My original Minelab NiMH Battery pack is dying. In light of this, does it make more sense to buy a AA Alkaline rechargeable kit and use the Minelab AA battery pack or is it better to buy another Minelab NiMH battery pack? Just wondering what others have done. How long should the Minelab NiMH battery pack last? The guy I bought the SE off of apparently left the NiMH battery pack plugged into the wall. It only last maybe 4 hours from a full charge.
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Question On Rechargeable Batteries
- Thread starter lloyd0161
- Start date
dewcon4414
Well-known member
Leaving it plugged in isnt an issue with them. Ive had mine since the SE came out..... been several years now and it holds a charge as well as ever. It may be your charger not you batter. Put a multi meter on it after its charged.... you should get 12V. I have ran mine 6 or 7 hours easily several days a week. You may need to fully discharge it on occassion. Ive seem my battery monitor almost gone..... but the powder to the coil is regulated. Its not like machines ive used that after have way you need to go pull another batter. Also......... things that affect battery use are NO headphones and amount of disc or PP you use. But like you said you do have an opiton and you can use rechargables which now days are really powerful..... just ensure you dont over power it as mentioned in the manual.
Dew
Dew
Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
Hey Lloyd,
I finally tossed my original Minelab NiMH pack. I was only able to detect a few hours with it. I tore the pack apart to see if I could replace the batteries but no. I also have two of the alkaline packs. I filled them with high capacity NiMHs several years ago. They were good at first but eventually got to where they wouldn't hold much of a charge and self-discharged rapidly. I have a couple of high end (Maha and Lacrosse) chargers that I tried to use to revive the cells but they were just done, and from what I am reading that is common.
For the last year or so I've switched to Sony Eneloops. They have less capacity than some batteries but they do not self-discharge. I've been pretty amazed. Unless you detect and recharge every day or so they are the way to go. I recently made a trip to MN. I did lots of detecting and never had to recharge even my first pack. You will find that much of your pack running down is from self-discharge more than it is from detecting.
Chris
I finally tossed my original Minelab NiMH pack. I was only able to detect a few hours with it. I tore the pack apart to see if I could replace the batteries but no. I also have two of the alkaline packs. I filled them with high capacity NiMHs several years ago. They were good at first but eventually got to where they wouldn't hold much of a charge and self-discharged rapidly. I have a couple of high end (Maha and Lacrosse) chargers that I tried to use to revive the cells but they were just done, and from what I am reading that is common.
For the last year or so I've switched to Sony Eneloops. They have less capacity than some batteries but they do not self-discharge. I've been pretty amazed. Unless you detect and recharge every day or so they are the way to go. I recently made a trip to MN. I did lots of detecting and never had to recharge even my first pack. You will find that much of your pack running down is from self-discharge more than it is from detecting.
Chris
Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
But you get hundreds of uses out of them. Pretty much a no-brainer.
scott (wi)
New member
I've worked it hard all these years and it still gives me at least 6-8 hours of hunting, maybe more, I don't really check it, prefering to charge before it dies. I left it in the wall charger a couple times for more than 24 hours and never noticed any difference. Very satisfied with it. If it crapped out I would buy a new NIMH.