BC125AT: Uniden bearcat BC125AT rechargeable batteries

[corneileous]

Hello, being that Uniden themselves was no help which was to my surprise since they make their own batteries, does anybody that has this scanner still have the original rechargeable batteries that came with it or just so happen to know what the mAh of the batteries is? I’m trying to find a suitable replacement but being that there’s so many different options for batteries out there, I don’t know which ones to get and if I should try to get something that’s all the way up to 2700 mAh or not or if that much of a capacity battery is worth it if it’s going to take 8 to 16 hours to charge depending on the charger or if it’s the built in one in the scanner itself.

When I moved out of my moms house and into my girlfriends house, I left my scanner there with her to use and she loaned it out once or twice to somebody and I don’t know who it was but somebody obviously didn’t see that the batteries that were in it where rechargeable and just threw them away and put regular ole disposable batteries in it.

Thanks.

 

[jaspence]

Any brand name battery should work. You also want to get a good external charger which will condition and charge the batteries individually. I use 2300 mAh EBL cells for my 125, and they do not take anywhere near 16 or even 8 hours to charge. A couple of my HTs take up to 12 AA cells, and the charger conditions each one separately in the same amount of time for 2 or 12 cells. There are many forum posts on the reasons for an external charger.

 

[wtp]

most of the other unidens come with 2350mah cells.
i also vote for external charging and one that can give you the true capacity of each cell.
i use the maha c-9000 but shop around.

 

[omlbed]

The batteries that came in mine were:
"2300 mAh AA Ni-MH 1.2V" "www.corun.com" "MADE IN CHINA"
Printed on the battery:
"Standard charge: 230mA/14h"
"Quick charge: 1150mA/133min"

 

[letarotor]

Any brand name battery should work. You also want to get a good external charger which will condition and charge the batteries individually. I use 2300 mAh EBL cells for my 125, and they do not take anywhere near 16 or even 8 hours to charge. A couple of my HTs take up to 12 AA cells, and the charger conditions each one separately in the same amount of time for 2 or 12 cells. There are many forum posts on the reasons for an external charger.

I agree with what jaspence says. The green and yellow batteries that came with many of my Uniden radios including the first BC125AT that I got I'm not sure how many mAh those were. But I just looked at the unopened ones that came with my last BC125AT and they are 2300 mAh as you can see. It won't hurt to get higher milliamp hour batteries. The only time you really run into trouble is if you get lower mAh batteries. Sometimes the batteries can differ just slightly in size if they are higher mAh batteries and you're not able to put a battery cover on a radio. I've run into this problem years ago on a few different radios including my old BCT396XT. But I don't think that is usually too much of an issue.

Also, I would definitely use an external charger like jaspence mentioned as well. I've never had a battery melt down in a radio but I've seen some that did have that happen and it ruined them. I know that Enloop makes some good batteries. And I think it was about $20 for four 2,700 mAh batteries when I got a four pack with the charger about four or five years ago. And I'm still using those batteries and the charger. And the charger does charge each individual battery like previously mentioned. You can put just one battery in if you need and the charger will charge it.

Anyhow, here's a photo of the batteries that came with a recent BC125AT.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[corneileous]

Thanks for all the responses guys and yeah I do plan to use an external charger being that I’m sure the internal charger on my little scanner is probably not of the greatest of quality being that it says in the owners manual that if you’re using 2700 mAh batteries that’ll take upwards of 16 hours to charge.

 

[wtp]

and that is if they ae down to needing that much of a charge. (radio beeps)
also BEWARE if you charge in the radio and there is a power blip, they start the charge cycle all over.
it is just a timer and does NOT stop when they are full.
the cells do not like over charging.
and yes the cells could have been 2300, it has been a number of years since i had them.
cells do wear out, mine seems to go a year with everyday use.

 

[N9JCQ]

I use the AA batteries sold through IKEA and they are very good. A simple solution for you is to buy two or three sets of rechargeable batteries so you can swap the old ones out

 

[Ronaldski]

I'm not looking to change yours or any other minds on battery charging, just my thoughts.

I've used and mostly charge batteries inside the scanner for many years with no issues and batteries last for year(s), I do have a maha charger too. Definitely a nuisance to keep taking batteries in and out and especially as I have a case for mine.
What you an others want to do is change the ridiculously high charging time from the default setting to what I do on 325P2 to 4 hours charge time, 396XT's with three batteries I have it set for 2 hours. That's in the SETTINGS section of the scanner menu.

14 hours would work if the batteries were at zero volts, zero current. I think its been said the internal charger is 200 MAH, so 200 X 14 hours = 2800 MA to equal the battery ratings.
As we know the scanner will shut off at ~1 volt or so, which obviously doesn't need a complete full charge, so lowering the built in charge timer is prudent.

 

[corneileous]

Very, very good information guys, thank you. I decided to just pick up some rechargeable batteries and a charger at Walmart that I didn’t even know they had. They’re Energizer and they are 2300 mAh so we’ll see how they work out. I probably won’t even ever mess with the internal gather being that I have a much better, much more efficient one that came with the batteries.

 

[JoeBearcat]

Hello, being that Uniden themselves was no help which was to my surprise since they make their own batteries,

That is news to me. Got a pic of these Uniden batteries?

does anybody that has this scanner still have the original rechargeable batteries that came with it or just so happen to know what the mAh of the batteries is?

What comes with the scanner is usually 2300 mAH 1.2V NiMH.

 

[corneileous]

That is news to me. Got a pic of these Uniden batteries?

When I called Uniden’s customer support, the guy I talked to said he didn't know the specifics which I thought was a little weird being that he said Uniden makes their own batteries.

But no, I don’t have them anymore. As I stated in my opening post, the original rechargeable batteries that came with the scanner were taken out and thrown away by somebody.

What comes with the scanner is usually 2300 mAH 1.2V NiMH.

That’s what the general consensus of the discussion was saying, 2300-2350 mAH.

Those rechargeable Energizers I bought at Walmart seem to be working pretty good.

 

[JoeBearcat]

Rechargeable cells are like truck brands. Everyone has their favorite, so I tend to not recommend
specific brands. There are plenty of people who will make good recommendations.

 

[corneileous]

Rechargeable cells are like truck brands. Everyone has their favorite, so I tend to not recommend
specific brands. There are plenty of people who will make good recommendations.

That may be a lot of the case but supposedly not all brands are created equal. After reading some of the reviews on Amazon, some battery brands weren’t even the standard size as a regular AA battery.

I’d still like to try a larger capacity battery but there was just way too many to choose from.

 

[Ronaldski]

corneileous, many swear by the eneloops on the forums, lower discharge rate. Really any name brand rechargeables will work well. Certainly don't get some dollar store no names hehe as you dont want to have any decide to leak inside.

JoeBearcat, take into consideration my comment in #9 to have the default charge time much lower then the current 14 hours in an update.
At 14 hours these batteries are getting waaaaay over charged and are getting ruined in short order, let alone they may leak!

 

[majoco]

My UBCT126AT came without batteries due to air cargo restrictions on LiOn batteries so I put in a pair of Panasonic Eneloop 1900mA/hr batteries and they've been very good - charged in the radio too - seem to last a very long time although I have never actually timed it.

 

[vagrant]

I use Eneloop and EBL as well. I will probably give the Ikea LAADA a try too. The charger I use is the newer Eneloop/Panasonic charger as it handles each battery independently. The EBL advertises 2800 mAh, but it's probably more like 2300 which is still fine considering the cost.

Here is a photograph of the AA rechargeable batteries that came with my BC125A...all three of them had the same batteries.

To charge AA Ni-MH batteries in a scanner itself is asking for trouble. I avoid that.

Any brand name battery should work. You also want to get a good external charger which will condition and charge the batteries individually. I use 2300 mAh EBL cells for my 125, and they do not take anywhere near 16 or even 8 hours to charge. A couple of my HTs take up to 12 AA cells, and the charger conditions each one separately in the same amount of time for 2 or 12 cells. There are many forum posts on the reasons for an external charger.

 

[thesavo]

In my experience, uniden isn't know for including specs on the accessories. I had an issue with DC jack size.

As many people noted they are 2300ma available from uniden too.

https://uniden.com/products/scanner-battery-for-bc125at-and-bcd325p2

I plan to use mine with NiMH but set to alkaline so they don't charge.

 

[JoeBearcat]

corneileous, many swear by the eneloops on the forums, lower discharge rate. Really any name brand rechargeables will work well. Certainly don't get some dollar store no names hehe as you dont want to have any decide to leak inside.

JoeBearcat, take into consideration my comment in #9 to have the default charge time much lower then the current 14 hours in an update.
At 14 hours these batteries are getting waaaaay over charged and are getting ruined in short order, let alone they may leak!

What capacity cells? The typical 2300 mAH cells should take about that long to charge unless you are charging them partially full (which is not a good idea).

 

[corneileous]

Well so far these Energizer 2300 mAh batteries work pretty good. Thanks for all the recommendations.