I only have one charger……the Xstar VC4 (my Powerex died, one cell at a time)
I have a lot of LADDA AA and AAA cells which seem to charge normally but I also have a lot of Energizer cells that are concerning me.
Here is the problem….
I don’t let the batteries run completely out before I recharge them. Sometimes I’ll recharge them when I get down below 1.25 volts……but here is what I’m concerned about.
On the VC4 charger, if I start at 1.25 volts, it shows over 2000mah and the Energizer cells get warm before they shut off. On the LADDA cells, at the same starting voltage, they show 1500mah and very lightly warm before they shut off.
That to me is concerning because I don’t understand why it’s doing that. To me, 1.25 volts is far from dead….or do I have that wrong? Do the two batteries have a slightly different voltage where the VC4 misreads one (energizer) and keeps charging?
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Also, while we are at it, I read that charging the li-ion to 4.1 volts doubles their life. So far, I pull my li-ion when they hit 4.15 and they settle down after a week to 4.02. Is that normal, given that my li-ion are not high quality cells.
What would be the normal “green light” voltage and what will it settle down too?
I’m not sure if I should just leave them to hit “green” and I don’t know what that “green” means in voltage because I just started charging li-ion when I bought the Q8 a month ago. I’ve charged a total of ….6 batteries so far. lol
(I bought the VC4 a couple of years ago, I wish it had the ability to set shut off voltage.)
Don’t give too much credence to the values displayed on chargers that measure how much charge is put into a cell. Some of that charge is dissipated as heat, meaning the values measured by the charger are probably going to always be higher than the actual charge put into the cell. It can be a red flag when something is wrong (like if charging stops after just a few mAh), but you shouldn’t use it as a way to measure partial/full capacity of a cell.
That would fit neatly into why I show….starting from the same voltage……1500mah before the LADDAs shut off and 2000mah and warm Energizers before they shut off. The Energizers are losing mah in heat.
I trust the LADDA’s more because they are “suppose” to be Panasonic Eneloops. Supposedly….