AA Battery Charger and Batteries

[Louis]

Hello all, I have just received my batteries and charger, do I need to drain the batteries and recharge them? the batteries are brand new in a packet? or simply recharge, or just leave alone,

thanks again

Louis

[PeterJ]

Hello all, I have just received my batteries and charger, do I need to drain the batteries and recharge them? the batteries are brand new in a packet? or simply recharge, or just leave alone

No harm giving them a charge to get up to 100% so you know what state they're in. I wouldn't bother with a discharge, that was mainly recommended for Nicad batteries although I believe an occasional discharge of NiMH is sometimes recommended, but compared to Nicad the effect is much less so my advice would just be charge as necessary and enjoy .

[Louis]

Thank you Peter,

Call me stupid, but it is OK to use this plug adapter I live in the UK and the Re charger has a 2 pin head, and I need 3 pin for the United Kingdom, I have this plug adapter and it works, I just want to be sure its ok, as I don't want to burn the house down?

[PeterJ]

Yep should be OK, UK is 220V @ 50Hz and I can see from the photo the charger is rated for 100-240V at 50/60Hz, and not much current so adapter should be fine.

[Louis]

Thank you so much

[Louis]

Hi guys a very quick question, I set my charger to 700, and put 4 batteries in for charge, they where brand new out of the packet , they have been on charge for 5 hours and they are still not full? is this normal?

[Rat]

Are you sure you've set it to just charge? If you selected 'test' or especially 'refresh' it will take much, much longer. Then, occasionally, my LaCrosse BC-700 will fail to detect a full battery. To check, I just remove and replace a cell which then will be marked as 'full'.

[tron]

Hi guys a very quick question, I set my charger to 700, and put 4 batteries in for charge, they where brand new out of the packet , they have been on charge for 5 hours and they are still not full? is this normal?

Google for: nimh charging deltaV

You will see that there are some times problems with automatic charging...

[Louis]

Yea 100% its on charge, says charge on the main screen for all 4 screens, its now 8hrs 30 Mins and 3 are full just 1 is still not full, I assume its going to be ready soon, but im shocked thats been on charge for 8:30 hours! and as you say they are recharged,

am I right in saying, if you make slot 1 charge at 700, the other 3 slots will default to that charge power?

[Louis]

Guys It was my mistake, I believe I had the charger on a very low charge for all 4 batteries, I have no got all batteries on 700 ma, estimated time to full charge is 3 hrs, but it should be shorter as they are new batteries ,

thank you for all your help, you have been amazing

[AG]

+1 again for Eneloops.

Bet batteries i ever invested in.

As for charger, i have enough batteries (pairs) that i just use the trusty Apple AA Charger (rebranded Eneloops also)

I usually just put a pair on and then once charged swap them out until my charged stack if full. I have them in the blue cases and just stack newest to oldest charged bottom to top. Sounds slow but i like i said i have enough spare batteries now that i can let them charge as long as they need.

[Louis]

So guys,

I used my first set of Eneloop batteries at a wedding reception, I honestly cant believe how amazing they were, after 5 hours of constant shooting, I didn't see any difference in recharge time, they just kept going, also the  charge time was amazing, the red pilot light on the 430II was constantly red, I had a back up set of 4 and no way needed to even consider using them after that amount of shooting, amazed, best purchase I have made in a long time, thanks again!

Louis

[Rat]

Glad we could help

_{...although advising Eneloops is a no-brainer. You now know why, too}

[Jay Khaos]

http://www.amazon.com/Plano-Count-Handgun-Ammo-Case/dp/B0042WIBA8/ref=pd_sim_sg_5

Just an example...

Ammo cases are a cheap/good alternative to 12-battery holders, especially if you need to hold a lot.  It's more convenient (to me) than having to pull out each battery with individual tabs over them.  The important part is that you don't have the  negatives touching the positives.  And make sure you get one made for larger diameter rounds like .45, 50 cal, etc.

[rpt]

http://www.amazon.com/Plano-Count-Handgun-Ammo-Case/dp/B0042WIBA8/ref=pd_sim_sg_5

Just an example...

Ammo cases are a cheap/good alternative to 12-battery holders, especially if you need to hold a lot.  It's more convenient (to me) than having to pull out each battery with individual tabs over them.  The important part is that you don't have the  negatives touching the positives.  And make sure you get one made for larger diameter rounds like .45, 50 cal, etc.

I just bung them into an empty box of credit cards
Stand them vertically and everything is great...