Region: Phila
Car #: 93
Year : 1991 Posts: 284
Status: Offline
posted
Hi John,
If you have NiCad's on there, which I am pretty sure that you do, you do not want to recharge them without discharging them first. They will lose some charge sitting static but I would put them on the radio and leave it on for a few hours before I recharged them, they are pretty easy to read with a meter to see what voltage they are putting out before recharging them.
-------------------- All the best,
Chris
Sync Speed, Inc.
Racing Communications (610) 659- 1033 syncspeedinc@mac.com
Region: Phila
Car #: 93
Year : 1991 Posts: 284
Status: Offline
posted
Well, in theory the radio should have zero power draw when turned off but it would not hurt anything to take them off as a precaution for winter storage. Most people who have charged batteries that go dead after a month or so of storage are really just dealing with a battery that is likely at the end of it's charge cycle life. The life of a radio battery that is used for club racing is a tough one as it is rarely discharge completely (are properly) and it sits for long periods without usage, upgrading away from NiCad batteries to Lithium or NiMH helps a lot with some of these issues but there are not a ton of options for some of the older style radios.
-------------------- All the best,
Chris
Sync Speed, Inc.
Racing Communications (610) 659- 1033 syncspeedinc@mac.com
Qik Nip
Loose Member '09 & '10 Great Lakes Regional Points Champion
Region: Cincinnati Great Lakes
Car #: 60
Year : 1990 Posts: 1487
Status: Offline
posted
I've taken mine out of the car and stored them in the house for four years now. I've always charged them fully before storage and (knock on wood) have never had issues. Rick
-------------------- Fortune Cookie Racing SM 60 Directions for use: Race, Rumple, Repair ... Repeat!
Region: WDC
Car #: #23
Year : 1991 Posts: 642
Status: Offline
posted
So, if I remember my Nicad etiquette, I should pull the radios from the charger, let then naturally discharge for a few weeks, turn them on for a few hours to reach full discharge, then recharge and then start the process over again?
I remember reading somewhere that if you let the batteries discharge too low for too long that the cells can reverse polarity and you can damage the pack.
Given the age of these chargers I was worried about how "smart" they really are and the potential for overcharging if I left them in the chargers all winter.
-------------------- Muda Motorsports "We're all here 'cause we're not all there."
Region: Phila
Car #: 93
Year : 1991 Posts: 284
Status: Offline
posted
John,
Your memory is sound on both counts with this one. You are more likely to do harm leaving them on a charger all winter than if you did as you suggest in the paragraph before.
-------------------- All the best,
Chris
Sync Speed, Inc.
Racing Communications (610) 659- 1033 syncspeedinc@mac.com
Email this page to someone! | Subscribe To Topic
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic