On 14:19 20 Nov 2020, bert said:

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.

15 hours! Impatient kids today can buy a 15 minute NIMH charger.