Rechargeable batteries

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rayonline

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#113948 2-Feb-2013 11:50

In 2006 on the net was pretty hot with the Sanyo industrial batteries. I got it from ripvan100.com, not sure if they were dodgy or what. I got a LaCrosse BC-900 charger with the digital panel read out as well.

The NZ purchased batteries and the LaCrosse free ones (AA) are still doing very good. The Sanyo Industrial ones, I set the charger to discharge then charge until it says FULL. 3 of the 4 so far in charge says FULL. They each only had 50mah injected. The 4th is still going.

All the batteries are the same age. The NZ ones a bit newer, ie Energizers, GP. The LaCrosse were bought with the Sanyo at the same day online (shipped here together). Back in 2006 when I went overseas with my Garmin GPS which takes AA I used the Sanyo yeah .. it would go into battery saving mode after 2 or so hours. Generally the Garmin should last for a day or two.

The other issue is that with one of the AAA LaCrosse battery it refuses to charge on my other speed charger, on the top of the battery there is like 3mm that the color is a bit darker. One or two others have that as well but still charge but a lot less like 1 or 2mm. Is that indicating the battery is going bad?

Thanks for your help.

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#754753 2-Feb-2013 12:10

I've had good results with Sanyo batteries too, but they all have a lifespan of several hundred cycles, we're in 2013 now so I think 7 years is pretty good innings :)

xpd

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#754790 2-Feb-2013 15:28

Ive got some Sanyo Eneloops and theyve been going strong so far (approx a year IIRC) :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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rayonline

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#754884 2-Feb-2013 21:39

I'm still not sure if they are dodgy. These Sanyo don't have labels on them, they are just green colour with some dot matrix words typed on them, were told they were industrial so they don't have the consumer label. Not even the word Sanyo.

The first year I didn't use them much, thought I use them in my Nikon external flash but I never got into them too much, LOL. Probably about in a year's time, I was supicious, so I did a discharge and charge but it still gave 2000mah injected but it never quite hold a charge, it would like deplete itself sitting there in just 2 or 3 weeks. Now of the 12, one is still charging at 1443mah, one another at 1010mah, but the 10 others were under 100mah.

dontpanic42

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#754904 2-Feb-2013 22:26

Using the charge that went in to a battery is never a good way of determining capacity, as there are always losses associated with charging (heat etc). So what you put in to the battery, will not actually be the capacity of the battery.
The only way to accurately determine the capacity is to discharge the battery fully, charge it, and then discharge it once again.

The mAh that is discharged from the battery the second time round is what the capacity of the battery is.

You mentioned there was some discolouration on the end of one of the batteries. That's also not a great sign. It usually means some of the battery contents has leaked on to the terminal. Probably best to stop using that cell.

rayonline

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#754907 2-Feb-2013 22:34

Thanks, the charger has a repeat charge/discharge cycle until there is no change. I'll use that and see what they are up to ... But yeah .. they never quite held a charge. They lasted for 2hr in my Garmin handheld GPS. They just buggered up as I was walking in the city overseas in my bag unattended. It was from others as well, digital cameras, xbox controllers. They just noticed it overtime, a significant difference compared to the Energizers he bought and used.

Edit - I may need to compare them from real world usage. Don't think the charger measures the mah thru discharging, it's thru charging. But 100mah is quite small right? One of them was actually 17.

dontpanic42

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#754917 3-Feb-2013 00:35

I've had one of these battery chargers/analysers for a while now.
http://www.recharged.co.nz/mh-c9000-wizardone-charger-analyzer-1

Pretty nice piece of kit.
Gives you the battery capacity from the discharge cycle.

Has heaps of different modes. One mode (Break-in mode) lets you attempt to recover batteries that are otherwise pretty "had it". It puts 10% of the rated mAh capacity into the battery for 16 hours, discharges them completely to get a capacity rating, then charges them back to full again.
Seems to work well. I doesn't work for cells that are completely past their best... and in that case it will recognise the battery is not worth persevering with and tell you so.

richms

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#754919 3-Feb-2013 00:51

I think you were conned and sold bottom of the barrel generic cells as these "industrial" ones. What you are seeing is what I have seen on the cheap nimh's I have bought that were actual nimh. The fake ones that are really nicd are still plodding along delivering 20-30% of the label rating.

Richard rich.ms

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Goosey

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#754941 3-Feb-2013 09:11

insane: I've had good results with Sanyo batteries too, but they all have a lifespan of several hundred cycles, we're in 2013 now so I think 7 years is pretty good innings :)

Agree... the batteries are 6 years old !
Most batteries these days have an expiry date and the rechargables usually have a the number of charge cycles printed on the packet before they are expected to go kaput.

IMHO, I get more bang for buck buying a superduper pack of DSE alkalines vs mucking about carrying charging equipment and waiting / paying for bateries to be charged !

KennyM

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#755035 3-Feb-2013 12:33

dontpanic42: I've had one of these battery chargers/analysers for a while now.
http://www.recharged.co.nz/mh-c9000-wizardone-charger-analyzer-1

That looks interesting.
Ive just got a energizer charger and 8 energizer rechargables for my external flash....But that conditioning option might be worth looking into...and the fact it can see weather a battery is really dead.
Thanks for linking.

I agree with the above comment. I would be stoked if my batteries lasted 6/7years, but I dont expect them too.
The non-rechargable energizer batteries I got last year exp in 2016. So 4/5 years im guessing. Of course im not sure how old of stock they were when I got them.

richms

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#755038 3-Feb-2013 12:41

I got a la crosse off ebay. the figures for my dirt cheap cells are interesting. since matching them up the higher capacity ones are usable in torches etc. since they are nicd they dont discharge _too_ fast on their own.

Richard rich.ms

rayonline

1734 posts

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#755046 3-Feb-2013 13:11

Gooseybhai:
insane: I've had good results with Sanyo batteries too, but they all have a lifespan of several hundred cycles, we're in 2013 now so I think 7 years is pretty good innings :)

Agree... the batteries are 6 years old !
Most batteries these days have an expiry date and the rechargables usually have a the number of charge cycles printed on the packet before they are expected to go kaput.

IMHO, I get more bang for buck buying a superduper pack of DSE alkalines vs mucking about carrying charging equipment and waiting / paying for bateries to be charged !

I've never got a decent use of them since day 1. I haven't touched these batteries in at least 3 or 4yrs. I did some testing with the la crosse charger out of interest. I usually use the Lightning Pack 4000N speed charger.

Since day 1, after the batteries are fully charged, it would discharge most or all of its capacity in 5 days. If I left them in the shelf for a week, they didn't even power up my flash. If they were used immediately after a charge, they last around 2hrs in the Xbox controller. I think they were a conn.

recharged

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#755053 3-Feb-2013 13:28

dontpanic42: I've had one of these battery chargers/analysers for a while now.
http://www.recharged.co.nz/mh-c9000-wizardone-charger-analyzer-1

Pretty nice piece of kit.
Gives you the battery capacity from the discharge cycle.

Has heaps of different modes. One mode (Break-in mode) lets you attempt to recover batteries that are otherwise pretty "had it". It puts 10% of the rated mAh capacity into the battery for 16 hours, discharges them completely to get a capacity rating, then charges them back to full again.
Seems to work well. I doesn't work for cells that are completely past their best... and in that case it will recognise the battery is not worth persevering with and tell you so.

I have a shed-load of batteries that I've used over the years - Energizer (Ever Ready), GP, Everfast, Phillips, Duracell, Sanyo, BTY, Sony - the list goes on.

The MH-C9000 WizardOne has managed to bring some of them back to life.

With rechargeable batteries, I always plump for the POWEREX or IMEDION LSD - www.recharged.co.nz always have healthy stock at a good price. They are reliable and excellent quality.

I find if you condition or "form" the batteries, they will serve you well too.

rayonline

1734 posts

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#755345 4-Feb-2013 08:46

Oops. Wrong testing method.
When I got the low mah numbers they were with the discharge method. It discharges them - calculates the mah that way of what's left in them, been on shelf so yeah low mah, mah counting stops, then it charges it up for you.

I just used the test method, it charges it up fully then discharges it ... gives a mah rating, counting stops then charges it back up for you. It still gave a high 2300mah.

Rather than relying on what it gives me, I may just compare it to a flash light or a GPS device between these industrial AAs and the Energizer NZ bought ones. Find out until when does it go off.

timmmay

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#755366 4-Feb-2013 09:25

Those have had a good innings, time to replace them. Though my 5 year old PowerEx 2700mah cells are still good at 2600mah or so.

Suggest you get Eneloop batteries, that's all I buy now. I have the Maha C9000 (4 cell) and C801 (8 cell) chargers, the break in and refresh cycles are handy, but break in takes 3 days. Invaluable when you need it though, to revive dead cells. If you're in Wellington you're welcome to drop them in, I'll put them through a cycle for you.

urban

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

#756179 5-Feb-2013 16:53

richms: I think you were conned and sold bottom of the barrel generic cells as these "industrial" ones. What you are seeing is what I have seen on the cheap nimh's I have bought that were actual nimh. The fake ones that are really nicd are still plodding along delivering 20-30% of the label rating.

Yeah I got sucked into buying some of those BTY rechargeable batteries, there were terrible.

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