On recs from this group, I bought eneloops AAs for our Braun toothbrushes
and they're great i.e. 8 to 10 weeks between charging (s) and loadsa oomph.

I've recently bought 4 x AAAs to power a hand-held unit for a fishing gadget
(££ ouch).
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9z8fbc6

Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will they
develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

On 18/08/2017 09:39, Bertie Doe wrote:
On recs from this group, I bought eneloops AAs for our Braun
toothbrushes and they're great i.e. 8 to 10 weeks between charging (s)
and loadsa oomph.

I've recently bought 4 x AAAs to power a hand-held unit for a fishing
gadget (££ ouch).
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9z8fbc6

Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will
they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

They don't like being left totally discharged for long periods and they
don't like being overcharged either. Anything in between is fine. I only
recharge when they are flat and carry some spare single use cells.

If they are low self discharge types they are ideal for low current long
term use and can be used out of the pack. They will last longer when
starting from a fully charged state but not by all that much unless they
have been on the shelf for years prior to purchase.

Memory effect was a big problem in the previous NiCd era with the cells
deteriorating rapidly when SOP for charging rugged almost indestructible
NiFe cells was applied to them. MOD trashed a lot of new batteries.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message news
On 18/08/2017 09:39, Bertie Doe wrote:
Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will
they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

They don't like being left totally discharged for long periods and they
don't like being overcharged either. Anything in between is fine. I only
recharge when they are flat and carry some spare single use cells.

Thanks Martin, I should have mentioned that I have 2 chargers. One charges
AAA in 1 hour and AA in 2 hours. The other charges AAA in 6 hours and AA in
13 hours. (Quick versus Trickle).

Both chargers have a 'Discharge' feature, so I guess it's there for a
reason. The paperwork that came with them, is long gone.

So the question is - what's best for battery longevity :-

1. Top them up
2. Hit the Discharge button
3. Transfer the batteries to say, a torch and let them slowly discharge
overnight. TIA.

On 18/08/2017 09:39, Bertie Doe wrote:
On recs from this group, I bought eneloops AAs for our Braun
toothbrushes and they're great i.e. 8 to 10 weeks between charging (s)
and loadsa oomph.

I've recently bought 4 x AAAs to power a hand-held unit for a fishing
gadget (££ ouch).
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9z8fbc6

Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will
they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

It's really only the old NiCad cells that suffer 'memory effect'. NiMH
are fine to top up.

--
Max Demian

"Max Demian" wrote in message
o.uk...
Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will
they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

It's really only the old NiCad cells that suffer 'memory effect'. NiMH are
fine to top up.

Ah thanks Max, I wasn't aware of that. Looking thru' my stash, even my
elderly Energizers are NiMH.

On 18/08/2017 11:35, Bertie Doe wrote:


"Martin Brown" wrote in message news
On 18/08/2017 09:39, Bertie Doe wrote:
Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or
will they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

They don't like being left totally discharged for long periods and
they don't like being overcharged either. Anything in between is fine.
I only recharge when they are flat and carry some spare single use cells.

Thanks Martin, I should have mentioned that I have 2 chargers. One
charges AAA in 1 hour and AA in 2 hours. The other charges AAA in 6
hours and AA in 13 hours. (Quick versus Trickle).

Both chargers have a 'Discharge' feature, so I guess it's there for a
reason. The paperwork that came with them, is long gone.

It mainly dates from the NiCad era.
They really did have very bad memory problems.

So the question is - what's best for battery longevity :-

1. Top them up

Once they are down to 10% or less is my working solution.

2. Hit the Discharge button

Probably not necessary. The thing that might do for them is keep
charging them again and again from 90% to 100% on a dumb charger.

3. Transfer the batteries to say, a torch and let them slowly discharge
overnight. TIA.

Will discharge them to a state where recharging may become impossible.
(in the case of Lithium ion batteries potentially a fire hazard too)

It is a bad idea to take the terminal voltage of a rechargeable battery
much below 1v if you want to maximise their lifetime.

Somewhat out of date but otherwise OK summary by TI he
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snva533/snva533.pdf

Modern NiMH have much lower self discharge rates.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message news
Somewhat out of date but otherwise OK summary by TI he
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snva533/snva533.pdf


Thanks Martin, saved to favs and also a good read :-

"Sustained high-current overcharge and cell polarity reversal (during
discharge) are the
main killers of Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries:"

I think I'll stick with the trickle-charger mentioned earlier.

Some humour ref Li-ion pyrotechnics :-

"The makers of Li-Ion cells handle the explosion threat by designing the
case of the cell
so that it will "die with honor", and not explode in someones pants pocket
if the battery
hits their car keys. More important, the actual battery terminals are
simply never
allowed to reach the outside world."

On Friday, 18 August 2017 11:35:38 UTC+1, Bertie Doe wrote:
"Martin Brown" wrote in message news On 18/08/2017 09:39, Bertie Doe wrote:
Question is, should these high-end AAA batteries be 'topped up' or will
they develop a memory? Thanks in anticipation.

They don't like being left totally discharged for long periods and they
don't like being overcharged either. Anything in between is fine. I only
recharge when they are flat and carry some spare single use cells.

Thanks Martin, I should have mentioned that I have 2 chargers. One charges
AAA in 1 hour and AA in 2 hours. The other charges AAA in 6 hours and AA in
13 hours. (Quick versus Trickle).

Both chargers have a 'Discharge' feature, so I guess it's there for a
reason. The paperwork that came with them, is long gone.

So the question is - what's best for battery longevity :-

1. Top them up
2. Hit the Discharge button
3. Transfer the batteries to say, a torch and let them slowly discharge
overnight. TIA.

Sounds like a good way to halve their life. They only have so many charge cycles in them, wasting 50% isn't going to help you.


NT