On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:58:38 -0700, wrote:

On 22 Jun, 08:45, budgie wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:54:26 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article . com,
wrote:

It doesn't pose a problem to use a higher mah hour rating, in fact it
will run longer. I just got a new solar pool lamp, and the
instructions for it say as much. Additionally mine says to charge for
two days before using to get the battery fully charged.

ignore it, just put it out and it'll run fine. There is some bizarre
advice about in instruction leaflets on this for some reason. Maybe an
exercise in reducing successful guarantee claims.

I've never understood this long charge with new batteries. Ages ago I
bought a PPPro cordless drill with a crude fast charger (4 hours) which
reckoned you doubled that for the first one before using. Which I'd say
would fry them, as they arrived with near a full charge anyway by the
lights on the side of the battery.

It's an old scheme to attempt some form of SOC equalisation in series strings.
Fine for C/10 but a bit extreme for fast chargers.

Also dont you think double charge time a bit excessive for this
though?

Yes. But having said that, we are talking consumer electronics, and the
uncontrolled variable is the consumer.

Also I'd think in this app it would be more important that the cells
run flat at the same time than that they hold the maximum battery
capacity.

Yes.

And of course equalising is more relevant to used batteries rather
than new.

Not necessarily so. AFAIR no-one ever claimed that all cells in a pack started
life in the pack at exactly the same SOC.

Certainly SOC variation is a result of cell use in the real world.

4 reasons so far why its not good practice.

2.5 probably. I didn't say for a moment that I endorse the practice.