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#1
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Battery question
Yes, it is normal for them to "heat" up.
"Minolta Man" wrote in message ... I recently bought a charger for AA size NMH batteries and was wondering if it is normal for the batteries to heat up during charge. This is a 1 hour charger for 4 batteries. Colyn Goodson http://home.swbell.net/colyng Camera manuals and mercury battery fix http://www.colyngoodson.com Weston Ranger 9 battery fix http://www.colyngoodson.com/weston.html |
#2
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Battery question
Minolta Man wrote: I recently bought a charger for AA size NMH batteries and was wondering if it is normal for the batteries to heat up during charge. This is a 1 hour charger for 4 batteries. The Ansmann charger recommended by Minolta UK, and distributed by them now, has a built-in fan and a very cool running charge cycle, and using Delta-V (a method for reading the battery charge level and adjusting the charge to a trickle) the batteries do not end up sitting there like a small electric fire after they are charged. I've just got the Ansmann - all products - to review and so far I am impressed. The capacities and charging times are better than anything so far, with their 2300mAh cells. And their Digi charger has rescued some old cells I have never been able to get to work - by doing its refresh cycle a couple of times. David |
#3
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Minolta Man was all:
I recently bought a charger for AA size NMH batteries and was wondering if it is normal for the batteries to heat up during charge. This is a 1 hour charger for 4 batteries. Colyn Goodson http://home.swbell.net/colyng Camera manuals and mercury battery fix http://www.colyngoodson.com Weston Ranger 9 battery fix http://www.colyngoodson.com/weston.html Unfortunately, thanks to marketing that emphasizes the speed of charging over the longevity of the batteries, that battery manufacturers have no reason to want your batteries to last as long as possible (the opposite, actually), and that their chargers are designed to limit the batteries' useful life to six months to a year or so, it's normal. If you really NEED to charge your batteries in an hour, it may be worth it to cut maybe a hundred cycles off the lifetime of your batteries each time you use a battery burning one-hour charger. You *can* purchase a charger that will charge almost as fast without heating up the batteries (such as with negative Delta-V charging technology as mentioned by another poster, as well as even newer cool-charge technologies), but the price may be a bit higher and you'd more than likely have to order one online. I've never seen a good quality battery charger on sale in any large chain store (Circuit City, Wal- Mart, Best Buy, etc.). Chargers made by mfgrs. such as Maha are usually top notch and VERY cheap if you don't need ultra-fast charging. If you can wait 3-4 hours for a quality charger priced about the same as a junk one-hour charger to do the job, many of which are available from resellers such as thomasdistributing.com or perhaps the reseller for the Ansmann unit another poster recommended (-DeltaV is one of the technologies for ensuring that batteries DO NOT heat up and become damaged while still ensuring a relatively quick and complete charge), your batteries ought to last many times longer than if they were charged on the cheap (and I don't mean their price, their construction; they're horrendously overpriced for what they do) department-store chargers made by and/or carrying the name of major battery manufacturers. If you can wait overnight (10-12 hours) for 4 batteries to charge, or if you have several sets and can keep one set in the charger at all times, Thomas Distributing carries a trickle charging 4-battery unit that costs only a few $USD, which will allow you to simply leave the batteries in until they're needed, and the batteries should last their FULL rated lifetime. If you're used to batteries lasting only 6 months to a year (or not even that), a good charger can extend that out several years or more. It's sort of annoying that the silver and green Energizer 2300mAh NiMH batteries available from Wal-Mart are one of the great values for widely- available, top-performing NiMH batteries right now, but the matching Energizer one-hour charger is the LAST thing you want to charge them in if you're concerned about their useful life... Nonetheless, that's the case. Naturally, some folks don't mind spending a few extra dollars for the speedy charge and the cheap chargers' availability nearly everywhere you go, but from the number of websites dedicated to rechargeable batteries, charger reviews, sales, performance comparisons, etc., there must be an awful lot of people taking quite an interest, photographers being just one segment of that population. Here are a few relevant sites: http://www.ripvan100.com/ http://www.thomasdistributing.com/ http://www.mahaenergy.com/ http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM |
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