Recharging alkaline batteries - as seen on web

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:22 am

Seen articles on YouTube and Wonderhowto about recharging alkaline batteries in a rechargable battery charger, so tried it. Left some Duracell for about 5 hours (I forgot about them!); one of them went "pop" fairly quietly, and started to leak, so I removed it and the others too. I got a bit more voltage from the three remaining batteries than before, up from about 1.2v to 1.4v.

Question is this - is it worth it? Does it actually make them as good as new or not? Can you only do this once or many times??

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:09 am

Not a good idea. I have also done this, but alkaline batteries are NOT meant to be charged and can have pretty hazardous effects. Like exploding and leaking. If you do use a charger to charge them, only do it for a little while, nothing like 5 hours, and only if you really need a battery. I wouldnt recommend doing it, but I spose you could see what happens if you keep trying. Just don't be stupid (not like you probably would).

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:03 pm

Yes, I know, 5 hours was a bit long! I have seen vids of people recharging them on car batteries (about 2 seconds), chargers, etc. I did my last 2 batteries (to test) for about 1.5 hours; from about 1.2v to 1.5v.

At least when one of the Duracell batteries exploded it was a minor pop and not a bang!

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:37 pm

IIRC, you can only do it a few times max (5-10 times), and they die quicker each time they're recharged. My dad is a serious cheapskate, and even he gave up on recharging them.

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:17 pm

I've seen chargers especially made for alkalines that claim to be able to recharge them ~10 times.

Post by **marshallh** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:20 am

The problem is that you're charging them way too fast.

http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap ... /batts.htm