Will I Damage My Eneloops

[Albinoni]

So far the only charger that I use with my Eneloops is the Sanyo Eneloop charger. I've got plans to buy the Maha C9000 soon and keep the Sanyo one as a backup or for travelling. Now I know and I could be wrong here also, but the Sanyo charger is not a smart charger like what the C9000 is, so say for eg. it can't tell how flat your batt is or what percentage of power is in it to top it up or even it cant recondition it etc, like what the C9000 can.

Anyhow here's my question. If I charge a set of Eneloops and dont use them for sometime and re-charge them again (assume the Eneloops are 100% full) just to make sure they get topped up again will this be overcharging the batteries and also will this ruin them. Also I think the Sanyo charger is a full 14 hr charger but not smart. Meaning if I charge a set of batts for full 14 hrs and tomorrow or day after recharge them this means the cycle will go for anther 14 hrs, although the batts are full.

 

[Handlobraesing]

It's not good for the battery, but doing it a few times won't fry the battery.

 

[Albinoni]

It's not good for the battery, but doing it a few times won't fry the battery.

Ok so your saying better to fully deplete the batt than recharge with the Sanyo Charger, but I suppsoe if I was using the C9000 than it would be a totally different story and ok.

 

[Handlobraesing]

It's not a good idea to try to top off already fully charged battery since the charger won't be able to detect -dV causing it to charge until they get hot enough to trigger temperature based termination.

 

[Albinoni]

Ok, how about assume if the batt is either half or a quarter full, than will it be ok, and will the C900 know and detect and when its fully charge it will switch off without doing a continous charge for 14 hrs.

 

[Handlobraesing]

If it's half or quarter full, then the charger should be able to detect -dV.

 

[lasercrazy]

Which sanyo charger are you using? The chargers that came with my eneloops are certainly not just dumb timed chargers. I've plugged in full batteries just to test if it was a dumb charger and it terminated in 15 minutes. Everytime I load it up the time varies so it's not just a timed charger.

 

[Marduke]

It depends on the charger. I know of at least 3 different Eneloop chargers. None of them are "dumb", but some do charge batteries in pairs only.

Edit:
Just checked your old posts where you asked about your charger, you have the MQN06U charger, which is smart, but charges batteries in pairs.

 

[alfreddajero]

I use my RC charger to charge up all my batts......i charge them at 1amps and .5mv's per cell.......

 

[alfreddajero]

This is the charger that i always use......its the MRC SuperBrain.....it charges single cells all the way up too 8cells, the only thing that it doesnt charge are lith-ions but i have another charger that does that. You can always get one of these and hit up your local RadioShack for battery carriers with the bare wire leads. This way you can set your own amperage and millivolts. And also the charger doesnt get the battery hot like some of the other chargers that i have...heat shortens the life of the cell greatly.

 

[Albinoni]

Which sanyo charger are you using? The chargers that came with my eneloops are certainly not just dumb timed chargers. I've plugged in full batteries just to test if it was a dumb charger and it terminated in 15 minutes. Everytime I load it up the time varies so it's not just a timed charger.

The charger I'm using is a Sanyo NC-MQN04A NiMH battery charger.

Like this one:

http://www.ebox.co.nz/shop/Battery+...4+Sanyo+eneloop+AA+batteries.html?id=gHjW3rs3

 

[Albinoni]

It depends on the charger. I know of at least 3 different Eneloop chargers. None of them are "dumb", but some do charge batteries in pairs only.

Edit:
Just checked your old posts where you asked about your charger, you have the MQN06U charger, which is smart, but charges batteries in pairs.

No must be a small mistake there, its definately a MQN-04A

 

[VidPro]

10 hour charge (aka overnight charger), you probably cant do much damage with that, as long as you rest between charges.
i use a similar rate , to top off ones that have sat around, to insure they are at 100% , and had no problems so far, tests of them always show around the 2000.

without a full rest between charges you could be asking any existing microcontroller (if there even is one to detect a drop that has already occured. but if your use is "normal" and you want to top it off because its been parked , then like normal, it will work ok.

it IS likly that it will overcharge, but the rate is so low that it shouldnt cause damage.
i would do it.
the Temperature this is done in could be important, i would do it in 60-80*F temps, but would avoid doing it in above 86*F temps, cause then the combo of the overcharge, and ambient temps would be "over spec"