On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 9:17:57 AM UTC-5, Doug Mueller wrote:
Not all Batteries are the same as well as not all chargers are the same.

The chargers have different charging tables. Some of the higher end smart

chargers detect the type of battery it is and can charge appropriately but

there is not one charger that can do it all. Sorry. Your life expectancy of

a battery will go up drastically when you use a compatible charger with

your new battery. Talking to battery experts is very helpful here. A pefect

example is the pardigm shift to Litho Batteries for capacity reasons from

NiMh.

If you have an old charger, they will not charge Litho batteries well.

Dependant on the charger you can get a variable outcome. I have seen

everything from Litho batteries catching fire on an airplane to just

charging a battery to 50% capacity. If you are going to update your

batteries to the greatest capacity, spend the money and buy a compatible

charger. Regards, Doug



P.S. a Litho battery fire is extremely difficult to contain. Never leave

these batteries charging unattended. Don't believe me, goggle search it!

Doug,
What in the world is a Litho battery? Do you mean LiPo? By the way, do you watch your laptop when the (LiPo) battery is on charge? We need to be careful with all the old-wifes tales that are repeated here, the devil is in the details.
Just for experimental purposes, I once put a nail through one of my 2200 AH 3p Lipos and you are right, the fire starts pretty much immediately and is next to impossible to quench. That does not mean they will burst into flames any second.