In article , T i m
writes
On Tue, 17 Nov 2020 17:31:53 GMT, Pamela
wrote:

On 13:27 17 Nov 2020, T i m said:
On Tue, 17 Nov 2020 12:13:56 GMT, Pamela wrote:


Now, on the AAA's it states the 'Standard charge is 80mA for 16
hours' and I presume by that they mean '... to get the best life
/ cycles out of the cell'.

snip

Surely that has been incorrectly taken from the standard advice to
slow charge a new battery for a long time (say 8 hours) to ensure
all cells reach max charge. Hard to see why it's applied to
single cells.

Same thing though isn't it Pamela? A battery only (typically)
being a combination of single cells wired in series and so the
current though the battery = the current though each cell?

If one cell in a battery (where the cells are in series not parallel)
is weaker than the others then it will overload during charge sooner.

Agreed.

A
very low charge rate, say C/10, doesn't cause an NIMH cell to vent --
so it can be applied for much longer while all cells reach full charge.

Quite ... and why I was asking if anyone knew of a charger that
matched the published spec for the batteries (85mA)?

Similarly on discharge to a low state, albeit not at issue here, a weak
cell in a battery can be forced into reverse polarity by the other
cells discharging normally -- as I have seen.

Agreed.

Anyway, the bottom line seems to be that a single NIMH cell doesn't
actually need a long low-current conditioning charge.

I was just following the specification printed on the cells as I'm
sure that's what any supplier would reference if I entered a cycles
dispute with them?

eg. It doesn't say 'Initially charge for 85 mA and whatever you like
after that ...'?

I was willing to accept that Eneloop / 'Ready to use', low
self-discharge cells may be less able to accept a high charge rate
compared with 'High power' (but possibly high(er) self discharge)
cells, as my intended usage for most these new cells is for low power
use (like remote controls, DECT phones, PIR lights etc) but it may not
be the case (they may well accept or even prefer (for the reasons
stated on your link)), I higher rate than 85mA, for the charger to
properly detect -DeltaV.


Cheers, T i m

My (very old) charger from jessops (remember them?)
Charges AAs @ 150mA and AAAs @ 50mA singles or pairs x 2
PP3 @ 16mA single or pair
Max Charging time 15 hrs by Timer Control.

More is not always better.
--
bert