Charging NiHM

ndroo · 13th December 2003

Does charging NiMH AA batteries before they are fully discharged reduce their performance/life?

AReality · 13th December 2003

yes.........

coke21 · 13th December 2003

Originally Posted by renegade

Does charging NiMH AA batteries before they are fully discharged reduce their performance/life?

yes they do, you should use them till they are fully discharged before charging them again.

Barrios · 13th December 2003

Originally Posted by renegade

Does charging NiMH AA batteries before they are fully discharged reduce their performance/life?

Not necessarily, but it is a good practice to do a full discharge once in a while to keep the batteries in tip top condition.

sehsuan · 13th December 2003

apparently it depends on the charger you're using. i'm using maha for a good reason.

Barrios · 13th December 2003

I'm using two Mahas, with and without the discharge function.

wacko · 14th December 2003

answer is no actually. Ni-MH suffers little from the memory effect (the name of the phenomenon you are afraid of), which is more applicable to Ni-Cd batteries. In fact you should limit your discharging/reconditioning of Ni-MH batteries because of their somewhat limited charge cycles. Perhaps you can do it once a month, depending on usage, if you are really paranoid about memory effect.

fremen · 18th December 2003

Apparently not.. Agree with wacko, in fact the more you do a discharge and recharge you're reducing the limited charge cycles.

Here's a link that explain more,
http://www.dansdata.com/gz011.htm

An extracts from the above link relating to the topic,

Quote:

But they're usually doing unnecessary charge/discharge cycles. Which is bad.

If you flatten a battery before you recharge it - some people flatten their batteries manually, and some chargers do it automatically - you greatly reduce the life of the pack. A given battery pack may last for 500 full cycles, or 2000 partial ones. If you're fully flattening the battery by actually using it, then fair enough. But flattening it as part of the recharging process is goofy.

Caussway · 18th December 2003

I've 2 pcs of Canon NB-4H (one is new). If I recharge the
battery after full usage it charges very quickly (LED
stop blinking) but the when I use it it goes flat in
very short time. I had do a discharge / charge cycle
to make the battery last longer. I'm now worried,
if discharging going to make the battery life shorter
then I'm in trouble. Furthermore this battery is rare.

Any tips guys ?

wacko · 18th December 2003

Originally Posted by Caussway

I've 2 pcs of Canon NB-4H (one is new). If I recharge the
battery after full usage it charges very quickly (LED
stop blinking) but the when I use it it goes flat in
very short time. I had do a discharge / charge cycle
to make the battery last longer. I'm now worried,
if discharging going to make the battery life shorter
then I'm in trouble. Furthermore this battery is rare.

Any tips guys ?

I suspect the charger is not terribly advanced, thus it doesn't utilise a optimum charging logarithm. Why don't you try leaving the battery in the trickle charge mode for 12 hours, and see if you get a better charge (without using the discharge/refresh function).

Caussway · 18th December 2003

Wacko, thanks for your suggestion.

13th December 2003	#1
ndroo Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: www.fuzzyeyeballs.com Posts: 6,720	Charging NiHM Does charging NiMH AA batteries before they are fully discharged reduce their performance/life?

13th December 2003	#2
AReality Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 4,396	yes......... __________________ . The Visual Journalist

18th December 2003	#9
Caussway Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Singapore Posts: 995	Discharging Ni-MH I've 2 pcs of Canon NB-4H (one is new). If I recharge the battery after full usage it charges very quickly (LED stop blinking) but the when I use it it goes flat in very short time. I had do a discharge / charge cycle to make the battery last longer. I'm now worried, if discharging going to make the battery life shorter then I'm in trouble. Furthermore this battery is rare. Any tips guys ?

13th December 2003	#5
sehsuan Deregistered Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 6,674	apparently it depends on the charger you're using. i'm using maha for a good reason.

13th December 2003	#6
Barrios Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 758	I'm using two Mahas, with and without the discharge function.

14th December 2003	#7
wacko Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 440	answer is no actually. Ni-MH suffers little from the memory effect (the name of the phenomenon you are afraid of), which is more applicable to Ni-Cd batteries. In fact you should limit your discharging/reconditioning of Ni-MH batteries because of their somewhat limited charge cycles. Perhaps you can do it once a month, depending on usage, if you are really paranoid about memory effect.