Batteries: I have seen the future and the initials are NiZN!!

[rsarge1]

martin if you check the info on the charger it will charge only 1 battery at a time on up to 4, so you can put the 1 battery in by itself, if it is way low on charge it will take longer to activate the charging lights but if you check the battery you will see that it is charging and coming up slowly, and once it reaches a certain level the fast charge light comes on, i use my battery tester to keep an eye on it once it is back up to par it will work fine but the problem im having is the chargers are locking into the fast charge mode and not shutting down to trickle charge when it reaches capacity.
hope this helps I sent an e-mail to comp and waiting for a reply
sarge

[MartinL]

I am charging the ones I considered bad now, one at a time. A few have kept a charge of a little over 1.2v so just maybe they have a chance of revival. The single cell charge might just be the trick. It certainly is the best way to segregate a really bad one from the rest. I don't know what I would do without my multi meter, and having chargers comes in handy ;-) martin

[CyberSage]

Good information coming to light here. Thanks for sharing this!

[rsarge1]

after contacting the company about my chargers they issued me a gift certificate through amazon.com where I purchased them from and I learned that:
PowerGenix production of consumer batteries is currently on hold. PowerGenix is in the process of selecting a new partner to further develop the AA and other NiZn products for the retail market in 2012

PowerGenix NiZn BatteriesI found this on a different web site so I for one will be waiting for the second generation of batteries to come out hopefully with a better charger like a smart charger. sarge

[CODY]

Update. I'm not an that great at lelctronics, but I can tell you, the batteries aren't worth poo! They I bought two sets and started using them in my F75. To start with they seemed to do great. They seemed to last just as long as the Duracells. Now, less than 5 charges, they won't last a full hunt. Not even three hours. A new set of Duracells will last at least 40 hours in the F75.

[rsarge1]

yeah I agree but I was able to find out that one of the batteries went bad by keeping track of the batteries closely with my meter and was bringing down all the others as well as one of my chargers were bad, once I got rid of the bad baterry and charger they seemed to work good, I also have received a refund from the company as well as another gift cert. from amazon.com so I wasn't out anything except time. but I wouldn;t buy them again LOL

[MartinL]

I lost one more yesterday, which makes 6, maybe 8 I've lost since using these things. The V3i really loads them down for some reason, and once you approach 1.4-1.6V left in each cell, it's just a matter of short time before one cell craters, which will then kill an adjoining cell if left unmonitored. Even if it doesn't kill the next cell, it damages it, and it's next in the death line. BTW, I was in the safe voltage range on this one, but I had kicked on Boost power for maybe 10 minutes, and then saw the disappearing voltage and quit before totally destroying a second cell. Very weak design.

These things are simply not robust as they are now. I'll be interested in the next generation as well. I wonder if we will be able to mix generations or if the 2nd gens will have to be all by themselves. martin