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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh
battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. jm |
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#2
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Jack Murphy wrote:
Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. No, that's not a very good idea. Just charge it up after use. "Cells are never absolutely identical, and inevitably one will be completely discharged before the others. When this happens, the "good" cells will start to "drive" the discharged cell in reverse, which can cause permanent damage to that cell. Some cameras, GPS receivers and PDAs detect the safe end-of-discharge voltage of the series cells and shut themselves down, but devices like flashlights and some toys do not. Once noticeable dimming or slowing of the device is noticed, it should be turned off immediately to avoid polarity reversal." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_...ydride_battery -- Dane Buson - ..NET is basically Bill Gates' snake-oil solution to all those registry/DLL hell problems. Bill Gates is a true genius. He's made installing and maintaining windows apps so ridiculously difficult and expensive that businesses and consumers will actually buy into the idea of having their applications on someone else's server. --Ukab the Great |
#3
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
"Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. |
#4
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Daryl Hunt wrote:
"Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. Ditto that. Also don't expect a NiCad charger to work, even though they both charge to 1.2 volts, because they have different charge profiles. NiCad had the memory effect as so famously discovered by NASA at all the wrong time (in orbit) but the NiMH don't have the same thing, or at least I haven't heard any complaints just yet. -- Bill (Sleepless biker) Baka |
#5
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
"bill" wrote in message . net... Daryl Hunt wrote: "Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. Ditto that. Also don't expect a NiCad charger to work, even though they both charge to 1.2 volts, because they have different charge profiles. NiCad had the memory effect as so famously discovered by NASA at all the wrong time (in orbit) but the NiMH don't have the same thing, or at least I haven't heard any complaints just yet. They have all but beaten the Nicad memory problem these days but they are expensive. Moreso than the MH. MH is just a bit big in comparison to the Nicad and the Lions. The LIons are the best. Smallest with the best output to weight factor but the cost prohibits most of us from bying them. 300 and up is more than a bit pricey. Someday, we just might be able to use the Mercurys when we all have the money that NASA has (grin) |
#6
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Daryl Hunt wrote:
"bill" wrote in message . net... Daryl Hunt wrote: "Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. Ditto that. Also don't expect a NiCad charger to work, even though they both charge to 1.2 volts, because they have different charge profiles. NiCad had the memory effect as so famously discovered by NASA at all the wrong time (in orbit) but the NiMH don't have the same thing, or at least I haven't heard any complaints just yet. They have all but beaten the Nicad memory problem these days but they are expensive. Moreso than the MH. MH is just a bit big in comparison to the Nicad and the Lions. The LIons are the best. Smallest with the best output to weight factor but the cost prohibits most of us from bying them. 300 and up is more than a bit pricey. Do the NMH and Li batteries still drop to 50% of their original capacity after the first year? Pat |
#7
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Pat Lamb wrote:
Daryl Hunt wrote: "bill" wrote in message . net... Daryl Hunt wrote: "Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. Ditto that. Also don't expect a NiCad charger to work, even though they both charge to 1.2 volts, because they have different charge profiles. NiCad had the memory effect as so famously discovered by NASA at all the wrong time (in orbit) but the NiMH don't have the same thing, or at least I haven't heard any complaints just yet. They have all but beaten the Nicad memory problem these days but they are expensive. Moreso than the MH. MH is just a bit big in comparison to the Nicad and the Lions. The LIons are the best. Smallest with the best output to weight factor but the cost prohibits most of us from bying them. 300 and up is more than a bit pricey. Do the NMH and Li batteries still drop to 50% of their original capacity after the first year? Pat The reason I don't even try to use Li-Ion batteries is that they have a natural single cell voltage of about 3.6 volts so they tend to be used in proprietary battery packs. I just stock up on high capacity NiMH (2500maHrs) and use them in my Cateye headlight, digital camera, and just about everything else. You can't do that with Lithiums. -- Bill (Sleepless biker) Baka |
#8
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
"Pat Lamb" wrote in message ... Daryl Hunt wrote: "bill" wrote in message . net... Daryl Hunt wrote: "Jack Murphy" wrote in message ... Should I drain and recharge a couple of times my new Blackburn X3 nimh battery? I want to get the longest life out of it. There is no reason to drain and recharge. Your Charger is specially made for NIMH batteries and will handle it with a no brainer to you. Of course, if you are using charger meant for a lead acid, DON'T. Ditto that. Also don't expect a NiCad charger to work, even though they both charge to 1.2 volts, because they have different charge profiles. NiCad had the memory effect as so famously discovered by NASA at all the wrong time (in orbit) but the NiMH don't have the same thing, or at least I haven't heard any complaints just yet. They have all but beaten the Nicad memory problem these days but they are expensive. Moreso than the MH. MH is just a bit big in comparison to the Nicad and the Lions. The LIons are the best. Smallest with the best output to weight factor but the cost prohibits most of us from bying them. 300 and up is more than a bit pricey. Do the NMH and Li batteries still drop to 50% of their original capacity after the first year? Not that I am aware of. We keep getting Chinese offers for us to handle these batteries but the SLA seems to win out most of the time due to initial cost being a fraction. Yes, the NiMH batteries do have twice the life span but they cost 3 to 4 times as much. And I don't really see that big a weight savings, maybe half as much weight versus the SLA. Now, the Lithiums and Nicads show about 5 to 7 lbs and a life of about 1000 hours for a 36V 12a versus the same 21 to 24 lb SLA with a life of 250 hours. The initial cost is the prohibitor at first. But replace your SLA a couple or three times and you just paid for either the LIons or Nicads. |
#9
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
Daryl Hunt wrote:
Not that I am aware of. We keep getting Chinese offers for us to handle these batteries but the SLA seems to win out most of the time due to initial cost being a fraction. Yes, the NiMH batteries do have twice the life span but they cost 3 to 4 times as much. And I don't really see that big a weight savings, maybe half as much weight versus the SLA. Now, the Lithiums and Nicads show about 5 to 7 lbs and a life of about 1000 hours for a 36V 12a versus the same 21 to 24 lb SLA with a life of 250 hours. The initial cost is the prohibitor at first. But replace your SLA a couple or three times and you just paid for either the LIons or Nicads. Don't let that SLA sit discharged or you will be very unhappy to learn of the phenomena of 'Sulphating', as in permanent loss of charge. I just lost a car battery to that last month due to a flakey alternator. -- Bill (Sleepless biker) Baka |
#10
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nimh rechargable battery packs - drain and charge when new?
"bill" wrote in message om... Daryl Hunt wrote: Not that I am aware of. We keep getting Chinese offers for us to handle these batteries but the SLA seems to win out most of the time due to initial cost being a fraction. Yes, the NiMH batteries do have twice the life span but they cost 3 to 4 times as much. And I don't really see that big a weight savings, maybe half as much weight versus the SLA. Now, the Lithiums and Nicads show about 5 to 7 lbs and a life of about 1000 hours for a 36V 12a versus the same 21 to 24 lb SLA with a life of 250 hours. The initial cost is the prohibitor at first. But replace your SLA a couple or three times and you just paid for either the LIons or Nicads. Don't let that SLA sit discharged or you will be very unhappy to learn of the phenomena of 'Sulphating', as in permanent loss of charge. I just lost a car battery to that last month due to a flakey alternator. And another reason. Winter is upon many of us and a discharged battery will freeze and crack the case. |
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