Battery chargers are just for AA and AAA batteries, right? Nope – it turns out you can buy rechargeable button batteries (also known as coin batteries) and a charger for them. Today, I’m reviewing this starter kit that I bought from Amazon (sponsored link) which includes a charger and four LIR2450 batteries.
The battery charger can charge two button batteries at a time. A red light shows that the battery is charging; it shows a green light when there’s no battery inserted, or the battery is fully charged. It’s not an intelligent charger, so it won’t tell you if the battery is dead, or give you an idea of progress.
As well as the provided LIR2450 batteries, this battery charger can also charge LIR2032 and LIR2025 batteries if you have these. These batteries should be compatible with any devices that take CR2450, CR2032 and CR2025 batteries, which aren’t rechargeable. It’s quite small, and gets its power via a USB-C cable, which is included. Batteries seem to take around two hours to fully charge.
I’ve got a Zigbee motion sensor that uses a CR2450 battery, and whilst it’s not needed its battery replacing yet, I can ensure that its new batteries are rechargeable. Disposing of batteries properly can be a pain, as they’re not supposed to go in household waste.
The starter pack, that includes the battery charger and four batteries, currently costs £16. Extra packs of four batteries seem to cost around £8 (sponsored link), so the equivalent of £2 each. That’s more expensive than buying the equivalent disposable CR2450 batteries, which can be had for about 50p each, but they should last longer and are better for the environment.
