[NA] charging nimh AA cells

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
The instructions that came with these AA batteries say well (engrish problem);

AI says;

Discharge fully, or charge fully?

(Four inline currently show 5.0v)
 

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With old NiCads you had to worry about memory in the cells. With new LiPos you never discharge fully. You don’t store them at full charge, but at 50%. With NiMh they are a little more tolerant. I wouldn’t discharge fully nor over charge. At 5.0 per cell, take them off the charger. And I wouldn’t discharge them to zero either. The folded sheet is suspect. From a 50 year RC modeler.
 
skyking3286 said:
With old NiCads you had to worry about memory in the cells. With new LiPos you never discharge fully. You don’t store them at full charge, but at 50%. With NiMh they are a little more tolerant. I wouldn’t discharge fully nor over charge. At 5.0 per cell, take them off the charger. And I wouldn’t discharge them to zero either. The folded sheet is suspect. From a 50 year RC modeler.
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Even with NiCads memory effect was largely unseen. It only occurred when you had chargers that kept the charge maintained over a very fixed range. More people have destroyed nicads trying to avoid or "remedy" the perceived memory effect than actually ever experienced it.
 
I learned to stop worrying and love my 8-bay Tenergy AA/AAA charger.

Life is too short for cheap batteries, get some Eneloops and be done with it.
 
Ni-MH cells should not be discharged below 0.9V per cell, especially when using multiple cells in series, as the voltage drops off quite rapidly after that and cells could end up being reverse polarized, which damages them rapidly. Fully charging them is ok, as long as they're not overcharged. Storing them fully charged is ok as well. Unless they're the LSD (low self-discharge) type, they will be pretty much empty after a few months in storage.

There are two chargers worth getting:
OPUS BT-C2400 (https://www.amazon.com/BT-C2400-Battery-Analyzer-rechargeable-batteries/dp/B00MYQ8IYS/)
and
Powerex MH-C9000PRO
(https://www.amazon.com/Powerex-MH-C...-Analyzer/dp/B08DJDQ4Y8/ref=asc_df_B08DJDQ4Y8)

They can charge, discharge, refresh and capacity check cells. That and a few sets of LSD Ni-MH cells and you won't buy alkalines ever again
 
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The internal resistance function is very useful, about time that tech trickled down from the RC world.
 
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