Breaking in Batteries

[tastyfish21]

I just bought a new Intellect 8.4v 4200mAh NiMH battery and I vaguely remember hearing someone talk about having to break in NiMH batteries by charging them full, then discharging, repeat x3. Just wondering if this was true or if there is a less time consuming way of doing it.



-SteveOhh

[Vince]

I've never done that and my batteries work fine, so, YMMV.

[tastyfish21]

Not exactly sure what YMMV is, but thanks. I just wanted to be sure I didn't have to waste the time.

[Vince]

Your mileage may vary.

[-MAD- SARGE]

Careful you dont discharge them too low or you can damage them beyond recovery.

[Kurn]

You might be thinking of NiCad batteries which can benefit from discharging/recharging cycles.

[Airsofter1]

I believe Kurn is correct.  That cycle of discharging is something found on "fuzzy logic" chargers used for nicads.

[Firebert]

I just bought a new Intellect 8.4v 4200mAh NiMH battery and I vaguely remember hearing someone talk about having to break in NiMH batteries by charging them full, then discharging, repeat x3. Just wondering if this was true or if there is a less time consuming way of doing it.



-SteveOhh

While its not really "necessary" to break them in most of the high end Radio Control batteries recommend that you do even on the NiMH.  Once you have the battery broken in, you then don't need to worry about dis-charging it to recharge it as most people will tell you with NiMH.

I personally never have but I also dis-charge them when I'm done and charge them before I use em.

And yes you also do this on LiOn and LiPo batteries.

[Kurn]

I just bought a new Intellect 8.4v 4200mAh NiMH battery and I vaguely remember hearing someone talk about having to break in NiMH batteries by charging them full, then discharging, repeat x3. Just wondering if this was true or if there is a less time consuming way of doing it.



-SteveOhh

While its not really "necessary" to break them in most of the high end Radio Control batteries recommend that you do even on the NiMH.  Once you have the battery broken in, you then don't need to worry about dis-charging it to recharge it as most people will tell you with NiMH.

I personally never have but I also dis-charge them when I'm done and charge them before I use em.

And yes you also do this on LiOn and LiPo batteries.

From what I understand, NiMh are never supposed to be totally discharged.

Care must also be taken during discharge to ensure that one or more cells in a series-connected battery pack, like the common arrangement of four AA cells in series in a digital camera, do not become completely discharged and go into polarity reversal. Cells are never absolutely identical, and inevitably one will be completely discharged before the others. When this happens, the "good" cells will start to "drive" the discharged cell in reverse, which can cause permanent damage to that cell. Some cameras, GPS receivers and PDAs detect the safe end-of-discharge voltage of the series cells and shut themselves down, but devices like flashlights and some toys do not. Once noticeable dimming or slowing of the device is noticed, it should be turned off immediately to avoid polarity reversal. A single cell driving a load won't suffer from polarity reversal, because there are no other cells to reverse-charge it when it becomes discharged.

[SilverLogic]

NIMH should be totally discharged when you got o recharge them.. NIMH and CA are memory batteries so if you dont totally discharge them they will retain the memory and you will get less of a charge and power on the next use .. and so on till the batteries are totally dead. LI_ION are the ones that don't retain a memory .

[-MAD- SARGE]

Logic your thinking of NiCads.  

Trust me NiMHs and Li_IONs if discarged too low can and will cause damage to the cells.  

About storing batteries discharged, when you buy a car battery do they have to charge it up before they put it in?  I've never ran into that, they store most batteries with a charge if they are intended to be used in the near future.  Not discharged.  I know an electrician, uses batteries all the time for critical radio equipment. He's told me before that they store their batteries with a charge becaue all batteries discharge themselves over time.  If they get discharged to low the damage as Kurn posted can occur.

[Firebert]

NiMH batteries dont really care if you discharge them before use and do not build up a memory.  I generally cycle them from time to time by charging them and discharging them several times to get maximum run time out of them.  This comes from my RC Car days.

Lithium batteries should never be run completely dead and don't need to be discharged.  It is VERY bad for them to be run completely dead over and over as well as left on the charger for overly extended periods of time unless your charger turns off when the battery is charged.

Both NiMH and Lithium batteries will slowly discharge over time.  Typically for max use on NiMH you would discharge it and recharge it before use after long storage.  Lithium you can just charge.

[searscr]

Check out this site.  They have quite a bit on battery care and use.  

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... ustom&ID=3