I got a Hobbico Quick Field DC Charger for Christmas but how do I decide at what rate to charge the various batteries? It has a dial for the charge amperage from 0.2A-2.0A. Thanks.

Asimple rule of thumb is if the battery is 600ma or under charge no higher then 1a. If the bat is over 700ma you can charge at 2a. I don't like charging this high. A 650ma bat charge at 850 to 900ma. On my big bats that are 2500 ma these i will charge at 2a. Dennis

The "safe" (read this as normal ) charge rate is 1C for NiCad and 2 C for NiMH. What the C stands for is the capacity of the battery. IE a 650 mah NiCad you would charge at .65, a 650 mah NiMH you would charge at 1.25.

You can go over the recommended/suggested charge rate A LITTLE without damaging the battery or drastically shortening it's life.

Thank you guys, I think thats what I needed to know. I've been spending a good time reading older posts about this charger so hopefully any other questions I have can be answered that way. Thanks again.

Campy,
You have that backwards. Never charge a NiMH pack at anything over 1C, NiCDs Can be charged at 2C, but it will shorten the life of the pack. (RC car guys spend exhorbitant amounts on NiCD packs with matched cells that are rated for fast charging, and will sometimes charge those as high as 3C.)

I highly recommend never charging a pack above 1C. At 1C it will take an hour to charge a fully drained pack, and since you shouldn't let your receiver packs get below 4.8 volts (and Tx packs below 9.6), I usually find 20 to 30 minutes will top them off.
Dennis-

DBCherry is right. The NiCDs can be charged at 2C and the NimH at 1C.

Sorry about the mix up. [] Unfortunately, as you get "older", sometimes things get "backwards/reversed".

I wonder, is that why the plane crashed ?

I've always charged my 600mah batteries a .8 Only takes 15 or so mins.