Rayovac Battery Charger. What Will It Charge?

I am pretty sure I have the same one and it was rated fore NiCad, NiMH and Rechargeable alkaline batteries.

Thanks for reply. The thing thats got me head scratching is that it seems they made a few different types that just look like this. Some for recharging some of their own brand alcaline batteries and others to charge all sorts.

Have you tried charging batteries with it?

Admit it, you just read the header question!

I was about to suggest the same until I read the OP.

Sometimes you just sooo ...

Oh whatever!

Yes, I know that sometimes I just sooo, so?

Would you be happy if I said, "Have you tried charging (other types of) batteries with it?"

Nope! You would not say that, since it could be wrong to do so!

I have tried nimh and nicad and it seems to work. Its hard to tell. Batteries sometimes get warm. Some batteries stopped working but I dont know if that was due to age or charger.

<sigh> What do the user instructions supplied with it have to say? What was the outcome of the telephone call to the equipment manufacturer?

Bought it in a charity shop - though it was new but no box or instructions. I would have thought the manufacturer would have printed on the case "suitable for this and that". No conversation with maker yet. I can usually get info from Google or the nice people at a site like this. My experience of phone conversations is ---piped music--put on hold---explain problem ---- "thanks for calling we haven't a clue"---

What a con.

See #2↑.

I´m pretty sure that it can charge any rechargeable battery under the rated load of the device. it can even be used as a power sorce... if not funny electronic´s make some kind of "differentiation" as to it´s load´s ...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greengrocer%27s_apostrophe

Nicad and Nimh batteries are both 1.2V batteries. Your recharger output is 2V, 0.2 Amp. The power output and recharge specs for both of these types of batteries are pretty similar, and from what I've seen on 'the google' the recharger for one type will recharge the other type. I've got an inexpensive recharger that I've used for charging both types. I wouldn't try it with any other types unless the battery packaging says it's ok to use a nicad/nimh type recharger.

Thanks for reply. I know a bit about electronics but dont know how to interpret its output being 2v and 200mA. It has a light for each battery and it does not seem to use an internal timer so it might use delta v detection circuit but I am all a bit lost. I might need to do more research if Iwant to understand this better.

The first Rayovac PS1 chargers were for their Renewal rechargeable alkaline batteries. They didn't make contact with the positive post but made contact on the rim. It may not work for any other battery. Unless you modify it to make contact on the post.

Yes its just that that had/has me confused. It can just about be seen in my photo that this charger is not of the "contact on the rim" type but it is a PS1-u whatever that is. Thanks for reply.

Update. I found this pdf http://docs-asia.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0027/0900766b80027df3.pdf which seems to says this charger is only for Rayovac rechargeable alkalines. And there I have been putting anything rechargeable into it for at least three years!

They made a second generation that did contact the positive post.

These people seem to know about what works in various versions of those Rayovac gizmos:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?96546-rayovac-PS1-of-any-use

The traditional advice for charging NiCd cells is to charge at 1/10 capacity, e.g if it is a 600 mAh (which by modern standards is very small) cell then charge at 60 mAh for 12-14 hours. I assume that your charger output rating is for all 4 cells, and that each cell only receives 50 mA, in which case you could charge pretty well any NiCd/NiMH currently available. Some would take much longer to become fully charged, that's all. I would not attempt to use that charger for rechargeable alkalines, as they require much smaller currents, preferably pulsed. Equally, adapting it for Li batteries of any kind is a complete no-no, as they require a specialised combination of constant current followed by constant voltage

Thanks for reply. I interpreted the printing on the charger which is in photo at the top to mean 200mA per battery? I could get my meter out and measure charge current. The only thing I currently want to charge is nimh.

I just did measure it with my fluke meter and it says 35mA D.C. being suppled to one AA cell. There was another AA in the charger being charged at the time I did this measurement.