Need help: charging batteries with Powerex

Hi,

I have 20 Duracell ActiveCharge and 6 Sanyo Eneloop batteries (both low self decharge) and a Maha Powerex C9000 charger.

Does anybody know what charging rate (mA) i do need? I would also know the best discharging rate. Both type of batteries have the same specifications.

The manual says that charging under 0.3C is unsave because the possibility to overcharge when the battery is old or defective. But the label of the Duracell says "standard charge 200 mA for 16 hours"... 200 mA is 0.1C, way to low to charge safely.

Does anybody recommend or discommend the "break-in" function with pre-charged low self decharge batteries? With that function it is possible to "form" the new batteries. Or do i have to discharge them first?

Thanks for reading!

Use 0.5 C - 1.0 C range to charge your cells. It will prevent a missing termination and overcharging your cell (which is worse than the wear produced charging "fast").

In LSD batteries you should do a discharge before the break-in.

There are many many answers to your questions on this forum. Just search using keywords like C9000 and eneloop.

For charging you may use the default charge rate of 1000 mA. If you are in a hurry you can use up to 2000 mA (for AA cells). Use 400-800 mA for AAA cells.

For discharging 500 mA gives a reasonable balance between time and accuracy. (200 mA for AAA cells.)

The break-in function can be used on LSD batteries to obtain optimum performance, but it is not absolutely necessary to condition the batteries in this way. Most people prefer to discharge the batteries first before starting the break-in cycle.

Thanks for the very useful answers!

PS:

Can i discharge and break-in a few Eneloops that i've charged a couple of times before with the original Sanyo charger?

You can do a break-in at any time, but if the batteries are already healthy it may not accomplish much.