On Sun, 28 May 2006 23:53:57 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Peter Parry wrote:
The problem with the 5hr (or thereabouts) chargers is that they are
essentially uncontrolled and a 5 hour rate cannot be sustained for
any length of time without damaging the battery. Used with a time
switch they are adequate but no more. The safest way of charging
batteries, and the one which gives best battery life, is to charge at
one tenth of the cell capacity for about 11 hours.

I have to agree. *Any* fast charger - don't care how clever - shortens the
service life of Ni-Cads. Of course a nasty fast charger even more.

I had this exact discussion with Ansmann Chargers and a couple of
battery suppliers.

Terms like 'Fast Charge' or 'Ultrafast Charge' seemed to go against
the recommendations on the cells themselves?

The bottom line from them all ... "Yes, fast charging will generally
sod up yer cells but that's what folk want (fast charge cycles) and
they don't mind buying new ones .." ;-(

eg, I have an Ansmann PowerLine5 and that 'according to Ansmann' is
such a charger .. cells coming off the charger pretty hot (not a good
way to treat cells).The Energy16 however seems to be geared to
treating them more gently (test, test discharge, *moderate rate* bulk
charge, deltaV, trickle etc).

Most of my RC cells (TX, RX, power) were charged at the C/10 rate and
I even built am 8 way constant current charger to do so ;-)

All the best ..

T i m