On 01:02 13 Jul 2015, George Cornelius wrote:

In article , nicola
writes:
How much voltage do Eneloops loose after a week? This is my
situation in more detail.....

I have an old Sony digital shortwave radio from the 1980s which works
slightly better on alkalines but I use Eneloops because it's cheaper.

Eneloops last about 9 or 10 days before the radio won't switch on.

I alternate between 2 sets of Eneloops. Each week I take the used
Eneloops out of the radio and put in a new set which were charged the
week before.

How much voltage will the week-old Eneloops have lost? I am more
concerned about losing radio perfomance (which is why I am asking
about voltage) than total charge.

Using voltage as a measure of remaining capacity is not really very
reliable with NiCad's and Nimh's. And in your case, knowing the
enloops have a low self-discharge rate (70-85% retained capacity after
one year on the shelf) is of no interest.

For NiCad's I believe we are warned to not discharge them below 0.8
volts, which is considered effectively a "zero energy remaining"
level, and my guess is that eneloops are about the same. If you
discharge a battery (collection of multiple cells in series) too low,
you may still get energy from the strongest cells in the collection,
but at the cost of reverse charging, and therefore damaging, the
weaker cells. Don't do it.

Anyway, if you want to know how many teeth are in a horses mouth,
perhaps you want to get out your digital camera and see if you can
use that to help with counting them yourself.

George

I wonder if my radio stops working even if the battery has a relatively
high voltage. I say this because I *guess* that modern electronics would
work at lower voltages.

This would mean the life I get from a set of cells might be much lower than
what similar modern radios get (such as your Grundig/Eton G3).