How long to charge a batterry

[sarahbn]

How long does it take recharge the Canon BP511A battery?

[Zepher]

1 hour?

[Jon]

From flat, give it 3-4 hours; don't pull it as soon as it goes steady; that's actually around 90% charged; it trickle charges beyond that.

[jsinon]

From flat, give it 3-4 hours; don't pull it as soon as it goes steady; that's actually around 90% charged; it trickle charges beyond that.

You learn something new every day. Do you have a rough guess as to how long after "steady" is fully charged?

[sapearl]

I like to give mine around an hour to be on the safe side.

You learn something new every day. Do you have a rough guess as to how long after "steady" is fully charged?

[canonphotog]

You learn something new every day. Do you have a rough guess as to how long after "steady" is fully charged?
the manual says 90 minutes. Older batteries may not take a full charge and could probably be pulled off the charger sooner.

[sapearl]

Ah, thank you for pointing that out - I stand corrected . Looks like I need to go back and re-read a few things ;).

the manual says 90 minutes. Older batteries may not take a full charge and could probably be pulled off the charger sooner.

[Sean]

I leave it in overnight. I plug it in around 8pm ish, after I am done shooting for the day, and unplug it around 6am~ when I get up. It will never "overcharge", it just stops when it reaches Delta-V

[signalman]

Usually overnight.

[zoom_zoom]

Just over an hour for me.... The orange light on the charger stops blinking when the battery is charged. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to let it charge beyond that...

[canonphotog]

Ah, thank you for pointing that out - I stand corrected . Looks like I need to go back and re-read a few things ;). So I don't confuse the issue, that's 90 minutes after it says it's fully charged, ie., the light stops blinking.

[sarahbn]

Thanks !

[Jon]

Just over an hour for me.... The orange light on the charger stops blinking when the battery is charged. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to let it charge beyond that...
See above - the light stops blinking at around 90% charge; you need to leave the battery in longer to trickle charge to 100%; the charger won't blow out the battery if you leave it in "too long".

[kosin]

From flat, give it 3-4 hours; don't pull it as soon as it goes steady; that's actually around 90% charged; it trickle charges beyond that.

that is what I hear very often...

[bohdank]

I don't agonize over this. Plug it in, forget about it. If I get back and it shows charged, I pull the battery.

[RDKirk]

See above - the light stops blinking at around 90% charge; you need to leave the battery in longer to trickle charge to 100%; the charger won't blow out the battery if you leave it in "too long".

However, Li-Ion batteries live a bit shorter lifespans if they're always pushed to 100% charge. Pulling the battery out of the charger when the light stops blinking is probably a good idea when you know you're not going to use it fully. The power setups for many new laptops allow the user to set recharge to just less than 100% for that reason.

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm has the best information on the web about rechargeable batteries. Isador Buchman is president of a company that produces rechargeable battery analyzers and rechargers, so he knows his stuff and has no interest in any particular battery company.

[brownbugger]

I charge it 3 hours or usually half an hour after i see the light not blinking.

[SYS]

Because of lithium-ion batteries' innate instability (remember all the recalls of cell phones and laptops years ago because they blew up?), their latest technology in making these safer -- and so the higher cost to us -- means adding more protection circuits. These kind of batteries are unable to absorb overcharging, so trickle charging (and I'm not sure whether the charger even allows this) is not a good thing. Also, because these lithium-ion batteries are not affected with memory problem, a frequent charging is not a problem. So, to be on the safe side, just unplug it when the orange light goes off and recharge it again when the juice runs low.