Nicad charger for modern rechargeables?

coffeehound

Can you use an old nicad (Ni-Cd) charger to charge modern rechargeable batteries/cells? I’m guessing not, but thought i’d ask before binning it :money:

Neil_Jones

The difference between Ni-CD and NiMH batteries is the technology used in the batteries. Modern NiMH batteries don't suffer from the "memory" effect that Ni-CD batteries had, so presumably your charger is designed to counteract that.

There should be no real reason I wouldn't have thought why you coudln't use it on NiMH batteries?

forgotmyname

It wont charge NiMh properly. It will shove some charge into them but it wont be the best charge for battery capacity or life.

If they are just cheap batteries then carry on, if they are worth charging properly then chuck it and use a proper charger.

[Deleted User]

Most online sources indicate that you can expect the charger either to undercharge the Nimh batteries or overcharge them (causing damage if not properly supervised for overheating). In practice I've found that much depends on the charger and battery in question.

For example I've got an old Black & Decker Quattro (all in one drill/sander/jigsaw) with original Nicad battery and charger. A few months ago I got an Nimh replacement with a larger capacity than the original battery, carefully selecting one that had been reported to work with the old charger by other Quattro users. Now it may be the case that the battery never achieves its full capacity, but it definitely delivers more working time than the original battery ever did when new, and it's still going great after multiple charge / use cycles. I basically got the use of my Quattro back for only 13 quid. If I'd gone for battery plus modern charger, the cost would have been more like 60-70

So I say research the specific combo that interests you with an open mind and you may find a workable solution.

Nilrem

One thing to watch with old chargers is that depending on type they often didn't automatically cut off/reduce to a trickle charge when the battery is full which can cook the battery.

About the only advantage of some really old chargers is that they can give an initial boost to a badly depleted battery that a mordern charger wouldn't touch otherwise (although this is mainly for car type batteries).

Norman_Castle

With older timed chargers the timers will only work for specific battery capacities. I check the charge times and use a plug in timer which also works well for untimed chargers.

http://convert-to.com/491/recharging-rechargeable-nimh-nicd-batteries.html
This does show different times for ni-cd and ni-mh despite the battery capacity and charger output being the same, not sure why.