can anyone explain this?

[DougGass87]

ok, my girls little brothers each got a RC car for christmas and each of them use a 9.6v battery....the chargers that came with BOTH of them put out 12v....i have always thought that that was dangerous, but they came straight out of the box like that

 

[fokai]

maybe it puts out a max of 12 volts? thats what i would think...:???:

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

The packs charge up higher than the rated 1.2 volts per cell. They also burn some voltage off as heat during the charge.

 

[newracer]

When batteries are charged the voltage goes up above 1.2v per cell. If the cells are in good condition they will peak around 1.5v or less. A 9.6v pack is 8 cells so 8*1.5v=12v. If the charger wasn't 12v the pack would not get fully charged.