RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

i was just wondering the shelf life of a nicad pack.i found a bunch of my old packs and i wanted to know if it was safe or even possible to charge them, or should i toss em out?

I've just started using some 2000 nicads I used to race with in 1999 and their ok, but I guess your talking older than that

some are about 10 years older than that.

I'm sure there will be a way of testing them safely, someone on here will defo know.

i have 1400's from the early 90's that take a charge. they false peak alot until you get a little juice into them, and run time absolutely sucks, but they will charge up.

but, if you want any kind of performance and power, get new packs.

i'll order some new ones, but i guess i'll try charging up the old ones in the mean time.
thanks for the replies.

I don't know what type of running you're going to do or were you are located but in the UK Nosram do some 7.2v 2200 Ni-Cads for £9 or $17 a pack, I use them in my F350 and get great runtimes and punch for elcheapo money

thanks for the info. i'm in the us so i'll probly order from tower, i could use a few spare parts so i'll order some cheap packs at the same time.

FERRETTI wrote:I'm sure there will be a way of testing them safely, someone on here will defo know.

What's the worst that could happen with a battery? (I am honestly ignorant)

I think duff Ni-cad ether don't do anything, charge correctly but deliver no performance or badly overheat when charging but not to the point of explosion like Lipos at least that's what I have experienced, others may have different stories.

Phew...hahaha I thought it might have been something bad.

I have charged many, many old batteries and never thought anything of it

Dr. Robotnik wrote:What's the worst that could happen with a battery? (I am honestly ignorant)

FERRETTI wrote:I think duff Ni-cad ether don't do anything, charge correctly but deliver no performance or badly overheat when charging but not to the point of explosion like Lipos at least that's what I have experienced, others may have different stories.

Actually it tends to be the other way round. As a LiPo has a soft case it tends to bulge and kinda gives the game away something is wrong. If left on charge after seriously overcharging it will catch fire, the scare stories on Youtube are all done deliberately, but it is virtually impossible for them to explode.

Seems a lot more common though with the latest 4200mah NiMhs though, quite a few have exploded in a big way, sending metal shrapnel and hot acid in all directions. There is also one young girl here in the UK who has been blinded and has facial burns by the acid when a cell in a NiMh receiver pack exploded.

Nicads are by far the safest of the lot, although a friend of mine had the contents of one cell bounce off his bedroom ceiling and the acid made a mess of his carpet when being charged, but it's the only accident I heard of with the old nicads. If there is a problem the cell will vent and you will hear a hissing noise.

Old nicads are very durable, I'm still racing with some 15 years old nicads which hadn't been used for at 10 years. To see if they are still working just charge them and run them. If they charge up and they work, you will need to charge and discharge them between 6 - 10 times to get them used to being run again before you will see how good or bad they are.

i've never had a nicad cell explode, but i have had one leak all over the place.

To my experience, as long as you stay around while quick-charging nicads, you're absolutely fine: you'll get ample warning before anything dangerous happens. Smelling, melting shrinkwrap, hissing,...
Just feel the cells from time to time for excessive heat.

(be carefull using new chargers: check the amp rate is not way too high or your cells may die in a non spectacular way indeed)

False peaks do indeed happen a lot, and I usuallly push it on for a second go till the pack is slightly feverish.

(slow charging will let you walk away without worries also ofcourse)

i charged them up and as to be expected they didnt have much power and run time was rediculasly low.but i charged them up 2 more times and they seem to be improving a little.
some of the reason why i was a little nervous is because a few of the packs wires became unsoldered in the past so they were resoldered to the tabs.i'm not so shure of my soldering skills from over 15 years ago,so i wasnt shure if i damaged the vents by overheating the tabs.
i found another pack in a nikko vehicle i found in the trash yesterday.
it's only 1200mah but it was free so i cant complain.