In alt.cellular.cingular John Navas <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>
> I got some of the first IC3 units on the market, and they are still
> performing superbly, at least as well as conventional NiMH cells.
>

AA NiMH batteries are cheap enough that you can replace them and still make it
worth it if the life is shortened. I am not sure the scale of the damage, but
it is considered significant. If you go to Thomas Distributing,
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/index.htm, you will find many chargers
available that are built explicity to avoid this affect. I use one, the Maha
C401FS, http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm, which offers the
ability to recondition old batteries, slow and fast charge (not 15 minutes
though) and it does a very good job with getting the most out of my power
cells.

> Temperature actually stays within the safe range for these IC3 NiMH
> cells, due to self-monitoring in each cell.
>

Yes, they made the batteries safe, but they still allow the heat to get high
enough to reduce the life of the battery. It is a tradeoff between minimizing
the charge time or maximizing the usable cell life.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
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