Bought three PowerEx 230 ahm batteries and the appropriate Maha charger just 1 year ago this week per the suggestions of you all here (thanks Jim especially). Because of little activity due to the summer months each battery has been cycled just a few times (and I leave the batteries in the charger after charging per OK from Maha Support). Recently one of the batteries has started to blink continuously in the charger. I have tried to "condition" it to no avail, both considering it as highly charges and as low charged per the Maha charger FAQ's. Emailed Maha Support and was told it was probably a bad battery. Just wondering if you have experience with this and find it to be typical of these batteries to get an early failure or if this is just a freak occurance. Thanks all.
My suspicion is that the PowerX battery is bad. We use a lot of them at our club to power NCE ProCab Radio throttles and have had an occasional bad one crop up. All batteries eventually fail.
cacole My suspicion is that the PowerX battery is bad. We use a lot of them at our club to power NCE ProCab Radio throttles and have had an occasional bad one crop up. All batteries eventually fail.
Probably is the battery. Interesting they said it was OK to leave them on the charger indefinitely. That's usually no good, despite the charger automatically reducing the charging rate when the battery is charged, they normally don;t completely stop charging. A few days, or maybe a week or so left ont he charger - probably no problem, but months, with the charger plugged in? I wouldn;t do that.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy, do you think leaving them in the charger contributed to the failure, or are you just stating you don't recommend the practice of leaving them in the charger? Just curious. Thanks as always.
I've noticed some of my Powerex batteries giving me the same trouble (some of mine are over 5 years old.)
I thought perhaps they weren't drained enough when I take them out of the throttle so I made up a battery clip and put an auto lamp, like a 1156 or one that draws 1 amp or so, and that seemed to help after I run them down a bit and put them in the charger I get a steady red until they charge, then green. I take them out, at least by the next day and I unplug the charger since it gives off a 15 kHz whine that me AND the dog can hear!
They still seem to hold a charge OK but maybe I'm just prolonging their slow demise. I write the date on them so I know if they are the old ones or not. After five years I'd say they earned their worth.
Good Luck, Ed
Thanks Ed. I don't quite understand what you are referring to when you mention "battery clip and put an auto lamp, like a 1156 or one that draws 1 amp or so". Could you expand on that a little for us electrically challanged types? I appreciate your input.
At Radio Shack you can buy 9V battery snaps that have 2 wires coming out, a red for the + and a black for the -. And then the wires are hooked to an automotive tail lamp, attach battery, bulb lights, draws heavu enough current that the battery drains fairly quickly, the recharge. Basically a conditioning process, full drain/charge cycle. It can help if the batteries get recharged before they are drained, say at 50%. Eventually they will develop a 'memory' and the 50% mark will now be 100% dead, in effect the fully charged battery now only lasts half as long. A few full cycles can recover from that, but balance against there being a finite number of charge/discharge cycles the battery can take before being no good.
I think that leaving the batteries in the charger constantly is not good for them. However if the manufacturer says this is OK, what do I know? The charger may have enough intelligence in it so that it is not contantly trickle charging them once topped off.
Thanks Ed and Randy, I didn't understand when Ed replied about "auto lamp" that he meant it litleraly, as in automobile lamp bulb. I assumed he was referrancing some electrical testing equipment. Duh!