Nicads are relatively durable and safe if handled properly. My tip is to read the charging instruction that came with your Nicad battery pack.

Tekin is one of the best Nicad battery charger you can buy.

As for a charger, there are three types.

1. Wall charger – usually a slow charger and will charge your pack in around 12 – 14 hours. This gives maximum battery life but less power.

2. Timer quick charger – usually a charger with a 15 to 30 minute timer dial. This is ok, but overcharging a battery is high possibility.

3. Peak detection charger – These are the only type of chargers I use to charge my various Nicad batterys. Reason is these chargers detect the peak voltage and automatically stop charging. Risk of overcharging is minimal.

Below are chargers I use:

1. Tekin 112A – Over 15 years and still working well. If you see a second hand for sale, you might consider buying it as these are great Nicad chargers.

2. Muchmore – Mine has the temp probe. Beside peak voltage detection, there is a temp sensor to stop charging should the battery temperature hit the set temp cutoff. I usually set mine at 42 degrees celcius.

3. TLP – a cheap peak detection charger. I love this charger for my Tamiya 1600SP Nicads. I simply set at 4amps and my batteries seem to get a good charge with good power.

As for charging, I use 4amp for most of my Nicads as a balance for battery durability versus power.

As always, take care, avoid overcharging your batteries.

Joel

P.S. Please feel free to post comments and share your own tips. Thanks.

And great thing is Lipo battery chargers are very cheap. Personally I use the LRP pulsar 3 and an old Imax B5 charger. The LRP is more expensive as it has other features such as motor break in, discharger, etc. However when it comes to charging Lipo batteries, the B5 and LRP gives same result. Basically charge the Lipo to 8.4 volts.

What is important is to ensure the battery connector is very good (i.e. clean, strong contact). Lipo chargers are sensitive to the voltage reading in order to do a proper charge. I’ve experienced seeing my LRP suddenly spike to 8amp charging rate (even though it is set at 3amp). Later I discovered it was due to a dirty deans battery connector.

So be careful, keep your connectors clean and from time to time take a look at the charge rate to see if everything is running as expected.

Lipo’s will also expand and even burst into flames if overcharged. My tip is 1) use a good lipo charger, 2) use a good battery connector and 3) charge in a Lipo sack.

Hope this helps you out.

Joel