I recently just charged four of my Sanyo Eneloop XX ‘AA’ sized batteries in my Maha C9000 Charger@1000mA and three cells showed over 2500mAh capacity! They’re rated at 2500mAH btw. Couldn’t believe this when I saw it but had to share it with you guys. I used the batteries to power mobile devices before I put them to charging.
See for yourself! These pic only refers to the cell that showed the highest capacity.
Yup, I’ve noticed my NiMH cells do get quite hot during a charge, and I don’t think the charger is taking the heat into account.
A discharge would give you a more accurate reading. (Sorry to burst your bubble.)
Same with my old Lions, they charge almost fully to 2200mAh but on discharge will do only around 1400mAh.
You need the discharge capacity at the Amps you will use. Or do 0.1C to a safe minimum and see the capacity of the battery.
I’ve got some new Panasonic 2450mAh LSD cells (HHR-3XXE) and I am quite impressed with them. They seem to hold much more energy than their rating. This is the test result from a BC1000 charger (note this is the discharged energy, not how much is needed to charge them):
That is impressive, Chippy_boy!
Have you checked them how they perform in high drain devices such as running flashlight on high to see how long they hold voltage before it drops?
I haven’t tested them scientifically. I use them for a flashgun for my camera, so it will be interesting to see if I get more flashes out of them compared to Eneloops. I’ll report back when I have some data.
Thanks - yes, I did In “TEST” mode the charger doesn’t display any charge readings until the batteries have been fully charged and then fully discharged, and then it shows the full (discharged) capacity.
By way of comparison, the “Technoline” 2700mAh batteries that came with the charger only managed about 2500mAh on average. The Panasonics are way better, and only supposed to be 2450 capacity!