>They say it's not good to leave them in the charger plugged in ...(or unplugged?)
Who says? I think for NiCd that may be more of an issue, haven't heard about that for nimh. NiCd's like to be discharged completely before being recharged, so, leaving them charged and "toppped" off will shorten their useful life. I don't think that's as big a deal with NiMH. Unless the charger is stupid and constantly supplies a charging current, but, the ones I have turn off when the batteries are charged.
>And if you just have the basic slow charger, what do you do when your Nimh batteries in the remote, etc, go dead? You have to wait like 8 hours for new ones to be recharged?
Um, either you get two sets of batteries (one charged while other in use) or you put the batteries in the charger when you go to bed and when you wake up they should be charged. I found that the NiMH don't work well in my remotes. Seems like the lower voltage (1.2 vs 1.5 for Alkaline) reduces the range of the remote. Moreso on some remotes than others. Alkalines seem to last forever in my remotes anyway, so, it's not a big deal in that application. YMMV.
>Anyone know of a solution to this dilemma? Thanks.......
It's a matter of $$$. You can buy quick charger or extra rechargeable batteries or some combination of.
>Also , this is a great price for charger and AAA, but any deals anywhere on AA batteries?
BigLots (B&M = you have to visit the store) had a deal on 4AA panasonic NIMH 600MAh for $4.99. Not sure if it's still officially on sale, but, they might still be the $4.99 price. They were hand priced @ 4.99 so I doubt they went back and repriced them all after the sale. Who knows. The thread about that deal is
Here.
BONUS: There's a $5/$20 printable coupon (and $20/$100) for BigLots floating around in a .PDF. Check Fat Wallet for links. Someone might want to see about getting 4packs of 4AA's for $15+tax. That's hot if they haven't raised the price of the batteries from before.