe or unsafe, good or bad? The interesting thing, which is also never mentioned, is that IKEA recommends you leave the batteries in it to "trickle charge", so you always have access to fully charged batteries.

[@TimopheyGutenko]

I guess a black sleeve does not allow to light up the whole box from LEDs :-)

[@MetalMike50]

Quite an obvious reason, was almost screaming at my screen haha

[@nisios]

this is so dumb, so obvious.... made me question the whole review.....

[@nstl440]

Engineer tunnel vision:)

[@_w_w_]

This sleeve appears to be a waste of the money... The plastic housing looks thick enough to block out most light leak. In addition, this thing has a lid that tends to fall into the closed position. The designer is obsessed with reducing radiating light of any sort and even spend the money on a hall effect sensor... and then this black out sleeve... for what? This charger is odd in so many ways. You normally don't want to cover the battery so can you cool the entire charger.

[@Mobin92]

I'm not sure what this video told me... Is it good or bad?

[@americanexpress888]

exactly

[@verynick]

I think he is saying it’s a good basic charger. Safe and there’s nothing to brag about.

[@michaelharvey5560]

Due to the flexible 'book spine' you can fold the blue cover right back so it lies flat under the charger if you want to be able to see the light.

[@FestMonster]

Thanks for the review just bought this as i wanted a simple design which didnt look like a charger with no obvious lights.

[@EWmedia]

Do you recommend it? Is it good? I just watch a 20min video haha

[@h8GW]

Dou you think you'll ever do a teardown with the Ikea STENKOL charger? It's usually bundled with a 4-pack of batteries that make it a very tempting purchase and I'd like some insight to see if it's good for battery longevity.

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

I have the STENKOL charger and aim to make a video on that soon, hopefully! Thanks for watching!

[@VK-oc2bx]

​@@TheCuriousEngineerChannelstenkol vs tjugo which one would you recommend ??

[@Hank_E]

Still no answer why they call it "tjugo". In case you didn't check then tjugo is just swedish for "twenty". I read in the manual that you can keep your batteries in this charger and they're always topped up so this pulsing keep them topped up and it shouldn't switch off. In the case of normal C/10 charging it's not advisable to charge more than 14-15 hours because they will overcharge.

[@mohamedraafat2410]

Please where is the device made?

[@Erchamion1983]

Hi! Thanks for the review! Like Others, I am a bit confused (perhaps it’s because of lack of technical knowledge). 1. Does it stop charging when a single cell reaches its design voltage, or will it go on until all cells are full or just for a specific amount of time? 2. Is the current for AAAs also at about 1.6A flash (as for AAs in this video)? Thanks again!!

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

1. It charges all cells individually until fully charged. 2. The charge current for AAAs is approximately half that of the AA charge current. Thanks for watching!

[@DanScribla]

Ikea's LADDA cells are actually excellent and are most likely rebranded eneloop pros.

[@alessandroserrao9422]

Nope. They are to a significant lower league, they don't hold up the charge and they last less that Eneloop. End of life in about 100 cycles. Crap.

[@stepheng8779]

@@alessandroserrao9422 nonsense

[@senorcapitandiogenes2068]

@@alessandroserrao9422 Thats just not true. They have almost exactly the same electrical characteristics as Eneloop Pro batteries. They are propably cells that did not have the guaranteed 2500 mAh capacity and are now sold as 2450 mAh.

[@Animal_lives_matter]

@@alessandroserrao9422 Is it possible that they suffered premature aging due to the charger? I've been using an Energiser 360mA charger but Eneloop brand charger is 200mA, maybe that slower charging wears the battery less and I get more lifespan out of LADDA?

[@alessandroserrao9422]

@@Animal_lives_matter 360mA is not an high of a current at all. It should be perfectly fine.

[@KD-nu4bk]

Hi! I have a question! Have you tried to plug it on a power surge outlet and not a wall outlet? Should it be charge by the wall outlet?

[@mohamedraafat2410]

Please do you recommend buying it and is it a fast or slow charger?

[@davidhopkins]

I'm confused. You recommend this for charging ikea batteries but not eneloops. Aren't ikea batteries eneloops in disguise? You criticize this charger (and the power owl) for the way it charges but you recommend a couple of usb 4 bank chargers. Is USB a better way of charging batteries?

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

It’s not about USB vs AC supply for charging batteries. Rather it’s how the battery charger manages charging each battery. I have videos planned to detail this further coming up. Thanks for watching!

[@reallauradee]

@@TheCuriousEngineerChannel will it be up soon?

[@status101-danielho6]

I had a bunch of older NiMH batteries that wouldn't charge in the Tjugo and triggered the red LED warning light. I had a crappy charger before that would occasionally overcharge the cells, causing premature wear. I'm surprised that such an inexpensive device had a sensor to detect these battery defects.

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

The detection circuit is not very reliable. it has alerted me that several of the brand new batteries I have are defective. Perhaps check out the video I did on "Bad Battery Detection". I'll also add it to this videos description. Thanks for watching!

[@samdeur]

Just discovered your channel.. Thank your for the great contact. I was searching a battery that Amazon The Netherlands recommended to me. Thank you for saving me from them. i have Eneloop and the white Lada ikea batteries.. i saw your reviews on the new Lada batteries and decided to subscribe to your great channel. BTW i use the PowerEX MH-C9000 charger and like it because i can charge 50% of the rated mAH i was always told that this would benefit the longevity of rechargeable batteries. Do the cheaper chargers like the Tjugo have a negative impact on batteries ?

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

I am currently researching and experimenting with a few different chargers, and investigating charging methods. Videos will be out as soon. Thank you for watching! Take care!

[@manickbarry]

Think I might get one of those I like the idea I leaving the batteries in there for storage

[@crisownzz]

How do u know when the batteries are fully charged ?

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

The light stays on. :/

[@verynick]

How do you know which one is charged and which one is not?

[@senorcapitandiogenes2068]

@@verynick 1. You could check with a multimeter or 2. You could feel for cells that are warmer than the others. Those are propably still charging.

[@wingwong8304]

Could I use ladda AA batteries with something that needs 9 volts?

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

Depends on the device, but in general should work fine. Thanks for watching!

[@fgzdw4645]

you still did not find one? :(

[@iknowzeverything2740]

Nobody: Ikea Charger: So anyways, I started blasting

[@guntismikelsons5048]

interesting review :)

[@sychrov81]

They used to make better one, with display, not sure why they making this now..

[@nstl440]

Are you sure that previous one is better apart from the displays it had? Any comparable tests? Of course a display is nice but if you have enough batteries it doesn't matter much.

[@alessandroserrao9422]

6:10 the behaviour is totally expected. It's called pulsed charging. But the Ikea charger is crap as usual. No way I cannot see the state of charge of all batteries with a single led! What a crap!

[@TheCuriousEngineerChannel]

I don't like the single LED indicator either. However, it does charge batteries decently.

[@k9-charlie711]

​@@TheCuriousEngineerChannel Would you still recommend this charger or should I wait to get the stenkol battery charger which is the new 4 slot charger by ikea?

[@alessandroserrao9422]

@@k9-charlie711 I'd suggest you the new Stenkol charger.

[@alalal123421]

@@alessandroserrao9422 whats the difference with the stenkol charger? how do you know what battery charger is best?

[@alessandroserrao9422]

@@alalal123421 they are basically the same: the Stenkol has 4 independent charge indicators, the Tjugo has only one led for all the 8 bays, a big disadvantage. As far as I'm concerned, the Ikea Stenkol is a good all around charger.

[@cpy74mm]

IKEA batteries ARE Eneloops!!!

[@mztd912]

You sound like you don't have a clue about battery chargers and how they work. This video is pointless.