I think this is bullshit. I don't have any eneloops, but it is just a NiMH cell; I have measured 0.9 or so on a NiMH cell.
Imagine you measure your empty 1.1V cell every day; the voltage eventually will go to 0V. Gradually.
thanks for your opinion 
ive been doing EXTENSIVE runtime testing on Eneloops on Hi, Med, and Lo. More than anybody else on cpf or blf, believe me. When a 800mAh Eneloop AAA is TOTALLY depleted (99.x%) say in Moonlight mode and you take it off the charger, the cell shows 0.8xV (e.g. 0.82V) and it would recover very slowly to 1.1xV (e.g. 1.14V) within 24 hours.
Well, we're talking about practical situations: i dont know what happens with the resting voltage of the original Sanyo Eneloop (t = 0.1sec, V(t) = 0.83V; t = 1day, V(t) = 1.14V) if you let it rest even longer, say t = 5 yrs, V(t) = ?.??V.
I own super expensive NiMH LSD cells (Varta LSD, 4€ apiece AAA), and they show a TOTALLY DIFFERENT discharge behavior and other behavior which means that Eneloops are indeed VERY SPECIAL cells in every regard.
Probably true, after 5 or 15 yrs the Eneloop cell (if stored at depleted state) is dead. kaput. and it then eventually has to cross the 0.9V mark haha.
In any case if nobody else did as much extensive testing of Eneloop cells in their depleted (and totally depleted) state, then my word be da truth until someone comes up with youtube video proving the opposite.. :p
(I think it would not be years). Just add a little discharge, less than your moonlight mode. If you can get the cell from 1.2V to 1.1V, you can also get it to 1.0 or 0.9 or 0.8, just use less current. You could even connect the cell to a stable 0.8V, then disconnect a week later. I think it would stay at 0.8V then.
The cell should not be dead, if discharged to 0V. Polarity reversal is what kills them.
good info, thanks!!
i dont have much knowledge about batteries but i did much observing of my Eneloop cells and since the OP was asking about practical info or typical situations, i was able to give helpful info. Typically, people do *not* discharge their cells further than after dimming has begun (~0.90V under load; the C9000 cut off mark) and even less people do runtime tests on Lo, super Lo or Moonlight modes, especially not on their expensive Eneloop cells. The 3rd gen Eneloops keep their charge even longer and that makes this discussion harder because any normal user who buys them (to use them of course!, for normal purposes!! and not testing runtimes on Moonlight mode) would not measure resting voltages below 1.15V.
Eneloops are very special, that's all i wanted to convey. ;)
What type of voltmeter does the OP have? Before joining BLF, I'd just check my batteries using the dedicated battery test function of my $5 HarborFreight meter (link), which @ 370milliOhms, should be 4.0mA for 1.5V and 25mA for 9V batteries. Example, new alkalines start at 4.3mA, and I charge my LSDs to 4.0mA; MiniMaglite Incans stop working at 3.6mA; my wireless mouse can further drain them to 2.8mA, which is when I consider them dead. I used to just leave my batteries(rayovac hybrid LSD) in the smart charger (rayovac PS3) for 5-6 hrs, but after joining BLF, I've been measuring voltages more often, stopping my charge at 1.42v/4.0mA at 2hrs. Without a Maha or LaCrosse hobby charger, I've never needed to measure volts and I didn't see anyone here mentioning such methods.
HKJ's post12 graph show that LSD will plateau at ~1.42V for 4-5hrs? while still charging and increasing the capacity(mAh) linearly up until the last (5th) hour in his charger? Since the termination voltage on that graph is actually a range of 1.45-1.53V, So does this mean I cannot use Voltage alone in my decision to stop charging the LSD? In my example, going by HKJ's graph, stopping my charge at 2hrs/1.42v/4.0mA my LSD could have only 1/3 capacity? I thought capacity and voltage was a pretty straightforward linear relationship until HKJ's graph and all this talk made me question my methods. Question is relevant only to people who don't have a Maha or LaCrosse hobby chargers, like OP and myself. :)
NiMH and NiCD requires a special termination method, and cannot be stopped on voltage alone.
Here you have a correct charge curve from the old SysMax charger (V1):
The "pulses" in the curve is has nothing to do with it, but is because my measuring time interval matches the chargers pulsing.
Look at the voltage curve, it peeks and then starts to drop. When it starts to drop is the correct time to stop charging, but it only has to drop a few mV! The method is called -dv/dt.
Any smart charger uses this algorithm, but often supplements with a absolute voltage and a temperature backup.
Another way to charge is to use a low current (1/10 marked capacity) for 12 to 16 hours, this works fine if the battery is empty.
Wow I forgot about the bounce ...That's the way they know when batteries are fully charged .. The voltage rises and then it drops off when the battery is full .... the charger senses this and stops charging .
a battery bounce
Exactly. That is when one know"s the "top off" is done. When batt reaches highest voltage (during top off stage) and then drops.
Keith
Get some Eneloops and come back. My Eneloops behave as kreisler stated,
Keith
lol Keith
It irritates me when someone is rude toward anyone. Particularly when they don"t even own the item being articulated. Those eneloop ARE rock solid.
Keith
gotta hate multi-cell lights.. i forgot to turn off the light (HI-mode) on my P2A. after a few hours i took out the cells which were by then completely depleted (light was pulsating, which is a common phenomenon when cells are depleted) and measured the Eneloop voltage. 1 Eneloop was at 0.84V (as expected), the other one was at 0.24V (ouch!) and didnt seem to recover fast so i went ahead and put them both in the C9000. Vieplis is right .. voltage (in a multi-Eneloop arrangement) can fall under the magic 0.82V mark, more or less easily.
Imho not likely to happen with single-Eneloop flashlights (i've done extensive runtime tests with such lights.. ) but yes, in multi-Eneloop arrangements one should pay attention to the individual cell voltages. In any case, the Eneloop threshold voltage is 1.2000V. If yours measures 1.20V or less, it's really time to recharge the Eneloop!! (Interesting, since the nominal voltage is stated as "1.2V" lol)
Put your Eneloop in SK68 and let it run, youll see that it will get down to flashling too, havent measured voltage tho.
I have two Imedion AA LSD discharged to 0V in my EA4. Another two were 0.8V.
Now I have charged them to 1.49V, my question is will it be dangerous to use those two 0V NIMH? How about high current drain? Thanks.
If you have a hobby charger or a C9000, you may have their discharge capacities checked before using them together in a group of 4 cells.
Will do that, I have one that can discharge maybe 3A or 5A.