Can NiMH batteries be recharged using a normal AA charger?

If it claims to be a fast charger for NiCad cells then it's not a good idea to use it with NiMH cells. If it's designed to trickle charge cells overnight then it might work ok.

If your house burns down it's your fault though.

My battery charger is marked "Universal Ni-Cd & Ni-MH" and its not that = new or special, so I would guess that most chargers would be OK. Inside the unit, for AA batteries, it says Ni-Cd 500mAh - 5-8hrs Ni-MH =

Alan

Can

Fast chargers designed for NiCad cells (only) should not be used on NiMH.

The reason is because the end of charge voltage peak can be a lot lower sometimes with NiMH cells - this can lead to the charger failing to detect that the cells are full and fails to switch off. This leads to over charging at the fast charge rate and possibly very hot cells or worse.

: Fast chargers designed for NiCad cells (only) should not be used on NiMH.

: The reason is because the end of charge voltage peak can be a lot lower : sometimes with NiMH cells - this can lead to the charger failing to detect : that the cells are full and fails to switch off. This leads to over charging : at the fast charge rate and possibly very hot cells or worse.

I've found that if I charge at high rates (1-2C) then the NiMh cells will have a sharper dropoff and the delta peak will work on my old Tekin pulse (NiCd) charger. If I charge at lower rates (< C) then if often won't detect full charge and I have to check temperature. However, this comment comes with caveat emptor and YMMV warnings. I have a 10 year old (or older?) Tekin BC112 charger, still charging along...

DLC

Please note charging overnight isn't "trickle" charging. Overnight is standard C/10 charging (for the original charger design cell capacity) although sometimes it can be as high as C/5.

NiMh shouldn't be (true) trickle charged (