How Eneloops Charge

I've been frustrated by the charging cycle of my many Eneloops. I use two Lacrosse chargers.

I tend to charge them when v gets down to ~1.35. If I just do a regular charge cycle, they only end up with ~300 mah because the batteries have already hit ~1.5 v.

Consequently, I charge them by running a discharge/recharge cycle. This works fine, but I don't always get something on the order of 1.5v. I'll check on the batteries throughout this charging cycle and will see them hit 1.5+ while still charging but will be down around 1.47v by the time the charger declares the "full".

Thoughts about what I'm experiencing?

My eneloop AA says it's only 1.2V...I believe that's the case with all rechargable AAs. Though regular alkalines are 1.5V I think.

I could be wrong though.

Edit: Here's a link to sanyo's site about eneloops.
http://www.eneloop.inf​o …ance-details/voltage.html

Not sure what's going on here, but it looks like the voltage doesn't start at 1.5, but stays above 1.2 for a while.

Peacefield wrote in post #13013015
I've been frustrated by the charging cycle of my many Eneloops. I use two Lacrosse chargers.

I tend to charge them when v gets down to ~1.35. If I just do a regular charge cycle, they only end up with ~300 mah because the batteries have already hit ~1.5 v.

Consequently, I charge them by running a discharge/recharge cycle. This works fine, but I don't always get something on the order of 1.5v. I'll check on the batteries throughout this charging cycle and will see them hit 1.5+ while still charging but will be down around 1.47v by the time the charger declares the "full".

Thoughts about what I'm experiencing?

A full rechargeable cell should normally be 1.2v and according to the Eneloop page (here) a fully charged eneloop should be 1.4v
only normal (alkaline) cells should be 1.5v (the rechargeables will hold their voltage under load much better though - i have found my rechargeables will have good flash recycle times, until all of a sudden they dont - the alkalines i get supplied with at work seem to get slower and slower with every shot)

maybe try running them a bit flatter (from memory a rechargeable is considered flat at 0.9v per cell - i could be wrong though)
there isnt much point barely using them, then having your charger run them down the rest of the way before charging them

Borrowing thread here, hope it's Ok.

I just ordered 16x 2000mAh Eneloops and a Maha MH-C800S charger. However, I glanced at the Maha MH-C9000 charger aswell, wich has more features. In the description of the MH-C9000 it says that it has some mode for new batteries and batteries which performs badly. The MH-C800S seems to lack this feature, so how do I charge my batteries the first time for maximum performance, and is there anything I should do to maintain the best performance?

Thanks in advance, seems ridiculous asking how to charge batteries but I've read myself blind about people having bad experience in using rechargable AA's and spent alot of money on getting "the good stuff" (I guess). So I better get this one right from the begining.

As you can tell from my original post, I'm no battery expert, but I do have the 9000 and what you're referring to is a refresh cycle. My assumption has always been that it just does a full discharge and recharge repeatedly until the battery returns to "full" power.

Peacefield wrote in post #13014007
As you can tell from my original post, I'm no battery expert, but I do have the 9000 and what you're referring to is a refresh cycle. My assumption has always been that it just does a full discharge and recharge repeatedly until the battery returns to "full" power.

Allrigt.. Yeah, well I didn't get the C9000, I ordered the other one.. Didn't feel like I need the 10.000 combinations of settings stuff to charge my batteries.. However, now I feel like I might want to have this refresh thing? Does it make my batteries last that much longer, or should I just stick with my C800S?

antonlindstrom wrote in post #13014123
Allrigt.. Yeah, well I didn't get the C9000, I ordered the other one.. Didn't feel like I need the 10.000 combinations of settings stuff to charge my batteries.. However, now I feel like I might want to have this refresh thing? Does it make my batteries last that much longer, or should I just stick with my C800S?

Doing a refresh (as with the functionality built into the C9000 will help your batteries to maintain their max capacity longer but does build up more charge cycles in the process. Either way it has always been my opinion that that C9000 is a better charger, and since I made a serious investment in so many Eneloop batteries I wanted to ensure I have the best tool to make them last and always perform to their peak.

ben_r_ wrote in post #13016779
Doing a refresh (as with the functionality built into the C9000 will help your batteries to maintain their max capacity longer but does build up more charge cycles in the process. Either way it has always been my opinion that that C9000 is a better charger, and since I made a serious investment in so many Eneloop batteries I wanted to ensure I have the best tool to make them last and always perform to their peak.

Yeah.. That's kind of what I've realized now after my order has been shipped.. That's why I'm asking, is there any way to do a refresh cycle manually or something or do I really need the C9000? I'm no pro at charging batteries, but I guess I'd figure it out.. The thing is, is it worth the extra cash, the extra work (sending the C800S back), and the downside of only being able to charge 4 batteries at once.. This would take a while with say 32 batteries..