Battery Question

[Dcanoli]

Okay, I'm starting to get a little nervous. Let's see what you guys think.

I had two sets of rechargeable batteries that I bought last year for WDW. One set and their respective charger died. One is still going, but they don't seem to hold their charge for quite as long.

The manufacturer of the batteries and charger that died sent me a check for the them since they did not last even a year.

With that, I took the advice of these boards and bought the Kodak pre-charged batteries.

Can I charge these pre-charged batteries in the charger I already have (seems to have worked), AND how do precharged batteries "work?"

When I opened the package, they only showed up as "half-full" on my camera's lcd window. Is that right?

Do they need to be charged and used several times before they are up to full capacity or is that old school thinking?

Also, my batteries are getting pretty hot in the charger (the older set). Is that normal for them to get so hot while charging?

Sorry for all the questions, but my trip is only 16 days away, and I'm getting nervous. I don't want to be in a park for 14 hours and have all dead batteries!!!

Thanks! Deb

 

[dr_zero]

Frequently asked questions concerning batteries and rechargeable batteries
http://www.battery-faq.com/index.html

The charger I'm kind of iffy on cause if the charger is bad or going bad it wont charge your new batteries properly.

OT a little but I saw a neat trick for leaving batteries on the charger all the time.
You plug your all your chargers into a power strip like your FRS radios cordless screwdriver battery etc then plug the strip into a timer. Then you can have the timer turn on daily or every other day etc and run for a preset amount of time to keep the batteries topped off without being on the charger 24-7.

 

[Dcanoli]

Thanks for the thread. I'll check it out....

...been reading your posts all day....

 

[Groucho]

It's not unusual for the pre-charged (Kodak, Eneloop, whoever) batteries to not show completely full out of the package. They hold a charge for a long time, but do still lose some.

If your batteries are getting noticeably hot, then your charger is probably charging them too quickly. The fancier chargers (Maha, Lacrosse, etc - see Thomas Distributing, just like the batteries) have adjustable charge speeds. Off the top of my head (and I could be wrong), 3 hour charges seem to be about as fast as you can go without damaging battery life.

That being said, the pre-charged/low-discharge batteries can be charged in any ol' NiMH battery charger.

I don't believe that they have any problem with needing a few discharges and recharges to get max life - I think that's more for lithium batteries, instead of NiMHs.