crazy battery question... I don't know who else to ask.

[niceguy71]

getting back into the CB world
I have 5 handheld CB's from the 80's and 90's mostly Radio Shack models...... two Maxon's..... each take 10 NI-CD 1.2-volt rechargeable batteries. I have not used them in years and am just starting to use them again.
the great thing is once the 10 batteries are installed in EACH CB all you have to do to charge them is plug them in the wall plug.... or the auto cigarette adapter and it will charge the batteries..... simple and great... huge pain to take the batteries out. I bought some NIMH batteries and had to force them to fit in ( took forever to get them out).....well the old handheld CB's would not charge my fancy dancy NIMH batteries!!! .... so I guess I could buy a NIMH charger and keep having to remove 50 batteries, charge them and reinstall them... but that's crazy the CB's do everything easily for me.
... so I thought I would buy NI-CD batteries????
I used to have purple colored Radio Shack 1.2 NI-CD batteries back in the 90's I think they were 800 or 1000 MAh and said slow charge on the side of them if I remember 30 years ago.
I recycled them years ago...
my question is what MHA do I need.... seeing these are high powered CB radios and drain the radios' pretty fast ( three hours of heavy use if I remember correctly) I would like to get the most I can like the NI=CD 1100 MAh but I don't want to get the wrong ones. maybe the radio shack batteries were 300MAh??? I have no idea

the CB's each take 10 batteries and I have chargers that plugs into the side of the CB.

the chargers for three of them say this.

... input 120 volt 60HZ 5W... the OUTPUT say's 18Volt DC 50MA

and the other two say

input 120 volt 60HZ 5W the OUTPUT say's 16 Volt DC 100 MA

what MAh NI_CD battery should I buy?

hopefully someone can help me
thank you all in advance GREAT group and so many smart people

 

[prcguy]

NiCads will be hard to find these days but the AH rating will be higher than in the 1980s due to technology marching along. If you can find them get the highest AH rating you can as that will run the radios longer. The same old chargers should work fine and it will just take a little longer to charge due to the higher capacity.

NiCads are around 1.2V each and newer NiMH is similar but your old chargers are not appropriate for NiMH, they like a higher charge rate and need something to end the charge at the right point.

 

[niceguy71]

NiCads will be hard to find these days but the AH rating will be higher than in the 1980s due to technology marching along. If you can find them get the highest AH rating you can as that will run the radios longer. The same old chargers should work fine and it will just take a little longer to charge due to the higher capacity.

NiCads are around 1.2V each and newer NiMH is similar but your old chargers are not appropriate for NiMH, they like a higher charge rate and need something to end the charge at the right point.

Thank you PRCGUY
Believe it or not Amazon still sells ni-cad batteries they are 1100MAh 1.2volts. now I can leave them in the radios when my friends and I get back from the fields we can just plug them in ... The new ones I bought NIMh were 2800MAh but are a little thicker because of the higher capacity I forced them in the radios and had to remove all the screws and pry the covers off (cracked one radio) looking in the owners manuals they just s ay use NI-CD batteries....... Nothing about MHa ratings.,... I have a charging plug for every radio they say on the plug output 16volt and 50MH the newer radios say 18voltr 100MHa if you buy a new NIMH the chargers are more ... But I don't think it will matter I think they will still charge any NICAD but will take longer. I used to leave them overnight in the 90's..... I just don't want buy the NI-CD batteries and have the radios burn while I'm sleeping

 

[krokus]

I had one of the RS types of these radios, a long time ago, I bought it while home on leave. It would run on 10 NiCd, or 8 alkaline, AA batteries. It came with two metal slugs, that were AA battery shape & size, to take up the space, when using the alkaline batteries.

None of the magic smoke came out, when I used 10 alkaline batteries. I might have had the one radio that was able to handle that. YMMV...

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

For years and years I used NiCad's in any number of devices- and my history with them is dismal.
Many would not hold a charge for long, and in battery packs one or more cells would often fail--- this would reverse-polarity everything and really kill them off. Replacing the one or two cells in such a pack was a no-no unless they came from the same batch (they never did.) Usually the first NiCad cell failure would be signaling the death of the collective---- sigh.

In my lab we would often resort to just removing the dead battery, wiring across it and running the device at a lower voltage.
I became a standing joke that the best NiCad battery was one you never used--they were perpetual heart breakers.

NiMH's were a god-send. Today every battery-loving radio etc. I own has them in place of the NiCads. Since they have much higher AH ratings and really hold their charges, they can go for long periods between attention.
They do come in varying sizes; some are too big to be a stand-in for the original Alkalines or NiCad-- but there are size-for-size replacements.
Personally I would explore this-- and turn my back forever on those nasty NiCads



Lauri

 

[niceguy71]

thanks Laura ...I looked into some Slim-line NHMH but the slim ones are 8 batteries for $45.00 plus tax and I need 50 of them!!! all the NIMH are too big for my handheld CB's... so I bought some NI-CAD at 1100MAh for $9.99 for 10 of them and will try them.

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

I really didn't want to disparage NiCad's overly much, NiceGuy.
After all, they survived as a standard for decades. My experience, though, with them is jaded. But from that economic stand point they could serve you well.
Just treat them gently, and keep an eye out for sales on those smaller NiMH's--

That said--I would avoid charging then en masse -- that nasty reverse polarity thing (where the weakest will cook off first and, well you know what happens next.)

I would suggest you continue to remove each battery and charge them individually (this can be in a multiple battery charger--- you just don't want the same current flowing thru the whole battery pack.) And be oh-so careful not to overcharge them ! Once they start to spout electrolyte you've cook them forever.

Another little hard learned lesson-- and this may go against everything commonly said about NiCad's---

Do not run a battery stack down to zero !

With individual batteries this maybe ok, but if you do this with a battery pack, one of those poor buggers will check out before the others. That reverse polarity thing will happen and you won't know it until its too late.

Well, there you go------ my opinion/experiences


Good Luck NiceGuy !


Lauri



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