A standard battery charger, whether it is slow or fast, keeps supplying current to the battery while it is plugged in. This can be harmful for your batteries because overcharging can damage them. This can at times affect your gadgets too, because many batteries charge while they are inside the gadget (a laptop, for example).
Timer Controlled Chargers
The timer controlled chargers were first devised in the late 1990s to charge high capacity Ni-Cd cells. These chargers provide high charge initially, till the battery is 80% charged. Then, they switch to a trickle charge to maintain the battery charge.
The main problem with these timers is that they are pre-programmed with time duration for high charging and switching to a trickle charge. So, if you have a higher power battery and you are trying to charge it with this charger, the battery may not be completely charged because it switched to trickle charge before the 80% threshold. Or, if your battery is only partially discharged, the charger has no way of knowing that and will end up overcharging it.
Intelligent Chargers
Keeping up with their names, intelligent chargers can detect when your battery is fully charged. Using battery temperature or voltage as the parameter, intelligent chargers get to know when the battery is 80% charged, so that they can switch to trickle charge to maintain the charged status of the battery. If you are using an intelligent charger, you will never overcharge your battery, thus extending its cycle life. Cycle life is the number of times that a rechargeable battery can charge/discharge.
Intelligent chargers are also called Smart Chargers or Negative Delta Voltage Chargers. If you are willing to pay the higher price tag associated with them, you can rest assured of your battery and gadget performance.
Photo Courtesy: http://www.plunderguide.com/la-crosse-battery-charger-with-lcd-display/
If you have the tendency to put your battery to charge and then forget about it, its time you got a smart charger and stopped spoiling your battery.
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1 Comment
It got me when you mentioned the time controlled charger and that it charges the batteries up to 80% immediately then will shift to a trickle charge afterward. I wonder if there is an industrial charger around that is like that. After all, the batteries we need to charge are always running out of juice immediately. It would be nice if we have such a fast charger.