For the longest time, I've lurked on this forum, and I must say, "Many thanks for all the information." That being said, after months of reading up on batteries, I bought some Powerizer LiFePO4 RCR123's and their companion charger. For almost a year, this setup worked flawlessly. However, during the past month, they developed a problem. Normally, the charger's LED lights green when power is connected, but batteries aren't present, when batteries are in the charger and no power is connected, and when the batteries are fully charged. The LED would turn red while charging, and flash between red and green at almost a full charge. Lately, the LED didn't light at all, no matter what happened. When I got home, I busted out the meter, and found some interesting stuff. The wall wart that came with the charger would only put out 6V to start with, and would dwindle down to less than 4V. This resulted in 1V or so from the charging cradle (should be 3.8V with no load on it). Another Powerizer wall wart that I have for a AA charger showed 20V (It's shown as being 12V output). This resulted in 1.4V at the cradle. Oddly enough, the one wall wart I have with the right connector that WOULD put out 12V was a 10 year old model from Radio Shack (which came with an old handheld CB) showed 1V at the cradle. Since I'd been on the road for a month or so, I didn't have the meter to check the voltages, and I didn't realize how badly they'd been discharged.
Something tells me that, since I took what ended up being the 20V charger with me on the road and didn't realize it was 20V, I possibly damaged something in the charger causing it to only output 1.4V.
I was wondering if any of y'all had this same problem with these chargers (or any others for that matter). This is the first time I'd ever seen something like this happen on any charger, and I have several other chargers for various batteries around here.
I reckon this shows me that sometimes I have to check to make sure 12V is really 12V.
Oh well, Lighthound is sending me some AW RCR123's and a charger for them. Hopefully I'll have better luck with their stuff which, unlike the Powerizer stuff, is UL listed.
Best regards,
Kenny
Something tells me that, since I took what ended up being the 20V charger with me on the road and didn't realize it was 20V, I possibly damaged something in the charger causing it to only output 1.4V.
I was wondering if any of y'all had this same problem with these chargers (or any others for that matter). This is the first time I'd ever seen something like this happen on any charger, and I have several other chargers for various batteries around here.
I reckon this shows me that sometimes I have to check to make sure 12V is really 12V.
Oh well, Lighthound is sending me some AW RCR123's and a charger for them. Hopefully I'll have better luck with their stuff which, unlike the Powerizer stuff, is UL listed.
Best regards,
Kenny
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