Battery/Charger advice wanted please

[Azarken]

Hi all

I got into airsoft over 5 to 6 years ago now and have taken various breaks and am back again. Back when i first started I bought a Ripmax Propeak 2500 charger (the non varipulse version). It seemed to be recommended by most stores back then and despite the ever running argument of fast vs slow charging the general consensus seemed to be the first time you get a battery slow charge it and use it then after that a fast charge should be fine because its run in. These advice seemed to pan out because my larges and minis that are over 3 years old seem to still work fine and hold a decent charge. With the charger you simply hit the fast charge button, it works out when the battery is full, and then beeps at you and switches to trickle charge. Occasionally the batteries were warm but never hot and never melting down.

Now, I have a gun arriving thats required me to buy a battery pack different to my usual larges and minis. So off I went to a well known online battery shop and ordered two. Hrmm I thought I wonder if theres any new thoughts on how to charge them so I emailed the shop to ask the best way of charging them, and they said

The Optimum charge rate for any NiMH battery is 10% of it's total capacity, so in the case of a 1600mA battery this would be 160mA. NiMH batteries will always benefit from a slow charge as this allows all cells to reach maximum capacity without any of them overheating from overcharging. A reasonable rate to charge them at is about 400mA. We've found that this causes the batteries no harm at all and their life span is pretty much unaffected. Of Course, you can charge them at 1600mA capacity if you wish, although this is not recommended until the batteries have been fully run in. And whilst the batteries will take this fast charge, ultimately it will reduce their battery life. Where a set of batteries charged slowly ever time may last a couple of years, a set that has been fast charged each time are likely to give out in 6 months or less.

Hrmm OK I thought lets look at my pro peak 2500 and see its rate. 130mah for trickle charge and 3.4ah for a fast charge. That seemed way to high so I emailed them back and got this reply.

at 130mA a 1600mAh battery would take about 17 hours to charge. The 3.4A setting is far to aggressive for a 1600mAh battery. I'm actually extremely surprised that a 1600mAh battery would last a few years being charged at that rate, as most we have seen charged at more then 3A have been boiled within 30 minutes.

Now admittedly most of my previous batteries were large 3000-4300 ones but I do have some minis too and they seem no worse off for me fast charging so I was wondering.

1. Is it still considered best practice to trickle charge first time then fast charge after that?
2. Is my pro peak charger actually not putting out 3.4Ah but instead being clever and lowering its rate to match the battery?
3. If the answer to 2 is no and it is actually putting 3.4Ah out, is that safe, and thus the info above from the battery place wrong?
4. Or is the info right and I should just go buy another more adjustable charger?

I find it hard to believe such a widely sold airsoft charger would have a fast charge feature thats dangerous and damaging to the batteries, plus the fact I've fast charged my batteries tons of times on it and never had a issue. I guess I could have been lucky but seems unlikely.

All info gratefully received.

Az

[LtPurcy]

I have the same charger, i dont use it now though for various reasons

 

the charger is on fast charge putting out 3.4 amps, the only computer trickery it has is a delta peak sensitivity processor.

 

Charging nimhs at a fast rate IS NOT damaging, in fact they prefer a higher charge rate than a trickle due to the chemical reaction that takes place, however that doesn't mean you should charge everything at 10 amps or something silly, its all in moderation.

 

I Charged big and small Mah batteries at around 3 amps for a good while, only issue i had was the first few cycles the delta peak sensitivity kicked in too early so wasnt charging fully.

 

In terms of how fast you should charge a batt, look at its nominal voltage and capacity, if its say 6v 1600mah i wouldnt charge that any faster than 1.6amps or "1c" as its called or 1xcapacity

 

hope this makes sense.

 

Id also maybe invest in a charger with a display that can do all chemistry's such as a core uac50