C9000 and HIGH cells

[Face]

Hi,

So I've been merrily going through all me rechargable batteries with my new C9000 charger.

During the course, I've had a couple of HIGH warnings come up, which would seem to indicate that the cells aren't any good any more and they won't charge in the 9000. They are both Vanson 1800mah cells.

Is there anything that I can do with these cells? I've since tried charging them in an Ansmann Energy8 - one of the two cells appeared to charge properly in as much after a few hours the green light came on and the other cell just stayed on a red light until I pulled it from the charger.

I popped the two cells into a little old portable radio and they seem to be working ok.

So, any ideas if these be resurrected properly or should I just bin them?

Cheers,

Face

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Face,

The reason for the HIGH reading is that the cell has high internal resistance. I would consider them crap cells and recycle them.

However, if you want to play and don't care about battery performance you can heat the cells up before trying to charge them. Heat will sometimes drop the internal resistance enough to get them to charge. The other method is to use a dumb timed charger that does not check for internal resistance. If you go this route, make sure you are charging on a non combustible surface because the cell may get quite hot. It may also melt down in the charger and ruin it.

High internal resistance cells work great in applications that draw little current, are not voltage sensitive, and are not critical. I guess you could think of it as similar to an Alkaline cell that won't hold voltage.

Tom

 

[Face]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

I have an old "dumb" charger that I might try with these cells. And like I say, it's an old portable radio that I've put them in so it's no biggy should the whole thing explode

Thanks again,

Face

 

[TorchBoy]

Always good advice Tom. FWIW I've given away my dozen crap AAA cells to people who (perhaps by coincidence) have dumb timed chargers. One reports they hold better charge - using his slow charger - than when I fast charged them with in my non-MH-C9000 charger. Unlike the C9000 it didn't just reject them, but evidently wasn't giving them a full charge either.

 

[VidPro]

you can cycle them a few times, it can (as in possibly) reduce the high resistance, but they probably arent worth dealing with.