Hi there,
The NiCd charger doesnt do a very good job of charging NiMH, but if you use
a higher rated NiMH in an application that had a smaller NiCd cell it tends to work
to some degree.
For example, in my shaver they had some tiny NiCd cells, i think were rated for
250mAh or some low value like that (maybe 500mAh). I didnt feel like buying
those tiny cells so i substituted two 2000mAh rated NiMH cells.
The thing is, the NiCd charger only puts out about 90ma, so it's not too bad on the
much higher rated 2000mAh cells, so it works out pretty well leaving it on charge
for long hours. If the replacement cells were much lower rated i wouldnt think of
doing this, but because they are much higher rated they can put up with the
constant charge of 90ma or so.
The rule seems to be if you must replace NiCd with NiMH then you need to use
a much higher rated cell and the charge current shouldnt be higher than about
100ma.
I have been running my shaver for about 6 months or more this way and so
far so good. The NiMH cells are doing well.
If it turns out in the future if they go bad, i'll still replace them with two more
higher rated NiMH cells, not those tiny little good for nothing NiCd ones ha ha.
Try it, you'll like it.
Of course this assumes that the charger uses a low constant rate
of 100ma or so. If it's a smart charger (checks for minus delta V)
it may or may not work.
BTW, the cells i used were those four for six dollars brand type cells.
I have two more waiting to be used for something.
