Battery dead?

[Doodle44]

Hello Everyone,

I have an NiMH 8.4v 3000 mAh battery and off of a full charge, (8 1/2 hours) I can only get a few hundred rounds off before it dies. I know it is a dead battery but I was wondering how it happened... The charger is just a radioshack RC car wall charger. Does this have anything to do with it?

Any help would be appreciated.

[LUTNIT]

Cheap chargers kill batteries. Investing in a good charger (even many with LCD displays aren't good, just fancy crap) will actually save you money in the long run as it drastically improves the life of your batteries. You really do get what you pay for with chargers, a good charger will run you $150-200, a really good charger will run you up to $500, past that there are godlike ones but they don't give much advantage for normal airsoft use.

Most NiMh cells are designed for a 2-4 amp charge rate. Usually 3 amp charging rate is ideal and wont damage your batteries (NiCd are different, don't know anything about em.) You also want to discharge at the highest rate possible, as high as 30A if you can but 10A usually works just fine. Discharging is only when conditioning batteries, you should only do a complete discharge of NiMh batteries once or twice a year to keep the chemicals active, not every use. If a full charge takes 8.5 hours with your current charger its probably a 0.5A one or lower, this is bad. At a charging rate of 3A you should fill your battery to maximum capacity (realistically probably around 2600-2700mAh) in around one hour.

[Lakonian]

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=22

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2728

Good stuff.

[LUTNIT]

The smart charger is only good for battery packs of 3000mAh or lower, or at least the one I have from a year ago is. Maybe they changed the design since then but with mine if the pack is above 3000mAh (even a 3300mAh pack) then it false peaks and only charges it maybe 5% max. I'm switching to all 4200mAh packs since they have newer battery technology so output at a higher amperage and give a noticeably higher rate of fire and deliver much longer battery life so I had to get a really good charger. I use a Duratrax ICE and it plus its power supply (most really good chargers need external power supplies) retails for about $400, snagged em on eBay for ~$300.

[Naerah]

How you plug your age's battery on that thing Kos? You just put 2 cables in one of the charger space or theres a plug cable that come with it?

[Lakonian]

pfffft. You don't need that for airsoft. A smart will do just fine in most cases.

Originally Posted by Naerah

How you plug your aeg's battery on that thing Kos? You just put 2 cables in one of the charger space or theres a plug cable that come with it?

You need an adapter >_<;;

[Naerah]

the second charger was quite obvious but the first didnt seem to have a plug for that. I prollly should have tough about an adapter. Was a stupid question.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Greylocks]

Like anything else, you get what you pay for. A cheap charger may save you a few bucks, but you will have to spend more on (expensive) batteries.

This has been discussed often before.