Any recollection of the peak charge on them when they were new and were fresh off the charger? 1.8v? 1.9V?
> recollection of the peak charge ….?
Nope, Other than no surprise, so they at least met the claimed 1.6v
Hmmm, I wonder if over-discharge-protection circuits — like those added to li-ions — are available with trigger levels that would protect us from killing NiZn cells.
Just charged mine yesterday. 1.9v fresh off the stock charger. 1.85v 24 hours later. These are 2010 cells that have been mostly lightly used.
Currently running a discharge test on hobby charger, 0.10a down to 1.3v (per HJK test).
Addendum: After charging in stock PowerGenix charger I discharged 2 batteries using a hobby charger. Setting was 0.1A and 0.2a down to 1.3v. I think below 1.3v starts to damage them after looking at HJK’s discharge curves.
- - 0.1A draw > 1020mA
- - 0.2A draw > 720mA
I don’t know if the big difference was the draw or the aging difference in the batteries. These are old/used cells.
What’s the claimed output voltage of that charger? Model number?
(the one I have, PowerGenix NiZn charger model F100011-14, says 1.6v output)
(and has 0911 stamped into the plastic of the case below the label, presumably manufacturing month and date)
PowerGenix 5 hour charger
model: F100027-00
Output AA 3.2vx2 300mA; AAA 3.2vx1 100mA
Charge only 2 or 4 AA or 2AAA size, 1.6vNiZn
0911 stamped on case
This is the only charge I have that can charge them.
I can’t say for sure, but I seem to get better results by stopping the charge at 1.8v
On the ones I went to 1.9v repeatedly, the capacity seems to drop a bit every time. After stopping at 1.8v with the other NiZn’s I didn’t seem to have that issue.
Can’t imagine why the NiZn charger would go to 1.9v if it wasn’t ideal for the batteries?
Name change:
Product review of the PowerGenix AA cells and chargers, in detail, with extensive comments:
We know that NiMh inherently ‘over charge’, then drop back to a more reasonable resting voltage. There are a lot of people in this forum think their charger is junk if it doesn’t get their NiMh up to 1.5v+. Is that damaging?
I imagine the PowerGenix does much the same. It ‘appears’ to be a 5 hour/low rate charger, a ‘dumb’ charger if you will, but I really don’t know how it works.
My batteries and charger are from 2010, so appear to be different than what is being sold today. Mine is not a quick charger. Maybe that’s better?
PowerGenix ZR-PGX1HRAA-4B 1 Hour Quick Charger with 4 AA 1.6v NiZn Rechargeable Batteries
From my short time with the NiZn’s I would say the slower the charge the better. I charge them with a DC power supply set at 1.8v and a maximum charge current of 150mA. I would say that any over charge (or over discharge) is not good for these cells. Even when (or especially when) under load.
That said….I REALLY like these cells for the purpose I’m using them.
This is just an opinion (or course), but anyone big into Rechargable batteries would probably find a $50.00 DC power supply like this one very useful because you can literally charge ANY battery with it…although a multi-cell LiPo would be a bit more complicated to connect……
I just set it and it drops off the current as it reaches full capacity. Very nice
Ah, wondered how you were charging them. Mmm, might look for a tiny dedicated wall wart with the right specs to try that.
I confess I’d like to see HKJ confirm that. He’s very good at reporting whether chargers follow the right (e.g. CC/CV) algorithm or not, for different chemistries.
http://lygte-info.dk/info/HobbyChargers%20UK.html
"hobby charger" - Google Search%22NiZn%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=%22hobby+charger%22%22NiZn%22&tbs=li:1
Point taken. No offense. : -)
You would be wise to follow HKJ’s advice.
I say that because it’s just what I do. HKJ would be the one to tell you the merits of using it.
I probably should have said it “seems” to charge any battery ….my bad
But still, these DC power supplies seem to come in handy a lot for things I hadn’t thought about until I had one.
I totally get it. We’re good. I’ve just gotten less tolerant of finickiness in my toolset in my old(er) age and that’s just me. As an engineer, I love reading these analyses, even if I don’t practice everything I read. I do appreciate it.
Carry on with your fine work!
Wilkey
I’m getting older too so I know where you’re coming from.
No worries. Didn’t mean to sound cranky.
Cheerios
You know what works for me? Metamucil. Good gosh, did I just say that?
Wilkey
.
Reviving this thread as I’ve been using NiZn’s for about a year and just purchased a bunch on a killer Amazon deal that makes them less than $0.75 per cell! $25 for 24 cells but it also includes a charger they sell for $10-11.
Anyhow, I checked the output of my NiZN charger that says the output is 3amp at 1.9v spread over 4 cells. So 750mah per cell…BUT, the charger output was very interesting. It pulsed in what seemed to be a square wave or saw tooth pattern every second or so. It would pulse 130 milliamps or possibly more but my DMM latency was too slow to show the true peak and then pulse 8-10 milliamps and then back to the 130ma pulse and so on. As the voltage got closer to peak it would pull current down very low to the 10ma range. The charger takes a LONG time to charge them…like 10-12 hours long.
I’ve used my AA and AAA cells in all kinds of things from remote controls, RC transmitters, to AA and AAA lights and haven’t lost a single cell yet. I do pay attention to not drain them to low. Then again like Zebretta I use RC lipo’s as well so I’m used to treating batteries in a very specific way. I’m using the Ultracells.
i guess the ones i had(powergenix from biglots) were old and 1 foot in the grave when i got them.
they degraded very fast in careful use.
the ir quickly increased over 4 cycles to where my panasonic spy cam(tiny digital camera) rejected them.it was very demanding of batteries.
eneloops that are nearly 10 years old and over 100 cycles still work fine in it.