Thread: Makita Battery

Slow charge for 24 hours to bring all the cells to an equal charge level....note this is a slow charge, which you won't get if you are using an automatic charger.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a...ased_batteries

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Slow charge for 24 hours to bring all the cells to an equal charge level....note this is a slow charge, which you won't get if you are using an automatic charger.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a...ased_batteries

So the current battery charger won't do this?
TT

G'Day TT,
The batteries are NiCd's and from what I understand you'll have to watch you don't either overcharge them if the charger doesn't do it for you plus don't short charges on them as that shortens the life... cheers, crowie

Ok, think I got it. Thanks gents.

TT

The chargers for that series of batteries that I have seen have been smart chargers, i.e they will monitor the battery condition, fast charge them to fully charged, then switch to a very low trickle charge to counter their slow self discharge rate and keep them fully topped off.
If in doubt, post a pic of the charger as well to confirm. Definite battery killers are heat due to overcharging, or charging/discharging at higher rates than they are happy to accept.
If the batteries are aftermarket the may be packed with NiCad cells or NiMH cells which are very similar but have better capacity. NiCad tend to develop a memory if you regularly partially discharge to the same level and recharge, ultimately they will consider the capacity you are using as their total capacity, hence the previous warning about not recharging when partially discharged. NiMH don't have this issue, but can have other minor issues.