Guitarman52

My Feedback: (2)

Has anyone had trouble with charging the Hydrimax batteries. I had one overheat in a transmitter while charging almost catching the transmitter on fire when fast charging. I have tried to charge them with my skycharger at a 1.9 rate on a 2000 battery and it gets hot but will not kick the charger off. Is that just something a NIMH battery does. They won't kick the charge off on either of my chargers.

Wingman26

I've got 3 of their receiver packs, sometimes my chargers (GT and Skycharger) don't seem to detect they are full and just keep charging. I'm starting to get a little shaky about using them, I think I'm going to switch over to LiFe or A123 packs, I've got a couple of LiFe packs and really like how they hold their charge, there is little to no self discharge and they fast charge great!

Guitarman52

My Feedback: (2)

Where did you get your LiFe batteries?

guver

My Feedback: (325)

It could be that they are being charged too fast. Generally a 500 ma is considered max for AA radio batts (especially inside the tx)

Guitarman52

My Feedback: (2)

That could be. I set my skycharger at a lower rate... 1.5 and both batteries kicked off when they were charged. I am not using them for transmitters, they are for the receivers in the plane.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

The charge rate is printed on the batteries. If you follow the directions you should not have any problems. The correct charge rate for these batteries is 1/10C for 12 to 14 hours. Hydrimax batteries do not quick charge well.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I thought Hydrimax packs were just Sanyo NiMH cells with a fancy wrapper on the pack. Not true?

Wingman26

I've got the Hobbico LiFe batteries, got them from Tower.

On the nimh batteries, I've got a 4 cell 1600 ma pack I use for ignition on a gas engine, and a couple of 5 cell 2000 for receivers, Hydramax recommends charging at a 10% rate, which is fine on the 2000's, I can set a charger on 0.2 charge rate, the 1600 is a bit trickier since I can only choose 0.1 or 0.2, I usually charge that one at 0.2 since its closer to the 10% rate than 0.1.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

I don't know who makes the batteries, actually I thought they were Panasonic cells. I do know that they have caused many problems at our field for modelers that attempt to quick charge these batteries. Sometimes they false peak and sometimes they overheat without peaking and melt the wrapper. When slow charged per the directions they work fine.

It's been my experience that NIMH cells are not nearly as tolerant of abusive quick charges as the NICADS they replaced. I think NICADS are better in many applications where quick charging is desired. NICADS often have a much longer service life and are generally more robust. Unfortunately they are getting hard to find, thanks to our friends at the EPA.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I agree. If you don't need the extra capacity, NiCds are better.

Charlie P.

No problems with the 1650 mAh 8-cell and 1450 mAh 4 cell sizes. I've been flying these for three years and they're doing well. Just got a 2000 mAh 4 cell and a 2000 mAh 5 cell to play with. Too soon to tell on those (haven't flown them yet).

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

The Hydrimax packs with the green wrapper, the cells say Made In China

The Hydrimax packs with the white wrapper have Sanyo cells

I've been using some of the white packs for 10 years and they still work pretty good.

I've found that I get along better not to actually fast charge for all that the charger is worth even though I use a fast charger on them at the field all the time, I have it set .6 on my Hobbico field charger

I sometimes get the false peaks and the no detects with the NiCads as well as the Hydrimax batteries.

alfredbmor

The old wall charger, which is about 50 mah will take about 40 hours to charge a 2000 mah Nimh? or should I let 10% more time just to be sure that the battery is at its peak charge?. (44 hours)

Alfred.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

That is correct.

If you leave it on a little too long it will not hurt anything.

The thing to remember is you are actually only worried about replacing what you used that day. After it is fully charged the first time and you fly three or four times that day, an overnight charge might have it back to fully charged?

The point in fact is: That the wall wart will charge one up and it is essentially a 55ma trickle charger and will not hurt your battery

alfredbmor

Thanks!, I just ordered a new 4.8 V. 2000 mah Hydrimax battery and I am planning to make the first full charge with my wall charger. They do not come charged and I really don't know the discharge point that they are as new.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

The were charged when shipped from the factory

They most likely will not be completely dicharged

I just bought a couple 5cell 2000mah ones and I put one on the wall wart and didn't bother with it for 24 hrs but to my suprise it was pretty much charged according to my DVM w225ma load.

I went ahead and put it in the plane. When I'm about to go flying, I will touch up the charge with my Hobbico Accu-Cycle Elite.

alfredbmor

Battery arrived yesterday, along with 3 new Hitec servos that I need for another project. It came completly discharged at 3.8 V (4 cell, 4.8 V, 2000 maH).
Its 11 o'clock at night, I am heading to bed and battery is now attached to my 50 maH, JR wall charger, it is going to be a 44 hours charge. I think it is the best way to "brake in" the new battery. It should be fully charged by sunday at 7:00 PM.

Any advice is very well come.

Alfred.

pryor808

My Feedback: (1)

I use the Hydramax 6v 2000mah green packs. I like them alot. I do not fast charge beacause, I never had the need to do so. I charge my reciever packs at home the night before I go flying the next day. I use the Accucel 6 or a wall charger. I preffer to use the Accucel set at 1.0 and, it alarms when the battery is full and,I can see how many milliamps it took. I cycle them once a year and, they take up to 2100 mah when fully charged. A tipical flying day for me is 5 to 6 - 15 minute flights and, these are hard acrobatic flights. I will use about 500-550mah. In other words,I can safely fly much longer but, by that time I am hungry, tired of all the BS talk that I hear at the field and, used up 1/2 gallon of glow fuel. It's time to go home.

alfredbmor

The battery is still connected on the wall charger and there is no heat at all.

I remember that I charged a NiMh battery with my hyperion charger at 1.0 amp. and it got hot, I do not know how much temp. but it was very unconfortable to handle it, I tought it was OK, but after some time it did not retained the charge for one day, so now I have as a souvenir just to remember myself to not fast charge all NiMh batteries.

Almost all my old batteries are 600 mAh, and they all last for a full day of flying and I always stop flying when they are @ 4.8 V. (4 cells), and just like you, that is the time that you feel hungry and in my case I want to go home to eat and see my kids (when they do not come with me).

My Rx most recent batteries are all NiMh from around 1,200 to 1,450 mAh. and I have always charged like I am charging my new 2,000 mAh now. I have a few years now with them and they are working flawlesly.

As they are not completely discharged, they all are ok with an overnight charge for all next day.

The main reason to purchase this 2,000 mAh NiMh battery pack is because of the digital servos that I am using now, they grab a tad more energy from the packs and I do not wish to see troubles in the near future.

I was about to purchase the 6.0 V. 2,000 mAh pack but I have this S9254 Futaba digital servo which is advertised that will not work well with over 6.0 V.

Alfred.

huck1199

I picked up some lipo cells with tabs from HK and made up 2S RX packs to use with HK regulators in my glow planes. I am done with charging the night before hassle. I also use lipo packs in my TXs as well.

alfredbmor

Lipos are a great choice now, I didn't go with them because of the price, I have also read several bad experiences related to lipos and electronic stuff from HK, then my choice was the new Castle Creations Bec (20 A) and a good long lasting 3 cell 2100 lipo battery and spending around 70.00 bucks which is almost the same quantity of money send overseas with any warranty, considering their 30 bucks shipping charge.

Ok, regarding my battery I stop charging it today at noon (12.00), I noted that it was starting to get a bit warm, the I unpluged the wall charger and checked the voltage. It is 5.7 V.
I will put it in the ship and will start to make some trimming and servo adjustments, then I will go back to charge it with the same wall charger for one more night.

I will post anything related with this battery.

Best regards.

Alfred.

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My Feedback: (-1)

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stangevil29

My Feedback: (1)

I was curious about using 6v Hydrimax batteries on the standard issued wall chargers that came with the TX's. I have always used them on my 4.8v 2000's that had been in my glow planes. Since going to gassers( more and bigger servos) I wanted to try a 6v for the RX. Other than taking longer too charge are there any issues anyone might forsee. I dont want to have to go out and buy some 150.00 charger just to try 6v. I usually only fly on the weekends so, if I put them on the charger say Thurs. evening by Sat. morning they should be ready, correct? Thanks in advance.
Stangevil29

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

There are no problems

They may actually charge up faster than four days because normally they are not completely discharged and you are only replacing what you took out plus a few little charging inefficiencies

The NiMh batteries don't have a memory so there is no real need to cycle them other than normal use

These batteries do loose their charge faster than NiCd batteries so you need them charged up soon before you go flying like the night before