At work we put these Eneloop AA's (2nd generation purchased in 2012) into our Maha MD-C204f to charge and would rarely use them and then put them back, that was two years ago . I put them in the Maha 9000 today and two of them would not even register. I put them in my Energizer 15 minute charger (this one will not charge marginal cells) and it refused to charge any of them. It looks like long term trickle charging is not a good idea with these. The charger also is not charging the cells individually but in pairs. At home I use some Panasonic bq-390 chargers (individual charging) and only charge my Eneloops when needed (never trickle charging) and I got over 6 years of use out of my 1st generation Eneloops. Anyone studied long term trickle charging Eneloops besides me?
Eneloop long term trickle charging.....not a good idea.
- Thread starter Robstorch
- Start date
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SilverFox
Flashaholic
Hello Robstorch,
When Eneloop cells first came out the only ones that quickly failed were those that were left on the charger and trickle charged. I use a hobby charger for battery packs and it has a "forming" charge that is designed to pulse a charge over a long period of time to bring all the cells into balance. I had a 9 cell battery pack and after charging thought I would leave it forming for a day. It was around 8 hours later that I could hear something going on and realized that the cells were just to the point where they were starting to vent. I shut the charger down. Fortunately I caught the problem before major damage was done and the battery pack still works fine. I have altered my charging procedure and now only use the forming charge for 2 hours or so.
In addition I have had several friends complain that the Eneloop cells I had highly recommended had failed for them. When I pressed for more information I discovered that they were "storing" the cells in the charger and let them trickle charge for weeks at a time.
Bottom line is when LSD cells have finished charging, remove them from the charger.
Tom
When Eneloop cells first came out the only ones that quickly failed were those that were left on the charger and trickle charged. I use a hobby charger for battery packs and it has a "forming" charge that is designed to pulse a charge over a long period of time to bring all the cells into balance. I had a 9 cell battery pack and after charging thought I would leave it forming for a day. It was around 8 hours later that I could hear something going on and realized that the cells were just to the point where they were starting to vent. I shut the charger down. Fortunately I caught the problem before major damage was done and the battery pack still works fine. I have altered my charging procedure and now only use the forming charge for 2 hours or so.
In addition I have had several friends complain that the Eneloop cells I had highly recommended had failed for them. When I pressed for more information I discovered that they were "storing" the cells in the charger and let them trickle charge for weeks at a time.
Bottom line is when LSD cells have finished charging, remove them from the charger.
Tom
mcnair55
Flashlight Enthusiast
I use any charger that comes to hand never trickle or fast charge(hour type) and my cells Eneloop or type are perfectly good after 9 years of service in the oldest case.Rarely have i had to throw out cells and i add new when i get a deal or see a bargain.
9 years? That's pretty good, considering Eneloops have only been around just over 8 years. Of course, since you've been trolling around for the past few days, you probably knew that.
StorminMatt
Flashlight Enthusiast
I always thought it was commonly known that trickle charging is bad for NiMH.
Maybe that is why nobody mentions it to the newbies or writes about it?
