Rechargeables

[ximines]

Never been very impressed with these, but tried again, Batts rated at 2300mAh, 19 hour charge time, using first time on Garmin60 at default settings, seemed about 6-8 hours use, while my standard batts seem to last yonks.

Anyone know power consumption in mAh of this Garmin please?

[+Miragee]

I was not impressed with off-brand rechargeable batteries, but I purchased 15-minute, 2500 mAh Energizer rechargeable batteries and love them.

 

I can get "fresh" batteries in 15-minutes and they last 12 hours in my Garmin Vista C.

 

I got four batteries and the 15-minute charger at Target for about $25.00. I purchased four more batteries for less than $10.00, so I can carry at least six spare batteries with me for my GPSr, my flashlight, my headlamp, and my camera.

[ximines]

I was not impressed with off-brand rechargeable batteries, but I purchased 15-minute, 2500 mAh Energizer rechargeable batteries and love them.

 

I can get "fresh" batteries in 15-minutes and they last 12 hours in my Garmin Vista C.

 

I got four batteries and the 15-minute charger at Target for about $25.00. I purchased four more batteries for less than $10.00, so I can carry at least six spare batteries with me for my GPSr, my flashlight, my headlamp, and my camera.

 

Yes but mine are the famous Uni-Ross !!!

[+Fitzdawg]

I've tried both the walmart brand and the Energizers, and I agree that the Energizers last a lot longer.

[Pinon]

In my Magellan Merigold, I am using rechargable Energizer 2200mah batteries. They last appx 15 hours. I can charge them in 15 mins. I also use rechargable Energizers in my Sportrak Pro and my digital camera. They work great. I only use regular batteries as backups now.

[alwaysGPS]

Go for Maha rechargeables, they appear to have better power retention than the Sony's that I used earlier. My experience with Sony's batteries has not been entirely satisfactory. The power in one of them seemed to drain off fairly quickly even in storage.

[+Red90]

Are you changing the battery meter for Ni-MH's?? I get around 16 hours on my 60Cx with 2500 mA-h Ni-mH batteries.

[+Chuy!]

You can extend battery life by turning off the electronic compass, if so equipped. Then, turn on the compass when near GZ. On a Garmin 60cs, hold down the "page" button while on the compass page to turn the compass on/off. There is also a Battery Saver mode. Hit menu-menu-Setup-System-GPS to select this mode.

[+Hynr]

I purchased a batch of AA rechargables over two years ago and have been cycling about 8 among two GPSrs. I find that some of them now have a fairly short life while others still hold a charge for most of the day. I have not kept track which have been charged often; I have also not tried to keep them matched to wear them out in pairs. Basically I am pretty sure that they do wear out over time. But I know I have gotten lots of use out of each battery. yesterday I ran out of power because I forgot to recharge after last weekend's run, so I had to plunk down $6.00 for 4 AAs in a convenience store. Consindering that I can occaisionally buy 4 rechargables on sale for less, I felt pretty ripped off. But I was in the middle of a cacherun and the other costs were much greater.

[+myotis]

Go for Maha rechargeables, they appear to have better power retention than the Sony's that I used earlier. My experience with Sony's batteries has not been entirely satisfactory. The power in one of them seemed to drain off fairly quickly even in storage.

 

I have lots of engierieer 2500 and the 15 minute charger.

 

I also have an expensive maha charger. I bought 4 2700 powerX batteries from Maha. I only charge them in the expensive charger. They last about twice as long as the 2500 MA enigerizers in my 60CSX. I get about 18 to 20 hours on a charge. My only complaint is for the first 16 hours the GPS indicates a full charge.

[+S&G.Davison]

Never been very impressed with these, but tried again, Batts rated at 2300mAh, 19 hour charge time, using first time on Garmin60 at default settings, seemed about 6-8 hours use, while my standard batts seem to last yonks.

Anyone know power consumption in mAh of this Garmin please?

 

Just a thought ... When you say at Default settings .. I assume you did change the Battry type setting to the relevant setting ie either NIMH or Lihium Ion .. leaving it at Alkaline would mean the unit powers off when there is still juice left in the Battery ..

 

I use Hahnel 2350mH NIMHs in my 76CSx and they last a lot longer than a couple of Duracells

[+unicyclist]

I bought a charger that goes in my cigarette lighter. Charge while I cache

[+sylvainp]

Don't forget 15 minutes charger are very hard on the battery and should only be used to charge battery when a quick charge is needed.

 

I had bought 1 year ago Energizer 2500 Mah with a 30 minutes charger. The charger detect charge of the battery on the 4 battery bay and after charging will go in trickle charge. With this charger the battery comes very hot ! Way too Hot !

 

i recently bought a Maha C808M battery charger with 8AA Maha Powerex 2500 Mah and this charger is remarkable ! Fast charge is a bit more than 1 hour and slow charge is a bit more than 2 hours. But the big difference is that the battery are barely getting hot !

 

Also the charger has a conditioning features that will : charge, discharge, recharge in one step.

 

With this charger I can charge up to 8 (AA,AAA,C,D) and i usallly use the soft charging because I know this is the best method for keeping the battery in good shape.

 

For people with very fast charger (15 min, 30 min) I will suggest to use a slower charger (5 hours or more)for every 5 cycles of fast charging.

 

Discharge the battery to around 1.0 volts (don't go below 0.9 volts) and then do a slow charge with a charger that will detect charge. Avoid timer based charger to prevent overcharging !

 

Maha make some less expensive model that will charge the battery in 4 hours if I remember.

 

Also when using new battery it could take up to 5 cycles (charge & discharge) to get the battery at their best performance.

 

Hope I help !

Edited July 17, 2006 by sylvainp

[+geognerd]

I have lots of engierieer 2500 and the 15 minute charger.

Is that a French brand?

[Suscrofa]

Has anyone tried these 2900mAH batteries and are there up to the claimed capacity ?

Batteries

[+racer2814]

Always try to keep the same batteries together. And it's best if you drain them befoe recharging or they develop a memory that shortens their life.

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Always try to keep the same batteries together. And it's best if you drain them befoe recharging or they develop a memory that shortens their life.

 

I thought that wasn't true with NiMH batteries, they always advertise "no memory effect"

[ImpalaBob]

Koikeeper and I use the 2500 MaHr Power-X brand with the MAHA charger in our Map 60C units. The MAHA charger has a normal charge circuit and a discharge and recharge circuit. I use the discharge and recharge circuit about every 6th recharge. We bought from Thomas Distributing on-line. ImpalaBob

[+budd-rdc]

Always try to keep the same batteries together. And it's best if you drain them befoe recharging or they develop a memory that shortens their life.

 

I thought that wasn't true with NiMH batteries, they always advertise "no memory effect"

This has been discussed in other threads and other places. Chargers are much smarter these days, so battery damage from overcharging (which often gets mistaken for NiCd's "memory effect") doesn't occur as often.

 

If you store NiMH batteries unused for a long time (months, years) then it's a good idea to cycle them (fully charge, then fully discharge) to bring them back to usefulness.

[tron1974]

I just bought a 24 pack AA and 12 AAA's from a place called all-battery.com. I charged one batch so far. I will let you know how they last.

 

They are 2600 maH batteries for the AA's and 1000 maH for the AAA's.

[rbrugman]

I got a pack of 4 Energizer E^2 NiMH's from Walmart with the non-15 minute charger. They took overnight to charge the first time but seem to be working quite well. I haven't had them long enough to report on their life. I used the Energizer E^2 Titanium's in my camera as well as my GPS and they last a long time, but my local Walmart stopped carrying anything but the rechargables. I think I'll be using them for a while.

 

Robert

[sbike007]

Hi, this might be a stupid question:

 

I have 60Csx. And I just wondering how could you know how long you used for the battery.

 

Any indicator in the unit I can use or do I have to count by myself everytime when I turn on unit.

 

Thanks.

[+Munin]

I have 60Csx. And I just wondering how could you know how long you used for the battery.

 

Any indicator in the unit I can use or do I have to count by myself everytime when I turn on unit.

When you're running on batteries, there's a little icon in the status bar at the top of the display that shows an estimate of how much of a charge remains:

 

 

It's the black bars that show the remaining charge, so in this example I've got roughly (very roughly) 75% remaining. It's not always a particularly linear rate of change - I've sometimes had the last bar hang in there for as long as the first three bars lasted - but it at least gives you an idea about whether your batteries are nearly full or approaching empty.

[+dumketu]

Go for Maha rechargeables, they appear to have better power retention than the Sony's that I used earlier. My experience with Sony's batteries has not been entirely satisfactory. The power in one of them seemed to drain off fairly quickly even in storage.

 

I am also very impressed with Maha's batteries. I have ordered their charger as it gets great reviews. I have to say that the batteries though are much more reliable and last longer than similar energizers, which are probably the next best battery.

 

Brian

[+Brian Stirling]

As has been mentioned before the use of fast chargers (45/30/15 minutes) are not a good idea if you want your batteries to last long. I'm not talking about how many hours they last on a charge but how many charge cycles they last. The big problem with fast chargers is that they overheat the batteries and that's not good for them.

 

Better to use a good (smart) charger that takes several hours to charge and has individual charging circuits for each cell. You can use a fast charger in a pinch but just know that it's not good for the life of the battery.

 

What would be better for GPSr's would be a rehargable LiIon battery of comparable size to two AA batteries. Such a battery would last 1.5 to 2x as long as good NiMH batteries (24-30 hours in the 60 CSx) and have much lower self discharge. The big problem with NiMH is that they will self discharge in about a month and are best used right after charging whereas LiIon has much better self discharge ratings and should hold a decent charge for several months.

 

Brian

[Overland1]

Has anyone tried these 2900mAH batteries and are there up to the claimed capacity ?

Batteries

 

While look interesting, I am not sure I would want to be the guinea pig.... first one who buys them, although the price is not bad. Are they any longer than the 2300 or 2500-mAh cells? The 2200's seemed a bit longer than the 1800's, so would the 2500 and 2900's be a bad fir in the Garmin units?