Charged voltage on Nimh

bikenjam

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
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56
I have a Rayovac charger for AAA through D batteries. Its states that it can charge Alkaline and Nimh batteries, but in the last month i've noticed it does not stop charging my Nimh batteries untill they are 1.44 volts. Is this safe?
 
That's about normal for NiMh when they're "hot off the charger"
They'll usually settle to about 1.4v after half an hour. 1.2v is the normal (average) operating voltage for the cell.
 
Perfectly normal, in fact it's on the lower side of what you often see with chargers these days. This doesn't mean it undercharges but rather it's much gentler on the batteries and helps them to last longer.
 
thanks for the info. I knew they were rated at 1.2V, thats why i was concerned.
 
It turns out the voltage written on a battery is not so much a rating, more of a convenient description. Very few batteries actually operate at the voltage they are labeled with.

For instance a "1.5 V" alkaline cell when fresh out of the packet has a voltage of about 1.6 V, yet as soon as you start using it the voltage will drop rapidly below 1.5 V and spend most of its time in the 1.1 to 1.4 V range.

Similarly a "12 V" car battery or other lead acid accumulator has a voltage of about 13.8 V when charged. If the voltage ever gets as low as 12 V the battery will be subject to damage.
 
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