Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Being a parent I have about 30 or so batteries lying around in drawers from the kids toys, mainly AA's. Is there anyway I can do a dodgy (or not dodgy) charge back into them.

My stepfather used to do it on a car battery by bridging across the circuit until the little battery got hot. now that i'm older I don't think thats a good idea.


Any ideas?

There are special chargers the claim to do it, by pulsing them with very low amps... but you can only do it once or twice and they only really come back to about 2/3 the first time, and less the 2nd.

They're just not made for it.

Using a car battery coudl easily make them blow up - so wear you PPE if you're going to much around with that ... what are your eyes worth to ya? More than a new AA battery I'm guessing.

It can be done but it is not a good idea. By shorting it across a 12v battry you are reversing the chemical reaction that happens within the battery thus giving it some "charge" back. But like you said the battery get hot and can explode. May work 9 times out of 10 but that one other time isnt really worth it.

I had some good success charging them in a rechargeing unit with no problems until one day after i removed them the end on one battery became a missile and smashed through my oven door...so not a good idea i reckon now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recharging ... _batteries

You can... but to me it doesn't really seem like it's worth the time or effort.

By the time you stuff around getting it to work, even then they're meant to be pretty unreliable and can't take many charge cycles... I'd just get some rechargeables.

I reckon Sanyo Eneloops are pretty good, not the highest capacity but they hold their charge well, even come precharged in the pack.

Varta.

In general, I usually love bodgey, cheap alternatives. But damn, I spent near $80 on a Varta charger and some AA's, and wouldn't go back. They last insanely long (in a Digi cam, thats mostly what I use them for) and when they eventually do go flat, 15 mins and they are charged

RockyF75 wrote:Varta.

In general, I usually love bodgey, cheap alternatives. But damn, I spent near $80 on a Varta charger and some AA's, and wouldn't go back. They last insanely long (in a Digi cam, thats mostly what I use them for) and when they eventually do go flat, 15 mins and they are charged

Varta make some good stuff! Even their cheaper alkalines are great (comparable to Duracell Ultra or E2's). Cheaps as chips from Go-Lo type stores too. Not often you can buy quality stuff dirt cheap.

Coxy

I've got an alkaline AA recharger somewhere, and it definitely worked, but (as pointed out) you don't get many cycles before it's no longer worth it.

These days, I've been buying DSE branded alkalines, about $20 for a 30 pack (from memory...) Haven't figured out how they stack up against Energizer/Duracell, but I'm not too concerned either.

03turbo wrote:I had some good success charging them in a rechargeing unit with no problems until one day after i removed them the end on one battery became a missile and smashed through my oven door...so not a good idea i reckon now.

There's you're problem, you're supposed to put them in the fridge not the oven. Only 9V batteries go in the oven for recharging.

Steve.

Go to Jaycar and buy some 2500mAh NiMh's. You can get 'em for around 4 bucks each.

Don't even think of going there...Duracell = really old tech. Don't even think of going there...

Any of the recent recharables will go way further on their first charge than the alkaline rechargables.

I've heard if you "SHELF (click for definition)" AA batteries it recharges them.

Apparently you have to do 3 or 4 at once though.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Tom0 wrote:I've heard if you "SHELF (click for definition)" AA batteries it recharges them.

Apparently you have to do 3 or 4 at once though.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.

The mind boggles at how you know the definition of that word...

RockyF75 wrote:Varta.

In general, I usually love bodgey, cheap alternatives. But damn, I spent near $80 on a Varta charger and some AA's, and wouldn't go back. They last insanely long (in a Digi cam, thats mostly what I use them for) and when they eventually do go flat, 15 mins and they are charged

Varta are good, the company i work for import and customs clear them so i get them cheap , handy as i have 2 kids with all the AA powered toys that with them. I got a 240v/ 12v charger with 4AA and 2AAA for $25 and a 240v charger with 4 AA for $8 .

The pommy magazine 'everyday electronics' issued a set of diagrams on how to make a charger. There was a big stink over it I think duracell tryed to sue them. But lost. There charger was capable of recharging the batteries a 100 times.