Can You Use Any Nimh Batteries With Any Nimh Charger?

[quadomatic]

I have a Rayovac NiMH battery charger, but I don't know where the batteries that came with it are, or what the mAH of the batteries was, as I lost the batteries that came with it.

But, I found these Duracell 2700 mAH batteries:

http://www.target.com/Duracell-Rechargeabl...mp;frombrowse=1

Would it be alright for me to use these batteries in the charger I already have? Would they charge alright?

 

[TyBO!]

Yes. They would charge.

 

[quadomatic]

Apparently this isn't a smart charger, so it just charges for I think 8 hours and then stops...

Do I have to worry about the batteries becoming overcharged/undercharged?

 

[Tobriand]

Well... if it's an 8 hour charger, then probably the batteries would come out as undercharged. However, 8 hours is a fair while - I'd consider it slow, which would mean it's probably (I'd think) not going to do them much - if any - harm to be charged after they've reached capacity.

If you can find the current it's charging at, you can work out how long it'd take anyway. I.e. if it's charging at 0.5a then it'd take 5 and a half hours for a battery to charge; if that's divided down between two cells, then call it 11 hours; if it has a separate channel for each, it should be the same.

But yes, probably 1 charge isn't going to be enough...

 

[quadomatic]

Well... if it's an 8 hour charger, then probably the batteries would come out as undercharged. However, 8 hours is a fair while - I'd consider it slow, which would mean it's probably (I'd think) not going to do them much - if any - harm to be charged after they've reached capacity.

If you can find the current it's charging at, you can work out how long it'd take anyway. I.e. if it's charging at 0.5a then it'd take 5 and a half hours for a battery to charge; if that's divided down between two cells, then call it 11 hours; if it has a separate channel for each, it should be the same.

But yes, probably 1 charge isn't going to be enough...

Hmmm...I bought 2650 mAH Duracell batteries. My charger says it charges 2 double AA batteries at 170mA (3V DC 170 mA). So, I'm guessing it would take 15 and a half hours to charge 2 of them fully. To charge 4 of them, then I think it would take 31 hours.

EDIT: Wait...the battery is labeled as such:

Duracell
Rechargeable 2650 mAH
AA/HR6/DC1500 NiMH/1.2V
Standard charge 270 mA for 16h

So, using math, if 270mA takes 16 hours, and my charger is 170ma, then wouldn't it take 25 hours to charge? Or is my first idea of 15 1/2 hours correct?

 

[kfuse]

you may just have to go with a better charger...

I really doubt you want to be waiting longer than 8+ for batteries to charge...(thats considering if you let them charge while your sleep)

to be realistic I doubt you'd want to wait any longer than 4+ hours...

 

[bacteria]

I have some of these batteries too (and Fujicell, Sony, Uniross, Ansmann, BTY).

Yes, any NiMH charger will recharge any NiMH batteries. Yes, your calculations are probably about right; you certainly need to leave these batteries in for a few hours or they aren't charged properly and don't last long.