We got the tablet for our daughter at Christmas and I have never know anything to take as long as this to charge fully!

It can take nearly 6/7 hours to charge fully and that is not even charging from 0%. For example, I plugged the charger in at 2pm today when it was 62% nearly two hours on it is still only at 82%. When fully charged it will last over 8 hours even with her playing games on it ect.

We never let it get to below 20% before charging but even still, it is less than 2 months old and should not take so many hours to charge surely?

I used the same charger on my HTC and it works fine, so the charger itself is not the problem.

your warranty, (or extended cover?) should cover you for any issues that are causing the device to fail. return it to the store if nearby or inform them online, providing all the details to gain the necessary help.

the device has been sold unwittingly, "not fit for purpose", and you have a good chance of resolving the problem

You need to try a different charger to be sure. Just because it charges a phone doesn't mean it can successfully charge a tablet.

Also, using the wrong USB cable can disallow fast charging.

On a positive, slow charging protects the battery, lowering wear.

Doesn’t the charger that came with your samsung galaxy smartphone or tablet work universally i.e. charge equally well on any galaxy smartphone or tablet.

The Battery doctor optimiser app advises that you should charge from below 20% at least once a month, and when the phone’s charged at 100% it will immediately go onto a 10 minute trickling stage before you unplug the charger after those 10 minutes.

That with the tablet or smartphone switched on.

Likely yes, but maybe not all Samsungs. But it is often a pre-determined voltage across the data lines of the USB cable that tells the device it can try higher power.

My ZTE Blade puzzingly rejects various USB cables, maybe because the voltage gets altered in the cable.

It’s the same charger socket size re: samsung galaxy’s and ZTE Blades.

You need to use the plug that came with the charger and the cable that came with it. Mobile phone charging plugs and cables emit at a lower power than those that come with tablets. If you use the stuff that came with your mobile it will take a lot longer to charge.

OP has it always taken this long to charge?

I've used a Samsung galaxy tab 2 and a galaxy tab pro. They took quite a while to charge. I think between 5-6 hours. So what you are reporting doesn't sound all that odd if Samsung haven't improved charging times.

The iPad charges quite quickly in comparison. My iPad mini 3 and air 2 can charge from less than 10% to 100% in 3 hours.

No, if you look at the small print on the charger you will see they have a different current output. Tablets have larger batteries and therefore sometimes need a higher rated charger. A bit of Googling suggests the S2 uses a 2A charger.