A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

I have a problem with my rechargeable batteries. When I go to charge four AA batteries after they have sat for a month, one refuses to charge. It does not matter which position in the charger or if I try to charge it by its self, it won't charge, just flashes red. My question is: is there a way to fool the charger into charging the battery or can I fully discharge the battery and then charge it? In the last 3 months I have "lost" 7 batteries.

Nikon1201

I tried the rechargeable and had the same problem. Now I just fresh AA and always carry an extra set .

Rongnongno Loc: FL

You might want to contact the manufacturer. I do not know anyone can help other than try to give you 'suggestions' you likely have tried already.

Each (good charger) has a discharge mode before recharging. That is a possible issue if your charger does not have that but yet again, only the manufacturer can help.

(Edit: Some call that 'calibration')

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

How old are the batteries? Are they brand name?
The charger does not like them as it is detecting some kind of problem with them.
If they are indeed bad batteries, I think you would not want to force a charge.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

There are, of course, different quality batteries and different quality chargers.
When I started using rechargeable AA cells I got a package of 4 and a charger included. After a while the batteries seemed to not charge well. It turns out that the cheap recharger would charge two batteries in series. When one battery was fully charged the voltage would increase and stop the charging whether or not the other battery was charged.

Eventually I got a good charger that had 8 charging positions, but charged each battery individually. The batteries worked much better after that.

I also bought some good quality Eneloop batteries. They cost a bit more but only about 20%. Not a bank breaker. The Eneloop batteries hold a charge longer. I can let them sit for a few months and still get good performance out of them. The old rechargeables needed to be recharged after a week or two. I carry 3-4 sets with me in my bag.

The Eneloop batteries are not really expensive and I think it would be best to replace one that showed problems rather than try to charge it and wind up with a poorly performing battery when you need it. In 6 years I've only replaced one AA cell.

A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

Thanks for the suggestions. I used Eveready's with the Eveready charger for a couple years and used Kodak brand some but have had the same problem with them all.

A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

Thanks for the comments, I had not heard of Eneloop batteries. I will check out the prices etc. and see if it makes sense for me as I no longer have my studio business. I guess I just wanted to gripe about things dying off after I expected them to last 50-100 reuses.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Your problem may or may not be the charger. You first need to determine where the problem lies; charger or battery.

First, let's get our terminology straight for clarity. A "battery" is properly defined as a collection of connected "cells", whether they are connected in series or parallel. A "cell" is an individual unit. What people call batteries are actually properly called cells.

What kind of rechargeable cells are they? I don't mean brand name. I mean are they nicads, lithium ion, etc. There are differences in terms of how different types act when charging and discharging. A nicad for example, has a memory and can discharge to the point that they reverse polarity. In such a case, the polarity can be corrected by applying a high voltage/current for a few seconds in the forward direction and than a normal charge once the polarity is corrected. Cells that have been rejuvenated in that manner will have a very limited life span after that and they will exhibit a higher discharge rate from fully charged compared to other battery cells.

Regardless of cell type, it is important that a battery is treated at a single unit at all times. I.e., if your camera uses four cells, keep the four cells together as a set and do not mix cells with other sets. If a cell fails, replace the entire battery (all four cells in this example). If you do not, the one bad cell will load the three good cells and in short order you will have four failed cells.

After the first cell failed, DID YOU JUST ADD A NEW CELL to the remaining three cells or did you replace all four cells, as you should have, and started with a new battery from which you had a second cell fail? This is an important question because if you simply replaced a single cell, the cell you replace may have already damaged other cells in the battery. When you replaced the single failed cell in the battery, one of the three original cells in the battery may have caused the second failure and so on.

Joe Blow

To add, some types of batteries (cells) have a chip in them that limits overcharging. If this chip goes bad it won't allow the battery (cell) to charge at all.

As pointed out, this may damage the other cells being charged.

And you made a very good summation.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

You have to power cycle batteries from a full discharge to recharge and use them. If they sit for a month or so, you might be better off with regular NiCad AAs.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

It depends on the charger, (some can bring dead batteries back to life), In your case, I would just toss the bad one!

MDI Mainer

I had the same problems, which led me to throw out my AA rechargeables as well as the charger! These were Energizer products.

jcboy3

That is unusual, but it sounds like you might have a bad or poor quality charger. Even poor quality batteries should not have a failure rate that bad.

I suggest you invest in a better quality charger. I use MAHA chargers, and I recommend them. I use a MAHA 4-cell charger MH-C401fs with car adapter when I travel, and the MAHA 8-cell charger MH-C800S at home (sometimes both). They are good for fast or slow charging; I nearly always use slow charging. If you are going to be using a lot of rechargeable batteries, then I also recommend the MH-C9000 for periodic reconditioning. It only does 4, but it is useful for bringing older batteries back to life. Usually that is an overnight process.

If the batteries fail to charge with a good charger, then you need to replace them. Get better quality batteries by Powerex or Eneloop (I use Powerex Imedion, have had some since 2012 and they are still good). I use them a lot, and I use a lot of them. I do a lot of portraits with off-camera flash (3-4 flashes), and I shoot a lot of events (1-2 flashes), and shoot around 500 shots each time. I keep them in numbered sets, and rotate through them. When one of the batteries in a set starts taking longer to charge, I recondition the entire set.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

The answer is Eneloops and a good charger. Never had one fail.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.