Charge and discharge rates NIMH

[leelee]

I use 6volt nimh batteries and was wondering what charge, and discharge rate should I use. For example a 1650nimh, can I charge it at 1.6a and discharge it at 1a. I have used the sirius auto chargers for a few years and recently purchased a multiplex-LN5014 and now that I am into Giant scale I would like to keep my batteries in top condition. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[2robinhood]

I run Nimh 6V packs.
1650mah for smokers and RX on smalller planes.
2300mah and 2700mah for my RX's in my giants.
My charger has five settings, 10mah, 25mah, 50mah, 100mah, and 250mah.
the 10% rule is good for charging, I use the 250mah setting on the 2300 and 2700 batteries and the 100mah setting on the 1650 packs.
Sometimes I will leave them on the 10mah trickle charge setting for days.
My discharger only has a discharge rate of 500mah or 750mah.
I only use the discharge to see how many mah are left in the batteries after the amount of time I flew.
Nimh batteries are no suppose to hold memory, but I guess cycling them wouldn't hurt.
After I found out how many mah I use in my normal flying session, I usally don't discharge.
I have been just charging and flying, charging and flying.
If that's not good, them others please chime in.

[Hoosier06]

1.6 amps--The charge rate you use will be fine. No need to discharge but if you need to find out the condition of your battery discharge at a low rate like 200 mah's. The sirius chargers are the best no brainer chargers around. Using them is fine. The sirius pro plus charged at 1 amp. I used them on 1650 to 2700 mah batteries for years. Also used their 2 amp charger on the 2700 mah packs.

[GooseF22]

when you have new nickles, you should trickle charge them for a few days and cycle them a few times so they wont false peak. the best thing is trickle them when new. use them a couple times, and trickle them again.

every spring, I trickle them again to keep them from false peaking.

if you ever suspect a false peak, discharge them and charge them slowly. something like .5 amps or .250 amps, or even with a wall wort. it fixes alot of issues. I asked Dave thacker at Radical RC if he has gotten many bad batteries and he said most of the time, a solid trickle charge will cure the battery that was returned for not holding a charge.

so I follow that regiment. I have a charger that defaults to .250 and I hit all my batts with it in the spring, it is a simple peak charger.

hope that helps.

[2robinhood]

There is also good info here.

http://www.hangtimes.com/rcbattery_faq.html

http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/