Charging confusion.

[pitbull14218]

So I just bought aturnigy accucel 6 80w charger and I've read the manual, but i still feel stupid.

I'm just trying to charge my glow plug ignitors.

The one is a Nickel Cadmium 1.2v 1300 mAh battery.

I set the charger to NiCd - Auto charge - current at 1.3A

The charger does the battery check, then goes into charging and I notice the voltage status at the top going higher than 1.2 Colts which worries me that I'm gonna blow it up.

Is this a concern, am I stupid?

I have mainly NiCd and NiMH batteries, I'm trying to not ruin them.

 

[Certified Mike]

While I am not sure about the nicads, Bing chargers that I have will run considerably higher than said voltage while charging. A good way to be safe is to make sure your batteries are not getting hot. Warm is ok... Hot is bad!

 

[pitbull14218]

1 of my 3 ignitors has a Walgreens size C Supercell UltraAlkaline battery in it.... I didn't realize and I know I've put it on the normal crappy chargers the ignitors come with.

But curious if my new charger can charge this battery or not?

 

[Certified Mike]

NEVER recharge an alkaline battery.

 

[WVNed]

Boom

 

[Prophet216]

Your battery very well may show 1.4 fully charged and drop to 1.2 and hold for a long time under use. Just go with the touch method. Shouldn't feel hotter than a warm bath, at that point your full and safe. Hotter and your burning up the life of your bat.

 

[cbaker65]

In my day of charging batteries ,a charger will put out at least 1 to 2 volts more for push!

 

[pitbull14218]

Your battery very well may show 1.4 fully charged and drop to 1.2 and hold for a long time under use. Just go with the touch method. Shouldn't feel hotter than a warm bath, at that point your full and safe. Hotter and your burning up the life of your bat.

Well I've had it charging in,Auto mode at 1.3 amps, it seems to go up and down in current like modulating to 1.3amps max. Currently it shows 1.53 Colts and 840 ma it put into the battery, been charging for 50minutes.

 

[Prophet216]

I wouldn't charge a 1300 at 1.3 more like .5 and its full if its at 1.5 stop before its to late

 

[pitbull14218]

I wouldn't charge a 1300 at 1.3 more like .5 and its full if its at 1.5 stop before its to late

I thought the charger is supposed,to detect when it's fully charged and stop?

I just stopped it and it said it out around 1850ma into it. It never got hot, just warm.

 

[Prophet216]

The battery heat is probably not getting the outside of the igniter hot because of insulation or thickness of the wall of the igniter. But if you pumped 1800 mah into a 1300 battery, the batt might of taken 1450 or so, the rest is just being turned into heat and killing.your battery. My hot shot 2 super has a 5000 mah battery and it never gets hot when charging cuz of the thickness of the igniter. When its warm its done. If your wanting more juce in your igniter get a hot shot super

 

[pitbull14218]

The battery heat is probably not getting the outside of the igniter hot because of insulation or thickness of the wall of the igniter. But if you pumped 1800 mah into a 1300 battery, the batt might of taken 1450 or so, the rest is just being turned into heat and killing.your battery. My hot shot 2 super has a 5000 mah battery and it never gets hot when charging cuz of the thickness of the igniter. When its warm its done. If your wanting more juce in your igniter get a hot shot super

The outside of the ignitor is the red aluminum case, the battery is removeable and everything I have is old so I figured what better way to see how the charger works then to leave it in Auto and pray lol, figured if I blow up the battery it shouldn't be too expensive. But I'll try it tomorrow to make sure it still works.


I then put my last changeable ignitor on the charger, which is just what you have, a hot shots 2(this one is old though, white with red lettering). I looked it up online and it said it's 1500ma?

Well I treated it the same as the other one and left it on Auto but planned to stop it at 1500ma, but the charger stopped itself at like 1000ma... Which both numbers are higher than you said your hot shots 2 was rated for?

Now I'm charging a NiMH 6volt 1600mag hump battery. Charger on NiMH Auto 1.6amps, and it shows voltage status,of 7.26volts, it's at 941ma, 45min on charger so far.


Should I ever use the discharge setting?

 

[Prophet216]

The outside of the ignitor is the red aluminum case, the battery is removeable and everything I have is old so I figured what better way to see how the charger works then to leave it in Auto and pray lol, figured if I blow up the battery it shouldn't be too expensive. But I'll try it tomorrow to make sure it still works.


I then put my last changeable ignitor on the charger, which is just what you have, a hot shots 2(this one is old though, white with red lettering). I looked it up online and it said it's 1500ma?

Well I treated it the same as the other one and left it on Auto but planned to stop it at 1500ma, but the charger stopped itself at like 1000ma... Which both numbers are higher than you said your hot shots 2 was rated for?

Now I'm charging a NiMH 6volt 1600mag hump battery. Charger on NiMH Auto 1.6amps, and it shows voltage status,of 7.26volts, it's at 941ma, 45min on charger so far.


Should I ever use the discharge setting?

Different types of batteries can benefit from different types of cycling, but they also have different tolerances. Some should never be drained all the way, some can, some it erases memory but kills life, some it might bring a bad battery back for a lil longer. Just gotta research the battery in question

 

[ninnon]

Charging it at a low amperage overnight is probably the safest and most effective way of doing it without any risks, once you start speed charging, the battery starts losing life.

 

[pitbull14218]

Isn't charging at 1C not considered fast?

So if it's rated at 1300mah, charge at 1.3 amps?

My last battery I charged was a 6volt minh 1600mah, i forgot about it being on the charger, the charger stopped at 1800mah, the battery was a bit warmer than I'd like, I could hold it still but a little hotter than warm.

I'll test it today maybe.

 

[Certified Mike]

a slow charge is in the lower mah range. Its like the slow charger that you might get with a rtr kit. A wallwort that just had a thin pair of wires and a plug to connect. Good quality chargers usually have a slow charge avail as well... I'm sure you could read your manual and it could tell you more about how to do this. It may just be a question of lowering your output settings.

 

[Prophet216]

Look, look at it like this, you have a bucket, the size of the bucket is the size of your battery. Your hose is your charge rate. To fast and it all splashes out and won't get more than so full (the splashes are heat in this case), to slow and it will take forever to fill. Have to find a balance. Heat kills batteries

 

[Certified Mike]

Def don't want to kick the bucket! @Prophet216 's analogy works well. You HAVE to stay on top of battery heat. Also, since I don't think it's been mentioned... If you do Go to charge any lipos... A lipo charging bag is not an option, it is a necessity!!! This is no joke not a suggestion. Just so you know.

 

[pitbull14218]

Look, look at it like this, you have a bucket, the size of the bucket is the size of your battery. Your hose is your charge rate. To fast and it all splashes out and won't get more than so full (the splashes are heat in this case), to slow and it will take forever to fill. Have to find a balance. Heat kills batteries

Now some of these batteries haven't been charged in years, definitely the ignitors I only charged them until they got the Engine running. So not sure if they ever got fully charged.

Main thing I'm learning here is the charger doesn't seem to stop before the battery is fully charged... It likes to keep going.

Now each time I've charged the batteries in auto mode, which I thought it means it stops when they're full. So not sure why it didn't stop.

In auto mode it does usually modulates the charge rate up and down from 0- to what I set the rate to, so it never goes faster but does go slower at Times.

The battery meter setting only shows voltage which jobs sucks because that doesn't tell me if it's fully charged right?

 

[Certified Mike]

If the amperage did show, it would likely only show the charger output... In sure there are other chargers out there that can tell you what your battery can put out, but it doesn't sound like yours is so capable. The voltage without an amperage output reading doesn't tell you very much... Are you sure there is no way to toggle thru the screen readout?

What I'm trying to get at is that 3v @ 1000mah is a pretty low output... To touch those bare wires would likely not even cause as jolt...(WHICH I AM NOT RECOMMENDING NOR SUGGESTING IN ANY WAY!!!) 3v at 1000 amps would likely kill you... See what I am saying?

To put it into @Prophet216. 's analogy, it's the difference between filling the bucket with a garden hose or with a fire hose.

Auto-charge current limit: When charging NiCd or NiMH at
‘AUTO’current mode, you can set the upper limit of change current
to avoid from high current charging. This is very useful when charg-
ing the low impedance and small capacity NiMH battery in
“AUTO’mode.
Capacity limit: The changing capacity always calculated by
multiple of the charging current and time. If the charging capacity
exceeds the limit the process will be terminated automatically when
you set the maximum value.
Temperature limit(*): The temperature of the battery on charging will
rise by its internal chemical reaction. If you set the limit of tempera-
ture the process will be expired forcibly when the limit has reached.
Processing time limit: you can also restrain the maximum process
time to prevent from any possible defect.
Input power monitor: To protect the car battery using as input power
from being damaged the voltage of it always monitored. If it dorps
below the lower limit the process will be ended automatically.
Automatic cooling fan: The electric cooling fan comes into action
automatically only when the internal temperature of the unit is
raised.
The above text is from your manual for that charger. This charger is capable of all sorts of settings. Rather than trying to explain what amperage and voltage is... Why don't you ask about what parts of using the charger are confusing you? I think may be I and some other ppl here could help you better that way.

Btw, don't feel bad about not understanding all of this. The manual appears to be translated from some other language. Although not as bad as many I have read, there is much to be desired.