Appropriate Charge Rate for NiMH Batteries
- Thread starter Scooby Doo
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MidnightDistortions
Flashlight Enthusiast
I have found that new cells ideally could benefit from a slow charge, slow discharge then recharge especially with older ones that haven't been used. With my 8 pack of AAA Eneloop Pro batteries I don't think they liked automatically being tossed into a high powered light. I don't have any issues with the high capacity AA Amazon Basics or Energizers. Both have really low IR after running it through a slow discharge, recharge and charge cycle with keeping the cells on the C9000 for 24 hours.
I figured this out with my older AAA junk cells. Some of them would only charge at a measly 13mA in my Opus charger but after a couple of cycles some are already charging above 40mA.
Low self discharge cells like Eneloop still behave like normal NiMH cells in the sense they need to be fully charged (cycled) slowly to avoid high IR and even allowed overcharging but I let the C9000 trickle charge them (it charges at 10mA) so it's not enough to hurt the battery when being overcharged.
Once a few cycles have been done then I can see charging them at 1 amp would be fine for AA and AAA at 500mA.
I figured this out with my older AAA junk cells. Some of them would only charge at a measly 13mA in my Opus charger but after a couple of cycles some are already charging above 40mA.
Low self discharge cells like Eneloop still behave like normal NiMH cells in the sense they need to be fully charged (cycled) slowly to avoid high IR and even allowed overcharging but I let the C9000 trickle charge them (it charges at 10mA) so it's not enough to hurt the battery when being overcharged.
Once a few cycles have been done then I can see charging them at 1 amp would be fine for AA and AAA at 500mA.
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