dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energizers?

NigelBond

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 25, 2005
Messages
133
Location
ON Canada
hello, I've been wanting to pick up a 4 pack of energizer 2500 mAh batteries from walmart.
The charger i have is a dorcy failsafe 41-1645. It came with 4 1600 mAh nimh AA's that i've been using for a while. The charging is based on time. There is a 5 hour setting and a 3 hour setting afterwhich it supposidly drops down to trickle charging, though there is no documentation to indicate what this trickle rate is.

Here are the charge rates
AA 1-4 pcs. 380mA+-10%
AAA 1-4 pcs. 180mA+-10%

Am i corect that i could use this charger to charge 2500's using a combination of a 5 hour charge followed by a 3 hour charge or perhaps just using two 3 hour charge cycles, or even just a 5 hour charge and then let it trickle charge over night?

Should i just get a new charger instead?
 
Re: dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energize

Get a new charger. Not worth the hassle.
 
Re: dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energize

Hello NigelBond,

Welcome to CPF.

You would probably get a full charge on a fully discharged battery by going with two 3 hour charges.

However, if you have a partially discharged battery, what do you do then?

I have to agree with B2p. There are a variety of intelligent chargers that will handle full charges and partial charges as well as batteries of different capacities.

I am in the middle of testing a variety of chargers and you might want to take a look at the "Charger Comparison" thread for some ideas.

Tom
 
Re: dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energize

Thanks for the help. I just remembered that i have another charger, its a casio bc-5h. It's a little compact travel charger that handles only two batteries at a time. It came packaged with a casio digital camera with sanyo 2100 mAh AA's. Not sure if this is a smart charger or not but the output is higher atleast for a faster charge (AA at 550mA). I'm gonna time some charge cycles using this charger and my 1600 and 2100 batteries. If both cut off after the same amount of time, then obviously its just timed. If thats the case, i guess i'll go buy a new charger. Maybe an ic3 or energizer.
 
Re: dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energize

Hello NigelBond,

The key thing to watch for is heat. The batteries will get warm during charging, but they should not get hot. Excess heat will destroy your batteries.

Keep an eye on them.

Tom
 
Re: dorcy failsafe charger work with 2500 energize

I'm pretty sure the trickle charge for AA cells on this charger is 40ma. So 5 hours at 380ma = 1900ma. 2500ma cell minus 1900ma is 600ma/40ma is an extra 15 hrs on trickle charge. So after about 20hrs with timer set to 5 hrs, your 2500ma cells should have a full charge.
 
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