Mark was talking about the charging longevity of the batteries of course. It takes much less than years to actually charge them.

For standard NiMH cells, charging rate depends entirely on the charger and the total time depends on how depleted the "dead" battery actually is. If the charger does any type of conditioning it might add some time.

My charger takes up to a few hours (3 or 4) to charge a nearly empty cell to full capacity. I do mean full. Some other charger may not get as much energy into the batteries. The newer Maha chargers can do it in an hour for a normal charge or two hours for a soft charge. Super fast (high current) charging decreases the life of the battery as far as I know.

Would I trust the Energizer 15 minute charger with my cells? No. Rayovac, the first guys to offer a 15 minute charger I believe, had special batteries for use with that charging rate.