LarryH57

Hi Folks,

Does it matter if I accidentally over charge my standard HL '1700' battery by forgetting to turn off the charger?

The FAQs on this site give the charging time calculations which for my battery and my charger should be on for 3 hrs 55 minutes. But what happens if the battery is charged say 30 minutes more or perhaps all night if I did forget to turn it off?

Afterwhat time over the proper charge time does it get serious!

johnmar78

ok, try to run see if the battery still work.

I have an automatic charger and discharger. Normally I set at 4 Amps, that means for a 3000amps battery should takes around 1 hour to charge up. and when battery is fully charged, you can feel the warmth on the battery.
I hope tis helps..

Richard L.

My Feedback: (24)

Overcharging can destroy a cell's chemistry. I overcharged a battery pack for my cordless drill once, and now that battery pack can only hold a charge for a short amount of time. It's not good to let the battery pack get hot during charging.

wackywheelz

I agree. A Year ago I bought a microchip-controlled "1-hour fast charger" and its near-killed my 2000-2400mah NiMh batteries, they get warm during charge, and now only last probably 1/4 of the time they did when new (and charged with 24-hour charger)

Almighty

Roughly reversing your calculations, I approximate your charger output to be approx. 550-600mA.

A 30-minute overcharge will not necessarily do much damage.. provided the battery does not overheat. Repeatedly doing this, however, will lead to progressively less and less performance. To say the least, overcharging leads to hydrolysis of the electrolyte.. turning liquid into gas bubbles, increased internal cell pressure, venting.. and consequent loss of storage/discharge capacity. Leaving the battery in prolonged charging may quite possibly dry up your cells.. or overheat them.. and/or promote crystal formation (the physical form of "memory").

ah64

Hence the reason I charge mine on 1 amp even though I run 3600 Mah Slower the better I see it. But if the pack does go belly up on you you can get 1800 Mah packs pretty cheap.......Better than Lipo prices....

killick64

Conversely-- if you charge up the battery and then aren't able to run your tank for a while, how long is the charge "good" for?

Paul McD.

wackywheelz

I pulled my 1/12 Abrams out after 6 months+ in storage, and it ran fine

heavyaslead

Really depends on the charger. If its a dumb charger it could overcharge and damage cells.

Most chargers have some kind of detector by which it switches from fast to trickle charge once the battery capacity is obtained.

Some chargers are programmable for battery types and times out automatically, preventing overcharging.

123Splat

Killick,

That depends upon the individual battery.

An 'ideal' battery (an imaginary perfect voltaic stack) would hold a charge indefinitely with the poles open.
Since there aint nothin' perfect,, a real battery will exhibit something called 'leakage' (no, not draining the electrolyte).
Leakage is the internal passage of electrons from one pole to the other. The concentration of available electrons on the anode side (+), instead of going through a load to produce usefull work, migrate internally to the cathode side when the poles are open (battery unplugged). It is the insulating capacity of the dilectric between the cells which determines the rate of electron migration and thus the 'shelf life' of the charged battery (both rechargables and non-rechargables). Characteristic usually gets worse as the cell(s) get older (more use). Thus the batteries wear out.

Same thing (to a degree) occurrs in other electronic components. Particularly Capacitors, some seem to hold a charge forever (occassionally creating a dangerous situation) and some loose charge as soon as supplu voltage is removed.

Bottom line: a New, good quality, battery pack should hold its charge, un loaded, for a 'long' time. Change "New" and/or "good quality" and you affect "long time". What's is "long", well,,,,, you tell me.

It's kinda like buying a used car. Any deal you are happy with is a good deal.

best,
Splat

Almighty

Quoted from www.buchmann.ca - http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap6-page4.asp

[ul]All batteries exhibit a certain amount of self-discharge; the highest is visible on nickel-based batteries. As a rule, a nickel-based battery discharges 10 to 15 percent of its capacity in the first 24 hours after charge, followed by 10 to 15 percent every month thereafter.

At higher temperatures, the self-discharge on all battery chemistries increases. Typically, the rate doubles with every 10°C (18°F). Large energy losses occur through self-discharge if a battery is left in a hot vehicle. On some older batteries, stored energy may get lost during the course of the day through self-discharge rather than actual use.

The self-discharge of a battery increases with age and usage. For example, a NiMH battery is good for 300 to 400 cycles, whereas a NiCd adequately performs over 1000 cycles before high self-discharge affects the performance of the battery. Once a battery exhibits high self-discharge, no remedy is available to reverse the effect. Factors that accelerate self-discharge on nickel-based batteries are damaged separators (induced by excess crystalline formation, allowing the packs to cook while charging), and high cycle count, which promotes swelling in the cell.
[/ul]

LarryH57

Guys

Even if I charge my battery for the correct period it still gets warm and so does the charger. But hopefully that's normal wheras getting HOT is not

g.horn

Like all things batterys have a life, over charging will kill them. Buy a good charger and I mean A GOOD CHARGER!!! I have the Trition with a thermal probe MRC also makes a good charger. Let the charger do the thinking for you. Batteries cost 30.00 and up!! think about how many packs you have, so spending 125.00 on a charger over the life of your hobbie is not such a big deal ! I've flown planes for years and never had a plane lost over bad batteries, but have always bought good chargers and not used the MFG supplied chargers. Cycle your batterys from time to time, date them when you buy them and throw out packs when they go bad. Cycling will let you know the condition of your batteries and help you play longer. Also remember to cycle your radio pack.

Greg


PS henglong packs are not really good packs. I've had 4 none of them had the MAH stated on the pack.

johnmar78

I think thats normal. My charger has manual settings for "discharge" before goes to charge mode-automatically. Once its charged up, the charger will "beep" to remind us. And normally the charged battery is warm......in somecases, if i left too long its rather hot. so far so good.