MarkEagle
VisorCentral Staff
Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682 |
 On the subject of chargers...
I have found that a good charger is very important to the use of rechargeable batteries.
I recently purchased a Maha MH-C204F conditioning charger from Thomas Distributing that has given my 4-month old NEXcells 50% longer runtime (12 hrs vs. 8 hrs). Using my old Radio Shack 13-hr charger (No. 23-418), my battery life seemed to degrade slightly with every recharge (8 hrs runtime down to 4). The charger and batteries were always quite warm as well; the Maha doesn't seem as bad.
Basically, a conditioning charger discharges the batteries completely before charging them. I know that NiMH's don't suffer from the "memory affect" that NiCad's do, but my real-life use seems to indicate that conditioning also helps the NiMH's. The FAQ for the charger seems to support this theory as well:
quote:
CONDITIONING is the process by which a charger such as the MH-C204F can revive or improve the functioning of rechargeable NiMH or NiCAD batteries - "if needed". Please note the emphasis on the "if needed". NiMH batteries do not suffer from the dreaded memory effect as do the NiCAD type batteries and NiMH batteries can be recharged at any given discharge level, it is not recommended to use the conditioning cycle constantly when re-charging NiMH batteries unless you feel that your batteries are not performing as well as they once did. If you find that this is the case then reconditioning them for the next 2 or 3 charges usually will improve or return their performance to previous levels. There is one possible scenario where we do recommend the use of the conditioning cycle more often for NiMH batteries. This is in the event that you are re-charging a set of batteries that are not quite discharged at the same levels. Let's say you have one battery that is 10% discharged and one that is 50% discharged. Since the MH-C204F has two independent charging and CONDITIONING circuits and will charge and condition 2 batteries at a time, the CONDITIONING process will discharge both batteries to the same level prior to recharging, assuring you that both batteries are properly charged at the same levels.
NiCAD batteries on the other hand need to be recharged only when they are close to or fully discharged or they will develop a memory effect and their useful life will be greatly shortened. By memory effect we mean that if you were to get in to a habit recharging NiCAD type batteries when they are not fully discharged, they will eventually hold less and less charge and eventually they will not hold a charge at all. Then in this case by using the CONDITIONING cycle in the MH-C204F you may be able to reverse the memory effect and return your NiCAD batteries to somewhat of a normal operation and extend their useful life.
Also, as hkyslif said, batteries will discharge in an unplugged charger.
quote:
...the charger can not keep the batteries fully charged if it is not plugged in. Due to the electronic circuitry in the charger, the batteries can actually be discharged by the charger when it is not plugged into a power source.
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09-01-2000 06:20 AM
Charger could be bad
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