Infinium Battery Charging

[jim in bklyn]

I searched the forum and could not come up with a post about charging time for the NiMH batteries. COuld someone tell me approximately how many hours to get a good charge...Thanks Jim

 

[bearkat4160]

With Garrett charger, 5 hours to overnite is best. I use a 15 minute charger. Charges 4 batts in 15 minutes...30 minutes for all the Infiniums batts. Got at Target.

Alan

 

[NM5K]

it will depend on the current capability of the battery, and the rate of charge from the
charger. A "slow" charger charge rate is usually about 1/10 of the AH rating of
the battery. IE: if you used a 2500 mah battery, to properly slow charge you would
want a charge rate of 250 ma for appx 15 hours, plus or minus depending on
the battery condition. The best way to tell a full charge on a hydride battery is to
watch the voltage of the battery. When it gets to a full charge, you will see the
usual "float" voltage, and on the hydrides, with a tad more charging you actually
see a very slight voltage drop. This is how a "smart" hydride charger varies from a
nicad charger in determining full charge. A nicad does not show a voltage drop
when fully charged. They just go by float voltage, and taper the charge when they
see that value.
Course, you can do the math to calculate how long it would take with higher
charge rates.. IE: 500 ma, half of the usual 15 hours, and so on..
A one amp charger would be considered pretty fast, and would take 1/4
the time of the 250 ma slow charge.
Fast charging is handy, but slow charging is better for the batteries. Less
heat build up. But leaving a fully charged cell on a slow charge can cause
the same overheating after a while.
That's why most chargers taper down to a "maintain mode" where the
charge rate is low.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Doesn't your charger have a light that goes on when the batteries are fully charged?

Bill

 

[jim in bklyn]

Willy: I'm using the charger that came with the Infinium and all it is is the plug that goes into the socket and the two leads that snap onto the battery holder. No lights. And this leads to another question, when charging all my other NiMh batteries, they usually get warm but these are cold and that's after 12 hours of charging. I'll just pull the unit off this charger and put the batteries into my regular charger that does 8 batteries at once. Thanks Jim

 

[Uncle Willy]

Send it back to Garrett and they'll send you a new one for free. If your batteries are cold after charging then the charger is faulty. Using your other charger should work.

Bill

 

[NM5K]

Humm. Depends on the batteries and their capacities. If he's using newer batteries with a
higher MAH than the original batteries, that could explain it. But I don't know anything
about the infinity charger ma rating, and what batteries he is using now.
As an example, if the stock batteries were 1000 mah, a normal slow charger rate
would be 100 ma at appx 12-15 hours for a full charge.
But if he changed to say newer 2500 mah batteries, you would have to increase
the charge rate to 250 ma to be able to fully charge the batteries in the same 12-15
hours.
So... If he were using the 100ma charger for the 2500 mah batteries, it would take
much longer to get to full charge. Like 30+ hours.. And yep, after 12 hours they
would still be cold.
That could be one explanation, and the charger would still be quite good.
But like I say, this is just a generic example. He could use that charger, but it
will take quite a while. Just wait until they start feeling a tad warmer than room
temp, and they should be at about full charge.
Course, if he kept them on for hours and hours and it never charges, could be bad.
But a voltmeter could confirm if the charger is out or not. I suspect it is good, but
maybe he is using higher mah rated batteries than the originals. ??

 

[jim in bklyn]

NM: Thanks for the info. The batteries that came with the Infinium are rated 1600 and the batteries I normally use are 2500. I took the original batteries (1600) and put them in my charger overnight and they were fully charged the next morning. I will continue using my charger as I'm comfortable with it. Again, thanks for all the info.Jim