OTish: NiMH failure mode

Nov 03, 2005 7 Replies

The other day, without warning, the battery in my mobile died. It still appeared to have about 80% charge in it at lunchtime, in the afternoon when I next looked at it, it wouldn't even switch on. I had left it on, I normally do because I get a good week's use on one charge. A couple of people I have talked to say that this has happened to them. I only have had a couple of this type of battery, so my sample size is too small to be meaningful. There must be some of you out there who have much larger experience of NiMH. How often does this sort of total failure occur relative to gradual?



John Schmitt


Its all too familar.

Lithium ions are better at that sort of thing - they tend to die more gradually.

NiMh has pretty horrible self discahrge anyway, and it ends its life by discharging itself in a day rather than the usual 6 weeks ...

Strongly advise updating to lithium, - check tghe net - loads of aftermarket lithium batteries from specialist companies.

On the other hand you could, like me, solder in some new NiMH cells for under a fiver :-)

Yes, but they still have the 'orrible self discharge feature. Even new ones.

I only use NiMh when its something that is in constant use. And constantly charged.

I paid 15 quid for my Motorola in Marks and Sparks 4 years ago - (don't think I've used a tenner's worth of Orange PAYG units so far !) .. so I am a prime candidate for Liion - so even my new batteries are flat in my "emergency phone" by the time I need to make a call. (though at least I can now make a call before the thing dies).

But I've just done this for a colleague who does use hers a bit.

Interestingly her older pack had a heat sensing diode whereas mine didn't - which may explain why mine died much sooner.

any links ?

just tried Googling but without success ...

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thanks .. unfortunately they only seem to be offering NiMH for my Motorola T180 :-(

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