Malibu Nimh cells from Solar spot lights...

Newuser01 · Mar 11, 2007

I bought this light set from am@zon!

It's has 4 spot lights for the garden and a remote solar panel. The solar panel as 3 "Malibu branded 1500 Mah - (MRL6CF) AA sized cells". Which of cause were dead!

So I proceeded to re-condition them in my BC 900 charger. Gone thru 3 different cycles.
1. 100/200 refresh.
2. 200/400 refresh.
3. 500/1000 refresh.

1 cell is up to 1314 mAh , 2 others are at 822 and 798 respectively!

Question:
Is there a way these cell will ever come up to anywhere they could be useful in the solar panel? Or should I just throw them in something that run time don't matter and get a good set in the solar panel?
Should I try reconditioning them any more ?

(rant-begin....)Darn - pain in the butt for having a bit of knowledge using the BC900 charger (/rant!!)

Regards.

myk · Mar 11, 2007

you do have to figure in that nimh are really only meant to take a fixed number of cycles, how old are these lights? 2 years = ~700 recharge cycles

also with the low cost of nimh cells.. why not pop 3 of ANY new battery in for the hell of it? $3 for lights that work!

SilverFox · Mar 11, 2007

Hello Newuser,

The cells are "crap." Even if you can get the capacity up on them, they will end up having a high rate of self discharge, and fall out of balance much quicker than good cells.

NiCd chemistry is better suited to that application. It can recover from a complete discharge better than NiMh chemistry can. On the other hand, if they have a low voltage cut out circuit, NiMh chemistry can survive.

Tom

Newuser01 · Mar 11, 2007

SilverFox said:
On the other hand, if they have a low voltage cut out circuit, NiMh chemistry can survive.

Hi Tom.
I think I would have to test that whether or not this have this circuit! by installing a low batteries in it and see if lights up or won't!
myk, I will look for a good set of cells for this unit.

And wish me luck as I throw away these stupid cells from a new solar panels I just bought!! Booowhohoho!!

Thanks you both for good advise as always!!:rock:

Regards.

SilverFox · Mar 11, 2007

Hello Newuser,

If you want to explore NiCd cells, Amondotech has some 1200 mAh cells for $0.85 each. I wasn't expecting much from them, but was surprised. They are actually pretty decent and inexpensive.

Tom

Malibu Nimh cells from Solar spot lights...

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