SteveB wrote:
wrote in message
...
As far as chargers go......Buy the cheapest, slowest dumb
charger/chargers you can and plug them into the cheapest
electrical timer you can find. Set the timer for a couple hours
a day and you'll always have a fresh set of batteries, you'll
never have to worry about overcharging, and you'll have
more money in your pocket for other toys.
The cheapest charger may only get Nimh near 90% charged if its a Nicad
profile
The cheapest slowest dumb chargers can easily overcharge a NIMH
battery. That is why they are dumb. By using the timer set for just a
couple hours a day you nullify any damage caused by overcharging.

So, if I understand you correctly, the battery is charged a couple of hours
a day every day? If that is what you are saying, the amount of charging FAR
exceeds the daily or even weekly natural loss of the battery. Sounds a
little overkill to me, but if it works for you .......

Steve


Some manufacturers warn that slow charging will damage NimH by
overcharging. I've read that slow charging will damage NiMH in a way
that increases the self-discharge. I've never slow-discharged NiMH, but
that drawback seems to apply to the NiCds I've had.

I bought a lot of AA NiCds between 1981 and 1998. Self-discharge
limited their service life. Perhaps after a year a cell would hold a
charge only a week. Eventually the plates would short and it wouldn't
take a charge at all.

In 1998 I bought a fast charger and two sets of 4 NiMH; one set didn't
even have a brand. For nine years I used them heavily for a camera, a
4-cell light, a walkman, a CD player, a cordless mouse, a cordless
keyboard, a 2-cell flashlight, and other uses.

I don't recharge them often these days because my heavy users (primary
flashlight, camera, mouse, and walkman) no longer use these batteries.
Those old NiMH cells still hold their charge several months in my
keyboard, in my standby flashlight, or on the shelf. What's more, I
discovered that when I quit slow charging my NiCds, their service life
was much longer.

When nickel batteries sit in storage, part of the plate can dry out.
That may be why the OP has problems. Charge/discharge cycles can remedy
it. Some are not properly formed when manufactured. They may gradually
improve over dozens of charge/discharge cycles.