Storing NiMH question.

Should NiMH batteries be stored for periods of time (2-3 weeks) charged or discharged?

According to BatteryUniversity "[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]nickel and lithium-based chemistries should be stored at 40% state-of-charge (SoC)".[/FONT] But this is for a 1 year period of storage.

2 or 3 weeks I don't think would matter to much. A good charger like the Maha 808M always helps as well. Hope this helps
 
As a test I charged up my 2000+ mAH AA eneloops and stored them in the refigerator (about 35 F) for a year. I just tested them and they had about 93% capactity left.
 
Hello KeukaLite,

Welcome to CPF.

To keep your NiMh cells "vibrant," you should store them in a discharged condition. Every 30 days, subject them to a charge/discharge cycle.

Discharge them to 1.0 volts at a rate that completes the discharge in about an hour.

If you don't care about getting peak performance from your cells, you can store them about half charged.

Keep in mind that the low self discharge rate cells are a little different. We don't know enough about them yet to give you a general rule. Most of us are storing them fully charged.

Tom
 
Thank you for the great information! Sounds like a 2-3 week period shouldn't be a problem for my NiMH's. All of my flashlight batteries are Li-Ion, but my cordless tools are NiMH. It's a real task taking proper care of the tool batteries, because replacing the tool batteries costs almost as much as replacing the tool:eek:! I'm sure this is exactly what the manufacturers have in mind.

With all the information in this forum, it may be time for me to start rebuilding my battery packs instead of replacing them!

Again, thanks to all for your responses!:twothumbs
 
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