Is my maha charger destroying my Duraloops?

[batmanacw]

I ran down some brand new duraloops just to see how long then would run in a particular light. I put them into my Maha on the break in cycle to see what it would do with them since i haven't tried that cycle on any other good quality batteries.

Right now I believe the maha is in the final stage of the break in cycle and is charging the batteries. They are rated at 2000 mah, but they are charged to 2500 mah and still charging. Is this a bad thing? All the batteries are extremely close on the capacity the maha is showing.

Is this just part of the process? The batteries are barely warm.

 

[brted]

It's normal. It charges at 0.1C for 16 hours, so it will get to 1.6C. If you entered C as 2000, then it will charge 3200mah before discharging and doing it again. Because it is charging slowly, it isn't supposed to hurt the battery. If you read the instructions for the charger (I recommend it) they only advise using it every now and then.

 

[andrewnewman]

Nope. The "break in" charge an a MAHA MC-9000 performs an IEC recommended 16 hour charge at 0.1C (200mA for Duraloops). In theory the batteries should be "full" in 10 hours except NIMH chemistry is only about 67% efficient when charged at 0.1C. Thus it will actually take 15 hours to top them off (assuming they were fully discharged to begin with). NIMH is designed to (in general) shrug off timed overcharging if the rate is 0.1C or below. The charger is just telling you the maH's it has presented to the battery.

For what it is worth with LSD NIMH batteries, if I want to do a "break in" charge for any reason I usually preceed it with a single discharge cycle (at 0.2C) just to be as gentle as possible.

/Andy

 

[batmanacw]

I very much appreciate the quick responses. My worries are gone!

 

[batmanacw]

The charger finished with #1 at 2028 #2 at 2000 #3 at 1990 and #4 at 2000.