Can I recharge my NIMH pack before it's completely discharged?

[LowLock]

Just wondering if I can recharge my NIMH battery before it's fully discharged? The crawler gets to a point where it's just not performing well due to the battery getting low, yet there's a little bit left in the battery. So would throwing it on the charger once in a while without completely discharging it first do any damage or shorten it's life?

[forbid89]

Sure you can recharge your battery before it's completely discharged but like with NiCd batteries you do have to worry about some memory effect. The NiMH batteries do have a memory effect but it's not as great as NiCd batteries. Take a look at this article:

http://www.buchmann.ca/Article10-Page1.asp

It explains the memory effect in much greater detail.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by forbid89

Sure you can recharge your battery before it's completely discharged but like with NiCd batteries you do have to worry about some memory effect. The NiMH batteries do have a memory effect but it's not as great as NiCd batteries. Take a look at this article:

http://www.buchmann.ca/Article10-Page1.asp

It explains the memory effect in much greater detail.

+1. I still use NiMH in my 12th carpet car. It is good to run them down once in a while and then charge them back up though.

[AreCee]

Back in the day we would discharge the packs to .9V/cell for storage and then charge just before racing. Most used a discharge tray but some folks just dead shorted the packs (not recommended).

[team3six]

To be of help. I would really suggest going lipo. Now days you can get the chargers and batteries pretty inexpensively.

The effects are much better as well.
better top end, longer run times, and if you buy a good c rating battery. The amount of use you get out if them will increase quite a bit.
and weight is much lighter with lipo.

NiMH is the battery of choice for most RTR packages because they are that cheap.

I understand money may be an issue, but rest assured its a wise long standing investment.

Look into a Racers edge or Venom charger

As far as batteries go, cheapbatterypacks, holmeshobbies, rcbros, hobbyking are to name a few.

[LowLock]

Great info, thanks all. I'm somewhat aware of the memory situation with NI base batteries, but wasn't completely sure. It's just a pain in the rear discharging them as much as possible without a discharger. And yes, team3six, lipos are in the works for holiday gifts, I just wanted to get my crawler up and running on a budget and spend the summer learning my rig.

[Manning]

The memory effect is way, way, over emphasized. Do not worry about it at all. What people blame on "memory effect" is more likely a bad cell in a pack.

Charge, run in vehicle until the performance is not satisfactory, recharge. Repeat.

When the battery no longer performs satisfactorily, go lipo.

[Armistice]

Going to bump this for my question as it's sort of relevent

I have a Dynamite SpeedPack 4500. I ran it for a good hr on my crawler and saw no decrease in performance so assume I had 1/4-1/2 charge on it. I threw it on my charger to decharge for 15mins which, to my surprise, decharged it entirely

I'm on my 3rd 15min charge and I have almost nothing. The numbers are 1-5, and a full batt is about a 4. I have 1/2 after 3 rounds. I use that charger to decharge and have another that will charge. The one I use for charging will beep when a batt is plugged in, but the batt is so low, the charger won't beep

Did I ruin my battery, or will it get to a point and then charge up fine?

[DiggyStyle]

Originally Posted by Manning

The memory effect is way, way, over emphasized. Do not worry about it at all. What people blame on "memory effect" is more likely a bad cell in a pack.

Charge, run in vehicle until the performance is not satisfactory, recharge. Repeat.

When the battery no longer performs satisfactorily, go lipo.

Or just run the pack down in your rig and do a Discharge>Charge cycle when you are ready to recharge it. That way you get the pack down to the minimum before charging.

[Armistice]

How about my question now

EDIT: going on it's 5th round and still nothing.

[Manning]

Do not use the discharge function on the charger. Only discharge the battery in the vehicle by driving it.

Put the battery on the charger in trickle mode, and leave it overnight. It should be fully charged. If it's not, there's something wrong with the battery. Get rid of it at a battery recycle place, and buy lipos.

[Charlie-III]

For NiCD or NiMH, I run them until I can see the performance drop off, then let them cool to ambient temp & recharge.

In 12th/10th pan car carpet racing, I may use a NiCD/NiMH discharger to see time left on the pack, but that is sorta for knowing how my gearing is.
Otherwise, I just run until the performance drops off.

For your pack, trickle charge for now, then try a peak charge and see what happens.

[Armistice]

Nothing happened, and Trickle may not be working correctly on what I have

Talked to guy at HobbyTown, and he said that since I drained my batt to 0, it's done. Bought another. Live and learn

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by Armistice

Nothing happened, and Trickle may not be working correctly on what I have

Talked to guy at HobbyTown, and he said that since I drained my batt to 0, it's done. Bought another. Live and learn

It may only be a cell or 2. You can check each cell voltage with a meter. Nominally they are 1.2 volts, but can be lower & still good.