Touch - Rechargable Batteries

[DaftnDirect]

Just picked up these for testing. As per the photo they're Energizer Accu Recharge Pro NiMH.

Now remember when you buy rechargeables, they're not all created equal. They range in capacity from around 1300mAh up to 2900mAh so decide whether you want quicker charging or longer lasting. There are also NiCD still out there which you don't want as they're small capacity and develop a memory quite quickly.

I plumped for the 2000mAh which take about 4 hrs to fully charge from flat on the supplied charger. They're charging now so when ready, I'll time my play and confirm how many hours of Touching I get out of them.

[YoLolo69]

I know nothing about rechargeable batteries, I'm interested to get your feedback with the Touch. I will invest soon before they arrive to be ready. My main concern is : can we charge 4 of them E.g. during a night, then disconnect the charger, use 2 for the Touch during several hours/days, without needing to charge the second set in between? In other words, does the unused batteries discharge even if not in use, or do we have to always keep them plugged in the charger until we use them?

[Percy1983]

Very true on not all batteries being built equal, I use Panasonic infiniums (upto 2100mAh, minimum 2000mAh).

They main reason I recommend them is they hold there charge really well when not in use which is good if you want a second set charged ready to go. The average Ni-MH battery will self discharge in around 3 months where these will still have 85% after a year of storage.

[DaftnDirect]

NiMH hold their charge very well so no problem keeping a pair fully charged for a week or so. If you're keeping them in storage for long periods though, it's best to discharge them.

If anyone's wondering about lithium polymer batteries, apparently it's best to store them at about 20% charge and occasionally check and recharge if necessary.

[TwoHedWlf]

Percy1983 said:

Very true on not all batteries being built equal, I use Panasonic infiniums (upto 2100mAh, minimum 2000mAh).

They main reason I recommend them is they hold there charge really well when not in use which is good if you want a second set charged ready to go. The average Ni-MH battery will self discharge in around 3 months where these will still have 85% after a year of storage.

Yeah, standard NIMHs are pretty crap for holding a charge, you're looking at something like 25% the first week and maybe 10-15% each week after.  Doesn't matter much in something like a remote that barely uses any power so can run for months and months anyway.

But for anything that needs a reasonable amount of power it's going to be not too far off flat in a few weeks.

Now, low self discharge NIMHs, they're great.  Self discharge is slow enough you can pretty much ignore it.

[cybereality]

For the Eneloops, they can hold charge of 70% for 10 years in storage. So no worries there. I also have the Energizer kit, which I've been using for years and they are still good, and recently bought the Eneloops but haven't tried them yet. Most chargers make you charge 2 batteries at a time (at least the Energizer is like that, and my older one, I forget which brand). The Eneloop charger I think think can charge 1 at a time.

One thing to remember, you CANNOT charge disposable batteries in a charger. I made this mistake a few years back thinking "the batteries are probably all the same and it's some marketing trick to get you to buy rechargables." Boy was I wrong. Was playing Counter-Strike at the time wearing headphones and heard a big bang go off. Was thinking: "Wow, that sounded like a real gun shot. Was that in the game?" Kept playing for a few more minutes and then saw an explosion out the corner of my eye and a battery shoot like a bullet across the room and dent the opposite wall. The charger was burnt fried and covered in battery acid. Luckily no one was hurt. Don't make that mistake.

[DaftnDirect]

Bear in mind though that for low self discharge... you really should discharge them if you know you're going to store them for an extended period.

[LZoltowski]

@DaftnDirect if you can Touch yourself for longer than 4 hours you might need to seek medical advice.

Yeah I go for the higher capacity ones. Wonder how long they hold out.

@cybereality ure such a noob ... glad you didn't hurt yourself, that could have gone very wrong.

[cybereality]

Well by a "few years" I mean it was actually like 10 years ago. Time goes fast.

[DaftnDirect]

@cybereality, my mum made the same mistake with her cordless phone.. the rechargeables had come to the end of their life and bless her she took the initiative and stuck new ones in... luckily they didn't go bang but the leakage took some cleaning up.