Going to sleep while charging your cells

I don't like to leave my cells on the charger overnight even though I use quality cells and chargers. I've heard a few stories of and I don't want to post my own here. So I bought a couple of these and now it's not a problem.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DD7YSE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

They are labeled doitbest.com Countdown Digital Timer.
125v/60Hz
15A/1875W (general purpose)
8A/1000W (Tungsten)

I got mine in a few days after ordering them. The site had two in stock listed, but still had two after I order two, one for me and one for my gal.
Happy charging,
Frank

Why didn't I think of this simple fix? I actually bought something similar(mechanical) for my brother's night light to save electricity. The Brinkmann brand simple version is like $5 and some change at Wally World. Woot! No more waiting for the batteries to juice up.

Thanks for the tip, Drywolf.

Most chargers will likely have some type of protection on the output, but I can't recommend intentionally leaving cells on a charger with the charger turned off.

I've used the weekly mechanical timers like this with a trickle charger to keep a marine battery charged.

It seems to help keep the water in the battery longer, and I've seen too many "smart" trickle chargers go dumb at some point in time. I'm talking about a 1.5A Schumaker http://store.schumachermart.com/se-1-12s.html. I've had real good luck with this particular charger on my ham radio emergency use marine batteries.

Drywolf said:

I don't like to leave my cells on the charger overnight even though I use quality cells and chargers. So I bought a couple of these and now it's not a problem.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DD7YSE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

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I'm not certain exactly what type of peace of mind you believe you've bought into by using this timer. Is the theory that it will turn the outlet off at some time shortly after the projected termination of the charge? A charger is most likely to run into issues when it is charging, not "floating." Take the recent spate of BC-900 melt downs. The charger melts down shortly after it switches from discharge to charge. I think if you are really worried about sleeping at night due to fire risk, this timer shouldn't give you any more peace of mind than no timer at all.

Turbo DV8 said:

I'm not certain exactly what type of peace of mind you believe you've bought into by using this timer. Is the theory that it will turn the outlet off at some time shortly after the projected termination of the charge? A charger is most likely to run into issues when it is charging, not "floating." Take the recent spate of BC-900 melt downs. The charger melts down shortly after it switches from discharge to charge. I think if you are really worried about sleeping at night due to fire risk, this timer shouldn't give you any more peace of mind than no timer at all.

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+1 how does this solve, the risk of meltdowns and such "overcharging is not the only concern" batteries can go bad while charging "a lot do", if I have to charge a battery over night I do it in the safety of my blast / fire resistance lock box. I've seen similar ideas with other members, one of the members on here, if I can recall charges lights in an old steel washing machine drum:thumbsup:!

Turbo DV8 said:

I'm not certain exactly what type of peace of mind you believe you've bought into by using this timer. Is the theory that it will turn the outlet off at some time shortly after the projected termination of the charge? A charger is most likely to run into issues when it is charging, not "floating." Take the recent spate of BC-900 melt downs. The charger melts down shortly after it switches from discharge to charge. I think if you are really worried about sleeping at night due to fire risk, this timer shouldn't give you any more peace of mind than no timer at all.

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It should reduce the risk or damage of termination failures. Or the "forgot and left it on trickle charge forever" problem.

it only takes about 1 hour to charge a battery, good planning and time management would make it easy to charge batteries safely. unless you need several batteries charged regularly, in which case buy a high quality professional charger, which has all kinds of speed and protection benefits.

i wouldnt leave a $16 charger alone for too long, but my $120 charger i feel better about.

I sleep while my batteries charge all the time. The whining that the charger circuitry makes when it's done charging usually wakes me up.

(I keep the charger next to my bed.)

fyrstormer said:

I sleep while my batteries charge all the time. The whining that the charger circuitry makes when it's done charging usually wakes me up.

(I keep the charger next to my bed.)

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are you certain the whining sound is not coming from the wife?

Apollo Cree said:

It should reduce the risk or damage of termination failures. Or the "forgot and left it on trickle charge forever" problem.

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Ah, I see. But if we're talking about NiMH, if one is finding termination unrealiable on a particular set of cells, then a higher charge rate should solve that. Even a couple of my crappy old Energizer's will terminate every time at 1A.

Not to be argumentative, but I've never experienced the "forgot and left it on trickle charge forever" problem. If I'm talking about my LaCrosse, Maha, Sanyo or Duracell "smart" chargers, all those manufacturers state there is no harm in leaving the cells in float (or trickle charge) indefinitely. And even if I do "forget," it's for a day... tops.

I have a couple of the Everstart (Wal-Mart) version of that 1.5A Schumaker charger you noted. I keep them on constantly to maintain a pair of 200 Ah /12 volt batteries. What was meant when you said that "too many 'smart' trickle chargers go dumb at some point in time?"

waddup said:

it only takes about 1 hour to charge a battery, good planning and time management would make it easy to charge batteries safely. unless you need several batteries charged regularly, in which case buy a high quality professional charger, which has all kinds of speed and protection benefits.

i wouldnt leave a $16 charger alone for too long, but my $120 charger i feel better about.

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Doing a discharge/refresh at .5C charge and .25C discharge is totally within recs and specs would take 6 hours per cycle (up to 60 hours total process).

supes said:

Why didn't I think of this simple fix? I actually bought something similar(mechanical) for my brother's night light to save electricity. The Brinkmann brand simple version is like $5 and some change at Wally World...

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IKEA has some outlet timers at about $2 each called TÄNDA . They can be programmed in 1/2 hour increments up to 24 hours. The perfect way to protect your house from a LaCrosse burp.

Turbo DV8 said:

What was meant when you said that "too many 'smart' trickle chargers go dumb at some point in time?"

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I'm basically talking about "failure to terminate" problems. I think I've seen one of the 1.5 A Schumacher electric chargers do this occasionally, but I've probably got 30+ charge years of usage of them. My best guess was the thing just decided to never drop back from 1.5 A mode to off/trickle mode. Maybe some sort of power glitch occurred. After powering the unit off and back on, all seemed to be OK again.

I'm also convinced that the water and batteries last longer with a "1 day per week on the charger" process than with a "24/7 on the charger" strategy.

I've got a pretty good amount of faith in the Schumacher 1.5 A units, but a little extra margin of safety doesn't hurt. I'm a lot more worried about failure to terminate problems on other chargers.

I am talking about long term maintenance of marine batteries for backup power. Other situations may be different.

Generally speaking, I try to work backwards, and if I do a slow charge of the cells it will be overnight. If I get up at 8am, and I'm doing a 16 hour charge, then I need to start them off at 4pm. Simples!
If it's during a working week, start them off at 7am, pop them out at 11pm.

I would never go to sleep charging Li-Ion though... in fact, I don't even like to leave the room. LOL!

Apollo Cree said:

I'm also convinced that the water and batteries last longer with a "1 day per week on the charger" process than with a "24/7 on the charger" strategy.

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Sorry, this continues OT... Digging back into my recollections... "stratification" is a term I've read used to decribe how the water/acid portions of electrolyte can spearate if they are never "stirred" up with some bubbling action every so often. Might allowing the voltage to drop, then bring charge back up once a month as you suggested, offer this bubbling aggitation, and be the reason for your claim of longer "water and battery life?" My batteries say "Sealed. Non-spillable." I don't know exactly what type indicates, except I know there is no opening or cap to add water. Is this "glass mat" technology I've read about? They are 200 Ah each, and the intended original application is huge UPC's.

Turbo DV8 said:

Sorry, this continues OT... Digging back into my recollections... "stratification" is a term I've read used to decribe how the water/acid portions of electrolyte can spearate if they are never "stirred" up with some bubbling action every so often. Might allowing the voltage to drop, then bring charge back up once a month as you suggested, offer this bubbling aggitation, and be the reason for your claim of longer "water and battery life?" My batteries say "Sealed. Non-spillable." I don't know exactly what type indicates, except I know there is no opening or cap to add water. Is this "glass mat" technology I've read about? They are 200 Ah each, and the intended original application is huge UPC's.

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My experience is with non-sealed, spillable deep cycle marine batteries.