Tips for Battery Charging

What kind of charger to use

• My recommendations.  If you don't already own a charger, see my battery charger recommendations for what charger to get.
• Use a smart charger!  Cheaper chargers can't tell when your battery is full, and either undercharge it (robbing you of runtime) or overcharge it (shortening the capacity and/or cycle life of the battery).  Make sure your charger is a smart charger.  Every charger I recommend is a smart charger.
• NiMH chargers handle NiCds too.  Most chargers made since about 2005 charge both NiMH and NiCd batteries.  But some newer chargers charge only NiMH, not NiCd.
• Old NiCd chargers aren't good for NiMH batteries.  Old NiCd chargers can't tell when to stop charging a NiMH.  Depending on the charger, it'll either undercharge your batteries (so you get short runtime), or overcharge them (shortening the life of the battery).
• Any company's charger will charge any company's battery.  For example, a Panasonic charger will charge a Sony battery and vice-versa.  You have to match only the type of battery (e.g., a NiMH battery with a NiMH charger), but the brand doesn't matter.  I do recommend using a smart charger, though.
• Low Self-Discharge NiMH's don't need a special charger.  Any NiMH charger will charge both regular NiMH batteries and LSD NiMH's.
• NiZn batteries require a special charger.  NiMH and NiCd chargers will not work.  First off, a NiMH/NiCd charger charges at around 1.3-1.6V, while a NiZn charger uses around 1.9V.  Next, the capacity of NiZn's is a lot smaller, and I'm thinking it could be possible for a NiMH charger to try to put too much energy into a NiZn battery, even at a lower charging voltage.  Finally, a NiMH charger might just refuse to charge the NiZn anyway, if it checks for impedence.  (The resistance in NiZn cells is much higher than in NiMh.)
• Alkaline battery chargers are a joke.  You can charge the batteries only a few times, they lose voltage and capacity each cycle, and charged alkalines are prone to leaking.  See my article on problems with charging alkaline batteries

Did you know

You can now repair dead batteries at home and bring them back to 100% of their working condition. Reconditioning old batteries is a great way to help the environment. Read more about repair battery

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