Advice about Eneloop battery charging

treeman

treeman

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Mark
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Stooopid question , but I threw the instructions away Doh!

When charging Eneloops in the wall charger, (4AA's or 4 AAA's type charger) there are two green lights on, do they change when charged?
 
keirik said:
doesn't it depend on the charger rather than the batteries?
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Yes, it does depend on the charger, NOT the batteries.
On my 1 hr charger, the lights are red when charging, green when charged. Have a look for the chargers manufactures website, see if it sheds any light on there!
 
wontolla said:
Yes, it does depend on the charger, NOT the batteries.
On my 1 hr charger, the lights are red when charging, green when charged. Have a look for the chargers manufactures website, see if it sheds any light on there!
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It's an Eneloop charger, are there different types?

Looked on their site and it only mentioned that they take up to 7 hours to charge, nothing about lights changing colour :shrug:

Spose I'll just leave it plugged in and see what happens :)
 
My instrucions say plug in 1st, then add the batteries. They start red then go green when charged.
 
treeman said:
It's an Eneloop charger, are there different types?

Looked on their site and it only mentioned that they take up to 7 hours to charge, nothing about lights changing colour :shrug:

Spose I'll just leave it plugged in and see what happens :)
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Website says 7-10 hrs recharge time, however, some review sites say it is usually 10-12hrs. I have a 7dayshop.com charger that does it in 1hr!
 
If you force the charge time, does it affect th elongevity of the batteries? Not the charge they hold, but how long they will live before thye won't take a charge anymore.
I know with gel batteries in a bike, by forcing the charge time you can "cook" the battery and shorten its service life (also lithium based batteries).

I would treat them a bit more gently if you want the longest service life out of them. Me, I use cheap and cheerful Calumet own brand NiMH 2800s.....they last a week in the SB900s, shooting daily. I can't fault them for the price and the ones I have at the moment have been used for about 18 months.
 
Lensflare said:
If you force the charge time, does it affect th elongevity of the batteries? Not the charge they hold, but how long they will live before thye won't take a charge anymore.
I know with gel batteries in a bike, by forcing the charge time you can "cook" the battery and shorten its service life (also lithium based batteries).

I would treat them a bit more gently if you want the longest service life out of them. Me, I use cheap and cheerful Calumet own brand NiMH 2800s.....they last a week in the SB900s, shooting daily. I can't fault them for the price and the ones I have at the moment have been used for about 18 months.
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Well it dosn't seem to. I have 3 sets of Eneloops, the oldest being over 12 months (could be 18+ not sure when I bought them) They are used in camera/flash/GPS/torch/etc and I hav'nt noticed any drop in performance!
 
The Eneloop site says you should only use their own chargers, and fast charging will ultimately damage them. I just bought a package that included a wall charger, probably wasn't the cheapest option, but nothing more embarrassing than failed batteries :eek:

I've found a bit of paper in a drawer that says the lights go out after 16 hours!
 
hi mark, use the batteries til there dead, then put them on charge, they should start red then change to green when there done. hth mike (y) as the light is already green i would say they is done :LOL:
 
dinorock said:
hi mark, use the batteries til there dead, then put them on charge, they should start red then change to green when there done. hth mike (y) as the light is already green i would say they is done :LOL:
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Hmm cheers mate. Trouble is these were defo the dead ones and they was green as soon as I put them in the charger. Think I'll fire off an email to Sanyo :)
 
Hi Mark my charger starts at green and does'nt change colour i just leave em in for a day and they seem to be fully charged:shrug: and last for ages
 
After reading this thread it has put me off wanting to try the battery's The only reason for slow charging like this is to keep the temperature down my charger from 7dayshop it computerised and will charge according to the battery's needs also will flag up any dude ones. but none take this long.
 
Chaz Photos said:
After reading this thread it has put me off wanting to try the battery's .
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Eneloops, 8 hour charge & they're still charged a month later
"Normal" NiMH, 1 hour charge & they're flat 1 month later


I prefer the charge then use them when required rather than try and remember to charge them the night before a shoot :)
 
LSPC said:
Hi Mark my charger starts at green and does'nt change colour i just leave em in for a day and they seem to be fully charged:shrug: and last for ages
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Sounds like you got the same charger as me. I've sent an email to Sanyo and see what they say, but for now I'll try your method, thanks (y)

P.s they've been on charge for 12 hours now and they quite hot, and as I want to go to bed and sleep soundly, I'm turning it off! :)
 
Interesting this. I have heard about the Eneloops before, but having a couple of dozen of rechargeables already I didn't need any.

How well do they fare in the GPS Wontolla? I have just got a Garmin GPSmap76CSX and need batteries that will last a good day - for sea kaayak trips, some long paddles planned. And, where do you go to get them please? Always happy to try something new.
 
I bought a 7dayshop.com eneloop charger/battery pack (with charger made by fameart) and didn't use it much for a couple months. I can't really remember if i ever used it/what happened before.

...but the red light would come on and stay on for the duration of the charge. I sent it back to 7dayshop and they refunded me for the charger (i don't know if they ever bothered testing it...doubt it).

Bought another one and now have the same problem. Don't have the instructions from fameart either (binned them...again!). Anyone have any ideas?
 
Lensflare said:
Interesting this. I have heard about the Eneloops before, but having a couple of dozen of rechargeables already I didn't need any.

How well do they fare in the GPS Wontolla? I have just got a Garmin GPSmap76CSX and need batteries that will last a good day - for sea kaayak trips, some long paddles planned. And, where do you go to get them please? Always happy to try something new.
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Well with 'ordinary' nimh 2500 rechargables, from 7dayshop.com, I get a full day (8/9hrs) out of them with plenty left in. With the Eneloops I will usually get 3 times this (3 days X 8/9hrs) again these came from 7dayshop.com.
 
treeman said:
The Eneloop site says you should only use their own chargers, and fast charging will ultimately damage them. I just bought a package that included a wall charger, probably wasn't the cheapest option, but nothing more embarrassing than failed batteries :eek:

I've found a bit of paper in a drawer that says the lights go out after 16 hours!
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Yeh, well they would, would'nt they!!:thumbsdown:
 
FreeloaderJoe said:
I bought a 7dayshop.com eneloop charger/battery pack (with charger made by fameart) and didn't use it much for a couple months. I can't really remember if i ever used it/what happened before.

...but the red light would come on and stay on for the duration of the charge. I sent it back to 7dayshop and they refunded me for the charger (i don't know if they ever bothered testing it...doubt it).

Bought another one and now have the same problem. Don't have the instructions from fameart either (binned them...again!). Anyone have any ideas?
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You probably didn't leave them on charge for long enough with that particular charger! As has been stated`before, they CAN, take up to a day and a half!!
 
Hi guys, I just registered because I accidentally stumbled across this discussion while Googling Eneloop batteries (trying to find what the maximum capacity is thesedays). Anyway, it sounds like we might have the same chargers, so I figured I'd register to share what I know:

Fast chargers are imprecise and 'guess' when a battery is fully charged, often cooking and reducing the lifespan of your batteries in the process. Eneloop chargers on the other hand are slow chargers and rely on you the user to time your charging, but they always cut out after sixteen hours just in case you forget. The green lights are always on just to indicate that you inserted the batteries properly and they're charging OK. My Eneloop charger is the MQN04 model, and according to the instructions it takes ten hours to charge Eneloop Ni-MH AA 2000mAh batteries from a discharged state. As I have 1900mAh batteries, I tend to unplug after 9.5 to 10 hours.

I hope that helps, but bear in mind charge time is different with different Eneloop chargers. Sanyo really need to make the instructions available on the web. :/
 
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fauxtronic said:
Fast chargers are imprecise and 'guess' when a battery is fully charged, often cooking and reducing the lifespan of your batteries in the process.
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I think that this is an over generalisation. Some cheap fast chargers may behave as you describe, but a good fast charger does not. Good chargers use a variety of methods to terminate the charge process. I've used both this and this for some years, and been very happy with the charge and battery life obtained.

fauxtronic said:
Eneloop chargers on the other hand are slow chargers and rely on you the user to time your charging, but they always cut out after sixteen hours just in case you forget. The green lights are always on just to indicate that you inserted the batteries properly and they're charging OK. My Eneloop charger is the MQN04 model, and according to the instructions it takes ten hours to charge Eneloop Ni-MH AA 2000mAh batteries from a discharged state. As I have 1900mAh batteries, I tend to unplug after 9.5 to 10 hours.
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Depending on a timer to end the charge is not a good approach. If the battery isn't completely flat when you start then you can end up over charging even on a slow charger.

One other thing to watch out for is chargers which only allow batteries to be charged in pairs. Batteries are very rarely matched. So one gets overcharged while the other is undercharged. Choose a charger which charges all the batteries independantly.
 
Blimey, talk about thread revival!

I ended up ditching the supplied charger and bought one that charges each battery (up to 4) independently, with LCD read out. It can loads of fancy things like discharge the battery complete and other stuff, also charges AAA's too.
 
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