cheap rayovac charger fails?

[upriver]

I have the rayovac charge, bought off Amazon, that accompanies their "new" platinum LSD batteries, which I believe are basically Rayovac Hybrids.

I took the charger on a weekend trip. I ended up running down the 2 AA and 2 AAA batteries that came with the charger. Before I left for home, I charged them back up thinking I would use them again. I didn't, so I brought them back "fully charged".

When I got home, my Maha C9000 was in! My surprise came after I discharged the batteries. Here are the rough results (didn't record the results):
AA: 1580, 580!!
AAA: both around 600.

The AA's are rated at 2100 mah, the AA's 800 mah. They have only been through 1 or 2 charge/discharge cycles before I received the Maha.

So all were under spec, but the one AA was way off. If I had put this into a 2AA light, it would have died pretty quickly or worse (reversal of polarity?).

All batteries are now undergoing the 36 hour Maha break-in charge cycle, and they appear to be charging as expected.

Back to the cheap rayovac charger - I want ideas as to what happened. It's supposed to be "semi-smart"; it needs to charge 2 cells at a time, and it charges until the combined voltage of 2 batteries reaches a certain level. I put both AA's in slots 1/2, and AAA's in 3/4. I have no idea how one AA battery was only charged to about 1/4 capacity. I was hoping to use the rayovac charger as a travel charger because it's much smaller than the Maha. I never expected it to be as good as the Maha, but I expected it to competently charge up batteries while traveling.

Ideas? Toss it?

 

[Black Rose]

I'm assuming this is model PS33.

I don't have that particular Rayovac charger so I can't comment too much on how it's working (or supposed to be working).

All I can say is try it again and see if it happens again. If it does, get a warranty replacement for it.

Perhaps use a different set of batteries to eliminate the batteries as having the issue.

Since the AAA cells were similar, perhaps bays 1 & 2 have an issue.

The AAs are rated 2100 but I expect you'll see numbers in the high 1900s when your break-in cycle completes (that's what I got from my AA Platinums last week).

 

[TakeTheActive]

I have the rayovac charge, bought off Amazon, that accompanies their "new" platinum LSD batteries, which I believe are basically Rayovac Hybrids...

What is the MODEL NUMBER of your Rayovac Charger?

With that, we can (attempt to) look up the specs. BTW, "2 cells at a time" aka SERIES charging, isn't in your best interests...

...Here are the rough results (didn't record the results):
AA: 1580, 580!!
AAA: both around 600.

The AA's are rated at 2100 mah, the AA's 800 mah...

...All batteries are now undergoing the 36 hour Maha break-in charge cycle...

Back to the cheap rayovac charger - I want ideas as to what happened...

Who knows?!? Let's wait until the C9000 BREAK-IN is complete before we decide on the 'status' of your 'questionable' cells Until then, personally, I wouldn't worry about it (what's 2 bucks anyway? ).

In the meantme, *IF* you're a "Newbie" (JOIN: Dec 2008 / 36 Posts) interested in LEARNING about rechargeable NiCD/NiMH cells and chargers, CLICK on my Sig Line LINK and READ (for a few days!) It ain't hard to figure this all out - I did! You read, you learn, you save money! :thumbsup:

...Ideas? Toss it?

Sure!

If you don't plan on investing the TIME to learn HOW to maintan your cells, CERTAINLY, just TOSS 'EM AND BUY NEW ONES. (Otherwise, you would have SEARCHed and READ before you POSTed, right? )

 

[upriver]

What is the MODEL NUMBER of your Rayovac Charger?

With that, we can (attempt to) look up the specs. BTW, "2 cells at a time" aka SERIES charging, isn't in your best interests...

Model PS33. I'm not really sure if this charger charges in series, but it does require 2 batteries to be charged at once. As far as my best interests, it only charges one way, and I do realize that independent channels are best, but it is just a cheap backup charger.

Who knows?!? Let's wait until the C9000 BREAK-IN is complete before we decide on the 'status' of your 'questionable' cells Until then, personally, I wouldn't worry about it (what's 2 bucks anyway? ).

In the meantme, *IF* you're a "Newbie" (JOIN: Dec 2008 / 36 Posts) interested in LEARNING about rechargeable NiCD/NiMH cells and chargers, CLICK on my Sig Line LINK and READ (for a few days!) It ain't hard to figure this all out - I did! You read, you learn, you save money! :thumbsup:

Still around 12 hours until break-in is done. I never had any intention of tossing the batteries; it's the charger I was talking about. I'll report more after the cycle is done, but the "bum" cell appears to be charging just fine, so I think the charger messed up somehow. I won't toss that out either until I try it again sometime, but I was mainly wondering how it is possible for it to have grossly undercharged just one cell when the cell appears to be charging fine in the maha.

Yes I am interested in learning more about NIMH, but I just started school again and I'll be quite busy. It's worth it for me to learn about this stuff when I can though, as I will be using some of my lights at school.

Sure!

If you don't plan on investing the TIME to learn HOW to maintan your cells, CERTAINLY, just TOSS 'EM AND BUY NEW ONES. (Otherwise, you would have SEARCHed and READ before you POSTed, right? )

Answered above; I wasn't going to toss the batteries, just maybe the charger if it's garbage. I will try it again first before I give up on it though, now that I have the maha to measure how much charge the rayovac puts into each cell.

 

[upriver]

After break-in on Maha:

AA's: 1927, 1928 (rated 2100; ~92% of expected)

AAA's: 740, 734 (rated 800; ~92% of expected)