I just got my HX350S battery back from primecell. I really like the
handheld, even if it's a bit heavy.

They replaced the NiCd with a NiHh and claim that the battery life will be
double or more. Anyone seen this or have experience with rebuilds? It sure
was a lot cheaper than replacing the whole handheld.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Replacing the battery type but not the type of charger?

Potential for trouble -Danger Will Robinson!!!!

Can I use an older NiCd battery charger to charge NiMH batteries?






The answer to this question depends on the type of NiCd charger. Depending
on the type of NiCd charger you have, the older NiCd charger may undercharge
NiMH batteries (most likely), it may overcharge them (less likely), or it
may charge NiMH batteries properly (but it's not likely to do so
automatically and could take a very long time). Let's take a look at the
three cases.






Many of the older NiCd chargers are the simple timed type charger which will
charge batteries for a fixed amount of time and then shut off.
Unfortunately, since NiCd batteries have a much lower capacity than NiMH
batteries, the timer is likely to shut off long before the NiMH batteries
are fully charged. This won't harm the batteries, but the NiMH batteries
won't be fully charged since the timer will have stopped the charge cycle
too soon.






Also common among older NiCd chargers are the so called "overnight" chargers
which charge batteries at a low rate as long as the charger is plugged in.
This type of charger can fully charge NiMH batteries, but it might take a
very long time to do so. It's possible that an old NiCd charger could take
as long as 48 hours to fully charge new high capacity NiMH batteries! This
type of charger is not likely to damage NiMH batteries unless the batteries
are left in the charger for weeks at a time, but it may not be very
convenient to use. If you have this type of charger you can get an idea of
how long you'll need to charge your batteries by using the calculator found
above.






The final possibility is that the older NiCd charger is a rapid charger that
will charge NiMH batteries but will not have the necessary circuitry to stop
the charge cycle once the NiMH batteries are fully charged. If the NiCd
charger is designed to charge batteries in less than two hours it may be
this type. In this case the risk is that the older charger will overcharge
NiMH batteries. This will be apparent if the batteries get very hot during
the charge cycle. (It is normal for NiMH batteries to get warm as they
become fully charged, especially in a rapid charger). If the NiMH batteries
get too hot to handle and stay that way for more than 20 or 30 minutes, then
the NiCd charger is most likely overcharging the NiMH batteries and may
shorten their life. You would be most likely to encounter this type of
charger if the charger was designed for rapid charging radio control (RC)
vehicle batteries. We would recommend that you not use an NiCD rapid
charger to charge NiMH batteries.