Battery charger 3A output....

[TWINSET]

I've got a Ripmax charger, and when running off the mains, it'll output 3A maximum (regardless of how high the dial is set).

Does this mean my 3300 batteries are really only 3000's once I finish charging them?

[MikeT]

Depends how long your charging for! LOL!

If you charged for 1 hour at 3A, your cells ( theoretically ) would have 3000mAh in them.

If you charged them @ 3A for 1 hour and 6 minutes, ( THEORETICALLY ) they should have 3300mAh in them.

Mike

[terry.sc]

The Ripmax charger has the 3amp limit because that is all the mains

transformer inside it can handle. It has nothing to do with the

batteries. It's just the manufacturer building it down to the price,

the mains adaptor on my charger costs more than the complete Ripmax

charger. The charger shuts off after an hour because it has a timer

cutoff as a safety measure, so you will only get (in theory) 3000mah

into the battery on one charge. The 3300mah batteries are still not

charged though and you will need to start it again to finish off

charging the battery.

If you want to know what the battery capacity is get yourself a

proper charger, Andy I would have thought you would have had something a lot

better than the Ripmax by now[]

[TWINSET]

If you want to know what the battery capacity is Andy get yourself a proper charger, I would have thought you would have had something a lot better than the Ripmax by now[]

It was more a curiosity thing really, electrics aint my thing []

For what it cost it works great and does what it says on the tin [H]

 

[jozza]

Does it cut off after an hour? I used to have a few of these chargers and I wasn't aware that it would. Anyway, if your cells already have charge in them, chances are they will peak at less than 3000mAh anyway, so it won't matter. I tend to repeak nimh stick packs.

The way it works is in milliamp-hours, so if you charge at 3 amp (3000ma) for an hour, that would fill a 3000mah stick pack, or 6amp would do it in half an hour. Or 12A in 15 minutes, though that would probably blow the stick up in about 10 seconds []

Like you say, it's a good little charger for simplicity, and runs off mains or 12V so it's okay(ish) but I prefer the chargers which have a display to show you how much juice has gone into the cells, and these can be had quite cheap. You could always get a 12V power pack for it, then you can get the full 5A from it when running from the mains.

[DJTheo]

Btw usually you need to charge 1.4 times more then the theoretical ones, as charging efficiency is significantly less then 100%, so after 1 hour at 3A the battery would have even less then 3000mAh.

Cheers 

[cheapskate]

Hmm, never really thought about this before, but now your question is raising doubts for me!! I have a peak charger ( max output 3.5amp) yet when I charge my 3300 mAh sticks the audible alarm goes off long before an hour is up (sometimes it seems like only 15-20mins) and all the sticks are fairly new, probably less than 20 charge/discharge cycles each. So how come? any suggestions?

[terry.sc]

Does it cut off after an hour? I used to have a few of these chargers and I wasn't aware that it would.

Yes,

the Ripmax chargers have a one hour cut off. Makes then nice and safe

for beginners but now battery capacity is getting bigger it means you

aren't guaranteed to get them charged.