MH- C9000 vs. MH-808m

I have both chargers and 24 newly purchased Panasonic / Eneloop Pro 2550mah batteries. I want to break them in for their first charge: the c-9000 has a "break in" cycle whereas the 808M has a soft charge cycle. Question is which charger is better since breaking in all 24 batteries will be very time consuming using the 9000 only? Is the "soft charge cycle" on the 808m the same as the "break in" cycle on the C-9000?

Hello Skeefu,

No.

A proper Break In can only be done with your C9000. The Soft feature on the 808 drops the charge rate from 2 amps down to 1 amp.

Tom

Thank you Silver for your input and knowledge. I guess it will take about a month of continuous charging to break in batteries only using 4 slots at a time. I was hoping I could use all 12 but i guess it just wasn't in the algorithms?

Doesn't' the 808 have a conditioning mode? Would that work to break in new cells?

I guess that is what I am trying to find out : is the conditioning mode on the 808m the same as the break in mode on the C-9000?

The conditioning mode is different from the soft charging mode. I run all my LSD NiMHs through a conditioning mode every year or so. I would say that this mode would do the same thing as the C9000 break in mode but I have never used the C9000 and can't say one hundred percent.

Hello Fnsooner,

The Condition mode on the 808 works like this...

You have 2 choices of charge rates, 2 amps is the default or if you hit Soft it drops down to 1 amp.
After charging the cells are discharged at 0.25 amps. The final step is to charge the cells at the initial charge rate.

The Break In mode of the C9000 works like this...

The cells are charge at 0.1C for 16 hours. The charge rate is user selectable so a 2000 mAh capacity cell would be charged at 200 mA. This is followed by a rest period.
The next step is a discharge at 0.5C to determine the capacity of the cell.
Following this is another 0.1C charge for 16 hours.

This follows the standards for determining cell capacity. Since the initial step involves charging, we advise people to first do a discharge before setting up for the Break In.

The C9000 does conditioning. The 808 does a charge/discharge cycle.

Tom

Thanks SilverFox. I am going to chew on this info and determine if I need a C9000.

**Edit**
I had always assumed that the 808 conditioned sufficiently to ensure optimal life and capacity.Should I rethink this?

I have both. When I need to charge, it's in the 808. If I need to refresh, I use to c9000, not break in mind you. 90% of my time is straight charge. Don't even refresh anymore and the batteries are fine

I have both as well and only use the 808 when I want to charge more than 4 cells at a time - or D cells. I guess much of this will change when my SkyRC MC3000 arrives and there could be some chargers on the second-hand market.

Mr Floppy said:

I have both. When I need to charge, it's in the 808. If I need to refresh, I use to c9000, not break in mind you. 90% of my time is straight charge. Don't even refresh anymore and the batteries are fine

Click to expand...

Interesting, I haven't purchased any LSDs in about five years and they are all about five to seven years old. I have been charging them in a variety of ways but run them through the default conditioning mode on my MH-C808M about once a year(around this time of year).

My first smart charger was an analyzer Lacrosse BC-9009 that I haven't used in years. It has been packed and put away somewhere. I will probably dig it out and check the health of my cells and see what kind of shape my procedures, over the last several years, have kept them. I guess the best way to do this is to top them off in the 808 and then check capacity on the Lacrosse or maybe it would be better to condition them first(its been at least a year since my last conditioning) on the 808 and then check capacity to see how my conditioning efforts ate working. Either way, it is probably a good time, relative to the age of my cells, to check every thing out.

I hope my NiMHs are in decent shape. Reconditioning them in anything other than the 808 would take forever. I have a bunch. I am still a little fuzzy about the difference between break-in and conditioning and why one couldn't be replaced for the other.

@skeefu, sorry for hijacking your thread and for any poor information I might have recommended.

7histology said:

I guess much of this will change when my SkyRC MC3000 arrives and there could be some chargers on the second-hand market.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I have the MC3000 pre-ordered also. I may use this opportunity to use it to do some analyzing on my NiMHs.

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but I thought when Eneloops were first introduced and put through the mill here on CPF, that it was determined that LSD Eneloops didn't really benefit from a break-in process?

^^For a couple of years, I was all about LSD NiMHs and didn't use Li-ion. About five years ago, I got into Li-ions and my care and maintenance of NiMHs went into cruise control and I can't remember specifics. I probably need to re-hone my NiHM maintenance. The timely arrival of my SkyRC MC3000 will hopefully help.

Hello BVH,

Fresh out of the package that is correct... but it doesn't mean that those of us that are crazy enough to obsess over batteries don't do it anyway...

After a few years of use they seem to revive their vibrancy with a Break In.

Tom

OK Tom. Good to know. My 165 original Eneloops are still going strong in my electric blinds. But they get only 3 maybe 4 charges a year. Maybe I'll begin a revival as they need charging.