Time to upgrade batteries and charger, need recommendations

[gdwtvb]

I'm getting misty eyed, I used to lose hours on these forums, Oh the magic of those first one watt LEDs when the surefire P60 and P61 reigned supreme and anyone that was a real flashaholic had an Arc aaa on their keychain from Peter Gransee! (I still have one or two laying around somewhere)

For years now it has been a zebralight Sc52 (I think) and I've never really wanted more.

One of the things I learned and did from these forums is I went completely NiMH rechargeable for all my AA and AAA needs. I have a cheap panasonic dual charger. (Charges 4X AA or AAA) but most of my batteries are whatever Walmart had available at the time (mostly Rayovac and Energizer, but a couple Eneloops too. Probably about sixty to a hundred cells all told. (In flashlights, remotes, used extensively for myself and my son on various xbox controllers, etc. plus extra's for replacements.)


Some of the cells are well over 10years old and I am seeing some of the cells performing less than optimally. (Especially notice this in my EDC flashlight.)


We have finally arrived at the question portion. What is the best (Easiest/less labor intensive) way to thin the herd of the underperforming cells? I know some cells are bad but am rarely totally sure. Maybe I used the light more than I thought, maybe the fresh cell had been one I recharged three or four years ago and never got used, etc. (I use a 2 box system, one box is used cells needing charging, the other fully charged cells.) My only way of telling that the cells are full are to recharge them or put them in the Zebralight and trust to the electronics to make it blink 4 times to inform me.


I think it's time to get a new charger, recommendations? One that could check the cells would be ideal, but I really don't want to spend more than $50 or so max.

I want to replace what is actually bad, as I have plenty of cells I can upgrade as replacements are needed instead of buying 60 at one time. Does eneloop still reign supreme? I see Eneloop pro, what's that?


Thanks for any suggestions and thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Grizz

 

[Lynx_Arc]

A good start is to mark each cell with some identification and keep records of them. Charge up a cell and measure the voltage at which it comes off the charger and then let it sit for a few days and measure again, then measure again after about a week. Compare the resting voltages of cells and you should see a pattern develop for each brand/capacity of cell as they will probably differ some with LSD cells that are good holding voltages well after a few days to a week but some non LSD high capacity cells will probably drop more, bad cells will drop a lot more than others in voltage. This won't tell you how much capacity cells have lost but cells that are worn out or damaged and should be either replaced to delegated for other non essential uses.
Next is to invest in an analyzing charger that can test for capacity. This is the most time consuming thing especially if you want to run several refresh cycles on cells that have lower than expected capacity. Typically cells that are tested less than 80% capacity either need to have a few refresh cycles or should be delegated to less strenuous use.
I typically consider cells with less than 50% of rated capacity as junk and they are either disposed of or marked with a red X on them and thrown away when I no longer need the extra cell for some reason.
As far as I know Eneloops are still the best (Japanese) and IMO the original 2000mah versions are the best with the pros the most capacity but less resilient. I don't really know otherwise the best eneloop (rebadged/relabeled) varieties beyond that but there are plenty of Eneloop threads in the forum to read. The only "Eneloops" I've had are Duraloop (Duracell relabeled Japanese) and they are very good cells IMO.

I've since ventured into 18650 based lighting and devices and my Duraloop usage is almost zero now but since the are LSD they are worth having for the occasionally used devices that I use them with.

 

[Burgess]

May I suggest --

The BRAND NEW, Just Released
Maha PowerEx C9000PRO
NiMH charger/analyzer


Recently got mine, and LOVE it ! ! !

Helps me determine which of my now 14 Year Old
Sanyo Eneloops are "slackers" !


Great for my New Panasonic Eneloops, also.

VERY impressive little machine !

BTW --
Their previous model, the C9000
served me very well for 13 YEARS !

:kiss:
_