Non-Impress battery in an Impress charger

[PreferredCustomer]

Can I charge a non-impress battery in an impress charger?

I have a couple XTS 2500 HT's that I use for ham radio, so they are not critical equipment. One could use a new battery, but apparently there is a "worldwide shortage" of impress batteries. There are a couple OEM batteries on Ebay, but they look questionable. Dealers seem to be out of stock for months.

I found this one, which is a Rayovac, (Werker branded), but it says non-impress compatible, which I take to mean that it won't have the battery tracking features, but maybe it will still charge ok in the impress charger.

High Capacity NiMH Battery for Motorola XTS2500 Radios - LMR9858

LMR9858 High Capacity NiMH Battery for Motorola XTS2500 Radios

www.batteriesplus.com

 

[wa8pyr]

Can I charge a non-impress battery in an impress charger?

I have a couple XTS 2500 HT's that I use for ham radio. One could use a new battery, but apparently there is a "worldwide shortage" of impress batteries. There are a couple OEM batteries on Ebay, but they look questionable. Dealers seem to be out of stock for months.

I found this one, which is a Rayovac, but it says non-impress compatible, which I take to mean that it won't have the battery tracking features, but maybe it will still charge ok in the impress charger.

High Capacity NiMH Battery for Motorola XTS2500 Radios - LMR9858

LMR9858 High Capacity NiMH Battery for Motorola XTS2500 Radios

www.batteriesplus.com

Yes.

 

[KevinC]

Yes.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Yes.

Thank you sir!

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Yes.

Also thank you sir!

 

[wa8pyr]

Thank you sir!

Just make sure to drain the battery close to empty before charging so that you can get the maximum life out of it; the whole idea behind Impress is automatically conditioning the battery every so often so you don't have to.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Actually, I am getting this one, which is higher capacity:

High Capacity Battery for Motorola XTS1500, XTS2500 Two Way Radios - LMR9858MHXT

LMR9858MHXT High Capacity Battery for Motorola XTS1500, XTS2500 Two Way Radios

www.batteriesplus.com

 

[AM909]

This Power Products LiPo battery is a whopping 4100 mAh and specifically mentions IMPRES compatibility (see the spec sheet and brochure). Probably more $ than the NiMH, but should still be competitive with the OEM product. A number of pros here have had good experience with Power Products.

 

[prcguy]

Actually, I am getting this one, which is higher capacity:

High Capacity Battery for Motorola XTS1500, XTS2500 Two Way Radios - LMR9858MHXT

LMR9858MHXT High Capacity Battery for Motorola XTS1500, XTS2500 Two Way Radios

www.batteriesplus.com

Wow, that's more than the radios go for these days.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

This Power Products LiPo battery is a whopping 4100 mAh and specifically mentions IMPRES compatibility (see the spec sheet and brochure). Probably more $ than the NiMH, but should still be competitive with the OEM product. A number of pros here have had good experience with Power Products.

Thank you, I appreciate the information, but I already received the battery I ordered from Batteries Plus. It's good enough for my purposes.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Wow, that's more than the radios go for these days.

If you want to play, you got to pay. Unfortunately.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Wow, that's more than the radios go for these days.

Actually, the radios I have are UHF Model III, so at least the ones I see for sale, are quite a bit more than that battery costs.

 

[prcguy]

Actually, the radios I have are UHF Model III, so at least the ones I see for sale, are quite a bit more than that battery costs.

Most of the 380-470 mod IIIs with FPP and AES256 I bought were $125 each with two of them refurbished with new cases. The market seems to be flooded with these and people will discount heavily To make a sale.

 

[PreferredCustomer]

Most of the 380-470 mod IIIs with FPP and AES256 I bought were $125 each with two of them refurbished with new cases. The market seems to be flooded with these and people will discount heavily To make a sale.

Wow!

You must have a good source for radios.

 

[prcguy]

Wow!

You must have a good source for radios.

Two came from eBay and two refurbished ones were on another radio forum, all $125 each. I had one of the sellers build up a VHF XTS 2500 with FPP and AES for a little more but I forgot the exact price. There were tons of the UHF mod III versions surplussed cheap and I could have bought many at a time in the $40 range untested. I also bought several UHF XTL1500 mod I‘s working great for $40 each off eBay. You just have to sift through all the idiots asking $400 on up for these and you will spot the good deals.

All of my impress chargers were from eBay in the $30 range and I was getting new Motorola Li-P.O batts in the 2600ma range foe about $90 but they seen to have dried up. The high cap $25 Chinese Li-P.Os seem to be ok for the price, not as good as the M brand and no impress functions but you get four for the price of one Motorola.

 

[Badboy536]

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I use these for my xts2500. Original motorola they are the slim batteries so the radio feels much smaller. They work great. Plus you get two for $64.

 

[hitechRadio]

Just make sure to drain the battery close to empty before charging so that you can get the maximum life out of it; the whole idea behind Impress is automatically conditioning the battery every so often so you don't have to.

(I know you were directly referring to his NiMH selection, but... just to be clear for others reading)...

Discharging only applies to Nicad and then NiMH to a lesser extent.
IMPRES charging LiON is primarily for recalibration as the cells age. There is no requirement for LiON to deep discharge.

Although all chemistries require a discharge to recalibrate.

The IMPRES charger is doing two things, reconditioning and calibration.
Calibration so the battery meter and low battery alert is correct. The IMPRES charger detects the chemistry and applies the correct charge profiles.
The battery status info data is written directly to the battery from the charger, such as number of Charges Cycles, Capacity , and then read by the radio for an accurate battery low battery and status gauge.
Non-Impress is using battery voltage only for Lowbattery alert, in fact I believe the battery guage is not active on the radio with a Non-Impres batteries.
It is not (all) marking wank, to keep you locked into Motorola batteries, IMPRES does actually serve a purpose.

 

[MississippiPI]

Very well explained.


Be safe

 

[GTR8000]

In fact, discharging Li-ion or LiPo deeply is not recommended practice, as it puts a lot of wear on the cell. So is charging to 100%, for that matter, but it's unavoidable in most cases when dealing with public safety batteries that sit in the charger. (If you want to get the most out of your cell phone's battery, however, don't let it discharge below 20% and unplug it once it reaches 80% charge...in between is the sweet spot.)

So in actuality, the IMPRES charger is only recalibrating a Lithium battery, it's not "reconditioning" it at all, and is technically doing more harm than good bringing it down to such a low state of discharge during the recalibration cycle (which occurs roughly every 30 days). But, it is what it is, as they say.

 

[kk6rq]

Yes.

You're supposed to say, "Don't call me sir! I work for a living!"...