Battery question.

Okay, all you battery experts. (Are you there, Tim?) I just received my LaCrosse BC-700 charger and have tested my sets of Duracell Nimh batteries I have been using (abusing?) with a 15-minute quick charger. The good news is my set of 2650mah units all showed a capacity from 2300 to 2600 mah. The bad news is my older set of 2400 mah has 3 showing around 1700mah, and 1 cell that is evidently shot because it is still in the discharge phase after 6hrs (about 12 hrs total including the initial charge phase of the test cycle) and the other 3 are already charged.

My questions:

1.Any hope for the defective cell? no big deal, but if I can get more out of it, great.

2. More importantly, I have a couple sets of the Maha Imedion AA's coming and would like to know the proper way to both initially and regularly charge them. Should I run the refrsh cycle right off the bat, or not since they are supposed to be precharged.

My take on bad cells: chuck 'em. All it takes is one bad cell in your pack, 3 'awesome' and one bad = no workie.

With that said, try popping the "bad cells" out and trying again. On my charger, I will actually get a reading of "null" for bad cells & those get moved to the trash.

Can't help yah on the Imedions, I'm an Eneloop convert (no charging necessary out of the package).

Well, the bad cell is finally charging. Hopefully I can run the older set through the refresh cycle and revive them.

GSansoucie wrote in post #7307259
Can't help yah on the Imedions, I'm an Eneloop convert (no charging necessary out of the package).

The Imedions are Maha's version of the Eneloops. Precharged and low discharge. I know you can use them right out of the box, but for the ultimate life and performance from them, I was wondering what the proper procedure is. That was the reason for getting the smart charger.

This reminds me that I need to get a multimeter from Radio Shack...