AA Rechargeable Duracell Battery Beware

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ginky4

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I have a Uniden BCD325P2 scanner. I use Duracell AA Rechargeable batteries. The green and gold ones. Have used these for several years

I charge the batteries in a Powerex MH-C9000 charger. Well yesterday I went to change the batteries out of the scanner with ones that were charging in the battery charger. Something that I have done a zillion times.

When I powered up the scanner it came on for a second and turned right back off. I have never seen it do this before. So I repowered it back on.

This time I got a message that said Clearing Memory. Well it did what it said. It totally erased my scanner and I was left with a Nothing To Scan message. All of my systems were erased.

The problem was caused by 1 of the AA batteries that came out of the battery charger after charging all night that wasn't fully charged. The battery must have been bad and wouldn't fully charge anymore.

Fortunately I had a backup in Freescan so I am back up and running.

Not sure what the battery expectancy life is on rechargeable batteries but you may want to check the charge on them when they come out of your charger so that your scanner doesn't get erased like mine did.
 

palmerjrusa

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Not sure why one bad bad battery would do that.

I would ditch the Duracell rechargeable AAs, they're garbage along with many other so-called "big name brands" like Energizer" etc.. Been using rechargeable NiMH batteries for more than 20 years and without exception all those "big brand" name batteries went south fairly quicky and became unusable, and it wasn't through misuse, I know how to treat NiMHs.

Get yourself some Eneloop AAs, they're the "gold standard" for NiMHs. I've Eneloop AAs that are years old and still going strong, never had one fail. If you're near an Ikea pick up some of their Ladda AAs, they're rebranded high capacity Eneloops and at Ikea's price a great bargain:
I've also had good success with Amazon's basic brand of NiMH AAs, their premium AAs used to be rebranded Eneloops but I'm not sure if that's still case:

Manufacturers claim around 2000X charging cycles but only the standard Eneloop AAs stand up to that claim.
Also note, high capacity NiMHs have a lower charge lifecycle (something Eneloop states for their high capacity cells) and tend to be more fragile and less tolerant of misuse.
Avoid AAs that aren't LSD (low self-discharge). Eneloops are LSD and can retain most of their charge for years in storage.

The charger you're using, the Powerex MH-C9000 (recently discontinued) smart charger is one of best chargers available, I've owned one for over 10 years and it's still going strong. Maha recently released a new iteration of this model :
 
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ginky4

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The charger is awesome. No issue with it. I was just surprised that a battery that would no longer charge correctly would cause the scanner to erase all of my systems that I had programmed once it was inserted. I will check into the batteries that you have recommended.
 

davedaver1

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Well.... I just had the same experience with a pair of high capacity Sanyo Eneloops (the black ones) in my BCD325P2. These have worked for a long time, I typically refresh them with the on-board charging and once in awhile I charge them up with a LaCrosse charger to full.

They were fine, until I charged them in the LaCrosse today and put them back in - turn on, see welcome screen, then the screen blanks. The radio does fine on alkalines and AC adapter. I conditioned the batteries in the charger and tried again, but same deal. But, I did not lose programming even in multiple times trying to get this to work. Both batteries appear well - they charge to full on the LaCrosse charger (smart) and show normal voltage.

Odd - perhaps the radio does some sort of test and sees an imbalance, different resistace or something else. The Eneloops are 6 years old with medium use. Hard to know why the radio would have issues and the charger would not. We'll see what a new set does.
 

jaspence

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An imbalance test in the radio would be unlikely since the batteries are in series and the radio probably only sees it as a total voltage package.
 

iMONITOR

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The charger is awesome. No issue with it. I was just surprised that a battery that would no longer charge correctly would cause the scanner to erase all of my systems that I had programmed once it was inserted. I will check into the batteries that you have recommended.

Are you doing a normal charge or the fast charge?
 

scosgt

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Harbor Freight sells NIMH CHEAP, and they work fine. Unknown who makes them, no doubt whatever contract is cheapest. At the price (usually around $1 a battery) just throw them away when they die.
 

fourgres

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Also Dura Cell Regular Batteries, this year alone I found 5 leaking batteries. Eneloops only way to go for your scanners. Might want to put some Die electric grease on all those regular batteries. Cheap contacts on products cause the corrosion between the contacts and the batteries.
 

Blackink

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And if those batteries have been re-charged several times, that Powerex MH-C9000 charger has the option to "Refresh" the batteries if they have degraded in their performance over time. Something the user may not see after time.
The owner's manual recommends a "Refresh & Analyze Mode" for every ten cycles of NiMH batteries.
 

hill

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I second using Harbor Freight batteries, as I use them in my scanners and charge outside the radio. May not be the longest lasting, but get a long run time on them in the PRO-106.

Plus they easy to purchase locally and many times are on sale.
 

Patch42

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On this topic I'd recommend the Opus battery charger. I've had several MaHa chargers, including the MH-C9000, and the Opus, at about 60% the price of the new MH-C9000Pro, is by far my favorite. It's easy to use, provides more than adequate information about what's going on, and has all the fancy functions. In addition, it does one thing my MH-C9000 would never do -- revive cells that have dropped below 1V. It apparently puts a very slow charge through the cells that initially read as "null". Eventually they gain voltage and it's able to charge them normally. I've not had to throw away a single cell since starting to use this charger. Just the other day I put four cells in the charger, one of which read "null". When I checked in the morning all four cells had charged, three of them taking about 2200mA while the "null" one took 2400mA.

I've also become sold on Eneloops. I've tried a lot of different brands over the years. Couldn't tell you how many cheap Chinese batteries I've bought that didn't provide even half the claimed capacity and frequently died after just a few charges. The Eneloops are worth the premium. I've not had a single one give out on me. I did buy some Amazon Basics cells about a year ago. The jury is still out on those.
 

a417

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On this topic I'd recommend the Opus battery charger. I've had several MaHa chargers, including the MH-C9000, and the Opus, at about 60% the
Second vote on the Opus Brand, but different unit.. It's several battery sets cheaper than its competitors, it handles a wide range of cells, chemistries and functions and it does not need a bluetooth connection. I've even used jumper wires from the terminals to charge a Li-ion battery pack that had a failed wall-wart.
 

RandyKuff

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I had a C9000 for a long time...
But since my battery usage is all over the map anymore, from Li-Ion to NiMH in various sizes...
I've been using this charger...

 

RoninJoliet

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Has anyone used the new "Duracell Optimum Battery " alkaline in their 325P2 as yet and gotten more hours run time TY
 

palmerjrusa

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If anyone's interested in buying a new charger you might want to sign up for news from Maha:

If you do you should get a coupon code valid for 10% off your first order with free shipping which makes it the lowest price I could find on the web.
I took advantage of the coupon and purchased the newly released MH-C9000PRO which is their latest iteration of the MH-C9000:
This is a great charger with some improved features of its older sibling (my older version is still going strong after more than 10 years of use).

With respect to the LaCrosse BC-9009 charger. I know this is a popular battery charger and own one but my impression is that under identical charging conditions with respect to the Maha C9000 it heats the batteries up a good deal more, they actually become quite hot, and it's more than the cells being in closer proximity to each other in the LaCrosse charger. Both chargers use different charging algorithms and I suspect that's the reason. I've avoided using this charger for some time now due to this observation, the cooler the batteries are kept during charging the better for their overall health.
 

palmerjrusa

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Of all the rechargeable NiMH brands I've used only Eneloops and Amazon Basics have performed to specification and have proved reliable. Every other NiMH brand both big name and obscure went south relatively quickly and became unusable. As for NiMH capacity ratings, again, only the Eneloops and Amazon Basics were accurate. NiMH battery technology is only capable of a max capacity of 2700 mAh. Only Powerex Maha Powerex Pro Rechargeable AA NiMH Batteries (1.2V, 2700mAh) - 4 pack have this capacity and they're relatively expensive. All those other brands you see around like EBL AAs rated at 2800 mAh are false advertising, in actuality they're around 2500 mAh.

Ditto for EBL NiMH D cells that claim to be 10,000 mAh, my smart charger indicated they have a maximum capacity of around 7300-7500 mAh:

As for Energizer NiMH D cells, they took an average rated NiMH AA cell and stuffed it in a D-cell casing and upped the price. For sheer chutzpah I award them an A-plus:

I'm currenty testing four Amazon Basic NiMH D cells rated at 10,000 mAh that arrived yesterday to determine their actual capacity and will report my findings:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHCWNH1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I'm guessing those Amazon Basic NiMH D cells are accurately rated.
 
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Engine104

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Guys, I think we're ignoring the elephant in this room.. Why would one bad battery erase the 325's memory? That sounds weird to me. If there is insufficient voltage, the radio would just turn off, but why did it erase the programming? I am not doubting this story in any way, just curious.
 
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