Is it good practice to R&A "unused" Eneloops on a bi-monthly basis?

[Face]

Hi everyone,

I have quite a stock of AA/AAA Eneloops that currently aren't in use (I've run out of devices to put them in at the moment, but in time I'm sure that they will find a home).

So, I intended to R&A them on my C9000 every couple of months or so - just to keep them alive as it were. Another benefit of R&A'ing them would be that I could also track their capacity over time too.

Is the R&A method a good way to help look after these batteries given the circumstances? Any flaws in my plan? Is there a better way to do it?

Many thanks in advance,

Face

 

[Ray_of_Light]

One of the advantages of the Eneloops is the fact that they don't need regular "exercise" to be kept in running order.
For keeping track of their capacity, one monitoring cycle every six months is more than enough. Personally, I do a cycling of my unused 2006 Eneloops in my Lacrosse every year, to find -until now - they had kept 85% of the charge.

Regards

Anthony

 

[Jack Reacher]

As Anthony says...

One of the advantages of the Eneloops is the fact that they don't need regular "exercise" to be kept in running order. [...]

To me — and I'm sure many others — one of the main advantages of paying a bit more for Eneloops is the very fact that they don't need any "conditioning" as they maintain an 85% capacity even after sitting on the shelf untouched for twelve months.

If you're happy to periodically condition batteries, then you may as well save some money and buy non-LSDs. (Assuming you're not concerned with parasitic drains of course.)

—Cheers, Jack.

 

[Battery Guy]

Hi everyone,
So, I intended to R&A them on my C9000 every couple of months or so - just to keep them alive as it were. Another benefit of R&A'ing them would be that I could also track their capacity over time too.

You will get no benefit from regular conditioning the Eneloop cells. If you have a bunch of extra Eneloop cells and want to feel like you are doing something to prevent them from self-destructing, my advice is to get them to ~50% state of charge, then throw them in the fridge. The self discharge rate at ~5 degrees Celsius is less than half that of room temperature, and side reactions will be slowed to a snails pace. You could probably keep them for years under these conditions will little degradation.

Cheers,
Battery Guy

 

[TomBrown]

Cycling them will just reduce battery and owner life.

Eneloops have caused me to basically forget about batteries. My remote controls, for example, have not had the battery covers off in three years. I don't use my home theater that much but three years... unbelievable.

Get some Eneloops and spend your time watching hot weather chicks on satellite TV.