Question on discharging Nimh batteries With turnigy charger

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DanWeidner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2010
Messages
394
I got a turnigy 50W charger / discharger and am confused on discharging for storing.

I have a five cell, nimh 1600mah battery pack and I've read that it should be stored at .9V/cell which is 4.5V for the pack.

When I run discharge, the displayed voltage shows 4.5V (or near there) and stops. When I check the battery pack with the charger's battery meter, it shows 6.34V which agrees with my volt meter. I thought the pack should be at 4.5V.

Is that right or should I send the charger back?

Thanks!
 
Where did you read that they should be stored at .9v/cell? Never heard that.

Been running those packs for years, I don't do anything special but cycle them once a year and they typically go 5+ years before I replace them...
 
Buy a real charger and they'll last way longer than 5 years.
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Better yet, buy a real charger and move on to life batteries.
 
LiFe is the go, much better discharge properties. The turnigy charger you have is fine.
 
The difference in voltage values your seeing is due to the discharge load. When you applying a load to a battery the voltage will drop. If there is no load and the battery voltage will come back up slightly.

Can you check the voltage of each cell to make sure they are all "good"
 
Dan, If you are to discharge to .9 v per cell the total discharge voltage for a 5 cell pack would be 4.5 volts. If you discharge lower than 4.5v for a 5 cell pack you will damage the battery pack. If you are intent on discharging for storage I would discharge to 1.0 volt per cell. That would be 5.0 volts per pack. When you are ready to use the battery be sure to cycle the pack a couple of times to make sure the battery has made it out of storage O.K. If you don't have enough Mah you may have an accident. The Life battery is a better option for our radios now.

Chris
 
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