A better NIMH charger?

[Al]

Most, if not all, intelligent AA/AAA NimH chargers revert to a "trickle" mode at completion.

There are some intelligent battery chargers for lead-acid batteries & designed for marine use that do NOT "trickle" charge at completion although the battery is left connected. Rather, the charger shuts down while continuing to monitor the voltage level of the battery and when voltage drops below a certain threshhold, a charging cycle is re-initiated.

I wonder if this method would be of advantage for NimH batteries?

 

[Raymond]

Depends on your usage, in my opinion. If you often leave batteries for days/weeks on the charger, they could get "lazy" from a constant trickle charge. A charger that completely shuts of when the batteries are fully charged, would be a better choice then. But the batteries would self-discharge on the charger. If you usually take the batteries off the charger within a day or so, a charger with trickle charge would be better. It would put in those last few mAh's, for the best possible charge.

trickle charge is a big no-no for li-ion's of course, especially when the charger charges beyond 4.2V per cell.

 

[aussiebob]

Most, if not all, intelligent AA/AAA NimH chargers revert to a "trickle" mode at completion.

There are some intelligent battery chargers for lead-acid batteries & designed for marine use that do NOT "trickle" charge at completion although the battery is left connected. Rather, the charger shuts down while continuing to monitor the voltage level of the battery and when voltage drops below a certain threshhold, a charging cycle is re-initiated.
I wonder if this method would be of advantage for NimH batteries?

That would be good if you only used your cells everynow and then. And wanted a fresh cell on a whim.
The ones that monitor the voltage keep them toped up dont give the cell a chance to get rid of most of its capacity ie full cycle, discharge charge, and it wont hold a good charge, would prob limit the life also.

 

[Curious_character]

Most, if not all, intelligent AA/AAA NimH chargers revert to a "trickle" mode at completion.

There are some intelligent battery chargers for lead-acid batteries & designed for marine use that do NOT "trickle" charge at completion although the battery is left connected. Rather, the charger shuts down while continuing to monitor the voltage level of the battery and when voltage drops below a certain threshhold, a charging cycle is re-initiated.

I wonder if this method would be of advantage for NimH batteries?

Lead-acid and NiMH batteries are very different critters, and they require very different charging procedures. The state of charge of a lead-acid battery can be determined reasonably well by its open circuit voltage, so the charger you mention charges only when the battery has discharged (by normal or self discharge) to some level. You can't, however, tell the state of charge of a NiMH battery by looking at the open circuit voltage (except to know that it's fully charged or fully discharged at voltage extremes). So this scheme can't be used with NiMH batteries to perform the same function as it does with lead-acid batteries.

c_c

 

[Wattnot]

This site will remain hobbled until the search function is fixed.

Nimh chargers are a dime a dozen but the cheap ones that require an EVEN number of cells are not the greatest. There is a thread where several nimh chargers were rated and recommended. It included the names of those with INDEPENDANT charging channels that could charge ANY number of cells from ONE on up to 4 or even 8.

If the search was working I could find it easily. Does anyone know the thread I'm talking about and can link it? I wouldn't mind buying a better one myself.

 

[LuxLuthor]

Sorry I don't know which thread you are trying to remember, but I find the "Google Search" on top of every page gives excellent results.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Wattnot,

There may be some useful information on chargers in the sticky at the top of the page.

Tom

 

[BVH]

Said with a straight face.....

 

[SilverFox]

Hello BVH,



Tom