If you have 750mAh AAA, the maximum charge current for them is 375mAh. Higher, and you risk overheating and also damage the cells.
Heat is the CANCER for NIMH batteries. And for LSD batteries, is even worse.
From what iv’e read, nimh’s can be kept fully charged.
Li-Ions should be kept at 40-80%. Every 1 month is recommended to do a little discharge and charge to keep the cell healthy. Do not store in a place where the cells are exposed to heat. Also remember that li-ion cells age from the time they exit the manufacturing process. A never used 2 year old cell will have worse performance that a newer cell.
At 500ma charge my charger hasn’t failed to detect an eneloop charge end point. I gave 2 examples of batteries that can’t even take 0.25C. Most dumb chargers overcharge the batteries making them very hot, even many of the cheap eneloop chargers are not smart chargers yet are sold with the eneloops and when i had looked into them most were 500ma.
The bc700 does miss end points sometimes, but interestingly not on eneloops or duracell lsd, but on other lower quality batteries.
How do you control the temperature, fans, liquid cooling, dry ice? Is it worth it to charge faster and reduce life expectancy?
The eneloops chargers that came with the batteries are the perfect example of marketing over engineering. They are crappy chargers.
Most chargers that are being sold just use maxV+timer to end the charge. Very BAD.
To avoid overcharge and overheat is better to use a charger that uses all termination methods: dv/dt, maxV, thermal and timer.
To control temperature, my MH-C9000 has a temperature cut off, but i always put a little computer fan, just in case. Y preffer the maha over the lacrosse, but both are very good.
I found out about maya about the same time as I was transitioning from nicad to nimh. The maya 204x series that require pairs of cells were good at the time but cooked the batteries. I bought a maya 9000 last year and love it.
I, like Chidwack2, rarely use the special features any more. It is a whole bunch of buttons to push. I usually just drop the battery in the charger and let her rip. I could probably do the same with the i4 sitting next to it except I move the 12v plug from one to the other depending on what I am charging and charge nimh a lot more than lithium-ion. I will go through the [down][enter][enter][enter] after I insert each cell to discharge/recharge the batteries when I think of it and am recharging overnight, but it is a pain. I do feel confident that it is doing a decent job on my enloops. Plus the display at the end is reassuring. All I get out of the i4 is 3 LED’s not a blinking to tell me it is done.
Honestly, if all you want to do is shove batteries in a charger and come back to have them charged, the i4 is a good choice. The i2 is probably a better choice if you own any low capacity lithium-ion’s so you don’t have do do them in pairs and know what slots to use. But, if you are charging a lot of nimh’s, the maya 9000 is a great choice, as are the maya 800 and 801’s. The 9000 having all the bells and whistles and the other two doing a great job of recharging lots and lots of nimh’s along with the ability to discharge/recharge them.
So, back to the original topic. Are the extra features “necessary”? No. Are they worth having? That is a judgement call. They are to me.
Hi fractal! What info is displayed at the end of charging? Oh, and welcome to BLF! :party:
I like the info my Angeleyes gives me at the end of charging. The backlight also turns off, so it’s easy to tell if it has finished. The simplicity of the i4 was quite appealing.
The c9000 shows the voltage of the cell plus how many vahr were shoved into the cell. That is the capacity of the cell if you used the conditioning cycle. Knowing the cell is at full voltage and that it took 800mahr on a regular charge tells you it was probably half full. Showing it at full voltage and that the 1900 mahr cell took 1800 mahr suggests the cell is probably fine and should be paired with another 1800 mahr cell if you need to put a pair in something.
I have the BC700 and the BC900, both have suffered the same faults, the buttons get iffy and don’t adjust the settings as you press them, the NIMH that I charge get very hot, not warm but hot, but only on highest setting, when you can access it with the crappy buttons.
I wouldn’t buy another of either.
I bought a cheap £6 Aldi charger in the end, that can charge up to 8 at a time, german made and is much better.
tabs
I had a look at some 3rd gen eneloop datasheets. Both AA and AAA can be fast charged (2000mA and 800mA respectively). They don’t specify any recommended charger, or much else really.
how old is your bc700, i got mine a few months ago and have used a friends who’s was a year old an never had any problems, after being used for maybe 100 recharges
Seems to be the luck of the draw. My bro has one that is about five years old and his still works fine. I have one that’s less than a year old and the buttons on mine can be inconsistent.
Mine are both about 5-6 years old, don’t get me wrong they have been used literally hundreds of times, the issue with the buttons is that the press of the button is not recognised electrically so functions don’t alter, my 900 is the worst and not used any more due to this.
Mine were sold under the label TECHNO LINE, but are all la crosse inside.
They are ime certainly nothing special as a charger goes, my first NICD charger bought in 1980, a SANYO is still working perfectly, though with just constant current charging of new ones it’s shows it age!!
tabs
Only yesterday had to throw out my BC700 as it jammed and shows FULL in a empty bay, re tried old BC900 but buttons were not having it!!
Just noticed my Ultrafire WF 128-S charges AA and AAA in nimh/nicd so just going to use that from now on as it does all battery types and common sizes inc 26650.
tabs
tabs there is no such thing as german made chargers. all plasticky chargers sold in gemany stem from non-geman factories, i.e. RPC, Shenzhen, Hongkong, Taiwan or China. aldi/tevion/medion/hama are trading companies as you know. in rare cases the design (circuit board) was made in gemany but not da production. and in most cases the trading companies just import the stuff relabeled.
i am going to delete this post. looking for a mango
If i remember, i’ll post it right away.