Page 1 of Battery Bargain ?

I`m not sure if this constitutes a bargain, but here goes....

I`d like to start by saying that `I accept no responsibility for damage or loss by following any of the information below !`

I`m sure many or you like me use rechargeable batteries. Saves loads of money and is nice to the environment. I recently bought a Charger which stated that it recharged Alkaline batteries. I must say I was slightly sceptical, but it does appear to work. Unfortunatley only AA and AAA`s. I thought to myself, I wonder if Alkaline PP3`s could be recharged ? I placed a PP3 Alkaline battery into my STANDARD UniRoss Battery Charger choosing the Metal option and hey presto in 5 hours a fully re-charged Duracell 9V Alkaline battery. Appears to work for AA and AAA`s in the standard charger as well. I dont know if this is safe or just something they dont publicise.
I just thought I would pass this on, if you no longer need to to buy rechargeable replacements for all your alkaline batteries, isnt that a bargain ?

On QVC you can get 104 sony AA batteries for £9.99

There use by date is august next year though...

Probably wrong on the technicalities of this, but recharging a PP3 in a Ni-CAD charger, is inviting the battery & all its nasty corrosive contents to spray about the room when it blows up (from internal pressure build up if I recall correctly).

The alkaline battery charger, probably does not apply a continual charge to those type of batteries.

Will shut up in the event of anyone having hard facts.




A man who doesnt need any more Grecian 2000 :D

I remember a friend showing me a homemade battery charger for dry cell/alkaline batteries. He used instructions from a popular electronics mag.
If I remember right, it uses an alternating current, is very slow and can only be used about 20 times on any given battery as they lose 5% life every recharge.

He never used it much, he said it worried him.

I can remember one of the tv shopping chanels selling chargers for normal batteries.
Sandi

I bought a battery charger once which said it could charge alkaline batteries. It did work but only with batteries which had just run out and you had to use the battery straight way or the battery lost its charge.

It did not work with most of the old batteries I had lying around so I sent it back.

You are quite right that recharging alkaline batteries in a standard Ni-Cd/Ni-MH battery charger is asking for trouble (risk of gas build up and explosion). A dedicated alkaline battery recharger is required to do this safely, but as already pointed out these have limitations as to their effectiveness. They DO work, but they will not recharge `dead` or even partially `dead` batteries. You need to recharge the batteries before they have lost too much life, which frankly takes a bit of discipline if you`re going to get your money back on the cost of the charger. Also note that each battery will only recharge up to about 10 times. Despite these shortcomings, I still use mine, especially with the kids toys where I would not risk using Ni-MH batteries for safety reasons.

Other than for things like kids toys, a few sets of Ni-MH batteries and an `intelligent` charger for them is the best way to go. Check out 7day shop for some good prices on these.

You wouldn`t risk NiMH batteries in kids` toys for safety reasons? What are the issues with them?

I`ve just been pricing up some rechargables for their gadgets and I`m now having second thoughts.. :/

I wouldn`t worry about it Gaffski. I`ve been using rechargables for years in my kids toys, first NiCDs then NiMH in recent years since they became better priced. They`re probably more leakproof than normal batteries, and really just make sure your kids don`t put them in their mouth (change the batteries for them). I`ve never had a problem with them in all the years I`ve used them.

Nowadays go for NiMH, they`re far superior to NiCD and similarly priced nowadays. Go for the highest mAH size you can, as the more milliamp/hours it`s rated at the longer they`ll last between charges. There`s also no memory effect with NiMH like with NiCD so can recharge then whenever, although I always try to flatten them before charging if I can, just as best practice. If you have high drain otems such as digital cameras, they`re a boon for them too. :)

*edit*
I should say, it depends what you`re using them in as to what type of battery to use. If it`s a high drain item like radio controlled cars, motorised toys etc then use rechargable. If it`s something else with no moving parts, then use alkaline, as they`ll last longer.

Rechargables are good for high drain items, but they lose their charge over time even when stored, much quicker than an alkaline will when not in use. So for things that don`t take much power use alkaline so they last longer over time.

The motto with rechargables is charge them and use them more or less straight away, and store then flat if you`ve used them, don`t recharge, then store away for long or they will need recharging when you go back to use them later on (talking weeks here).

This item was edited on Friday, 28th January 2005, 15:41

Cool.

In that case, there`s 4xAA nimh 2300s for £6.97 delivered at memoryforless.co.uk ;)

This item was edited on Saturday, 29th January 2005, 00:14