Discharge / Refresh

beyond the blue

beyond the blue

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Neil
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I have the Techno-line BC-700 Intelligent battery charger. I put four batteries in for a charge and 3 of them showed NULL and wouldn't charge. I did a search that came up with the idea of putting them in a cheapo charger for a few minutes and then the techno-line charger will accept them and continue to re-charge them which it did. I now have them on a discharge / refresh cycle but I'm into the third day on this setting. Is this a normal length of time or am I flogging a dead horse? The batteries are only 12 months old and have been re-charged only about a dozen times.
 
I have the same charger and put two sets of mine on the refresh mode and they took around 5/6 days to finish, but it worked a treat. The batteries were 2400Mah and I'd only been able to get about 400/500Mah into them so they ran out very quickly. After the refresh, they now accept 2300/2400 and are like new again.
 
You can select the discharge current when performing a refresh cycle and a lower current selection will mean a longer wait...several days for a low current setting is quite normal.

Bob
 
I've recently found 12 of my 16 Ansmann batteries to be quite dead. They're maybe 12-18 months old, and I don't use them frequently. I was looking at getting a cheapo charger to get the recharging kickstarted.

PitaDaVespa said:
Assuming they are around 2000mAh or more, you should choose the higher charge/discharge rate (700/350mAh).
Click to expand...
I was led to believe that slow charge/discharge rates are better for longevity? Have I been incorrectly informed?

PitaDaVespa said:
When the charger detects a NULL battery, you can use this trick: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61XEWKXrq8L._SL256_.jpg ;)
Click to expand...
Any idea on whether I could do this trick with a non-rechargeable battery in the first slot (taking it out before plugging in the charger)?
 
beyond the blue said:
They are Duracell 1950mAh. Can I ask why a higher rate would be beneficial?

Oooh, not being electronically minded that diagram made my toes curl. I think I'll stick with the cheapo charger method.:confused:
Click to expand...

A slow charge/discharge rate is better for longevity, indeed, but sometimes, when using a slow charge rate, the charger doesn't get the information the battery is full (at it's maximum capacity) and still continues to charge it, reducing battery's life.

On the contrary, when a faster charge rate is used, say 0.5C, it's much more easy for that detection to happen and, as soon as the battery is full, the charger knows it and stops charging it.


I'm not a fan a fast charges, but I always use 700mAh on my BC-700 with batteries around 2000-2800mAh.
 
omens said:
I've recently found 12 of my 16 Ansmann batteries to be quite dead. They're maybe 12-18 months old, and I don't use them frequently. I was looking at getting a cheapo charger to get the recharging kickstarted.


I was led to believe that slow charge/discharge rates are better for longevity? Have I been incorrectly informed?


Any idea on whether I could do this trick with a non-rechargeable battery in the first slot (taking it out before plugging in the charger)?
Click to expand...

Yes, no problem at all.
Just give if a few seconds (3-10, it will depend on the batteries) of contact.
 
Sometimes rechargeable batteries are not dead. Sometimes, they are just sooooo discharged that they don't have enough voltage for these type of "intelligent" chargers to detect them as healthy.
 
omens said:
I was led to believe that slow charge/discharge rates are better for longevity? Have I been incorrectly informed?
Click to expand...
The heat generated during the charge (or discharge) cycle is the thing that reduces their life. Older style NiMH (and maybe some cheapers ones today) have no internal protection so they're at the mercy of the item (charger or appliance) to which they're connected. Today's decent cells have an internal pressure switch which opens up as the temperature goes critical (as well as protection provided by intelligent chargers).

Bob
 
omens said:
I've recently found 12 of my 16 Ansmann batteries to be quite dead. They're maybe 12-18 months old, and I don't use them frequently. I was looking at getting a cheapo charger to get the recharging kickstarted.


Any idea on whether I could do this trick with a non-rechargeable battery in the first slot (taking it out before plugging in the charger)?
Click to expand...

Before I bought the cheapo charger (B&M bargains £4.99 including 4 batteries) I tried shorting a new non chargeable battery + to + & - to - for a few minutes (but not in the charger) and it didn't work but 5 minutes in the cheapo and everything worked well.
 
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