On Jan 4, 2:30 pm, John Rumm wrote:

I have one very "smart" charger for AAs that can do capacity
measurements, various charge currents etc. It can give you a good idea
of the cell capacity, but I am not sure it can do much for knackered
cells other than identify them. The very smart ones can also have
difficulty if the cell voltage falls too far (either from auto discharge
or getting reverse biased in an appliance due to cell mismatch), then
they refuse to charge the cell at all. I find in those cases a couple of
mins in a slightly dumber smart charger will be enough to have the posh
one recognise and charge them again.

mmm that behaviour (esp indicating cells are dead when they just need
a lo-tech charger "shock" to get em started) is how my (assumed
modest) Lidl charger behaves on occasion. Sometimes just leaving the
"allegedly knackered" cells in the Lidl charger overnight can
magically "restore" and charge them....

Jim K