Nimh rechargeable AA battery question...

syncmaster108

Senior member
Sep 13, 2001
200
0
0
Hi, long time no see....

Not sure if this is the correct to post the question.

I bought some Nexcell 2200mah AA rechargeable batteries, when I use it the first time, it won't hold charge. I put 4 of these into my maha c204f charger, after 10 minutes, it stopped charging. then I put these into my midland radio, after 10-20 minutes stand by, it ran out of power. is this normal?

Anyways, I thought must be something wrong withe the batteries, so I went to costco and bought some SANYO 2300mah AA batteries, darn! same thing! after 10 minutes, my c204f charger stopped charging, i put it to the radio, again, after 10 minutes, they ran out of power! what's wrong here? I had some AAA nimh, they never had such a problem...

so is this normal?

Thanks
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
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Maybe an issue with the charger? My MP3-CD player uses AA NiMhs, and they work fine (don't remember the brand -- some Asian company I'd never heard of, as they shipped with the player). I've always just used its built-in charger, however...
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
17
81
Very strange. Have you tried using the recharge battery in other devices? Maybe the radio's draining too much power? I have Maha C401FS charger using Maha 2300 AAs. Holds charge and lasts longer than anything I've ever used. I use them in digicams, portable CD player, portable amp and DAC.
 

syncmaster108

Senior member
Sep 13, 2001
200
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Originally posted by: Baked
Very strange. Have you tried using the recharge battery in other devices? Maybe the radio's draining too much power? I have Maha C401FS charger using Maha 2300 AAs. Holds charge and lasts longer than anything I've ever used. I use them in digicams, portable CD player, portable amp and DAC.


are you talking about first charge? Will it performe better after 4-5 cycles?
 

Brian23

Banned
Dec 28, 1999
1,655
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NiMH batteries don't like to be fully discharged. They're less forgiving than NiCD cells. Typically you can bring a cell back to life if you cycle it about 5 times. To cycle a cell, take it down to 1.0 volt at a rate of anywhere between 100mA and 1A, let it rest for an hour and then charge it back up to full at a rate of 500mA to 1.5A. Then let it rest for another hour before cycling it again. (I only know this because I'm currently designing a charger for NiMH and NiCD batteries at work.)
 

JimPhelpsMI

Golden Member
Oct 8, 2004
1,261
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Hi, Is it possible that the charger was made for Nicads? If so it would have to charge about 4 times as long to charge the NIMH Batts. If the charger is a dumb automatic one it won't charge long enought to charge them but about 25%. Jim