Rayovac Ic-3's! Whats The Matter?!
 

i just got IC-3's! i charged them utnill the light went off and my car only lasted 10 minutes then it dramatically dropped to where my younger brother who can only crawl beat it. is this cuz its the first time?! what is this!? are they really gonna only las thtis long!? TEN MINUTES? ok

They should last much much longer than that. I get a good 30 minutes out of mine running the higher end motors. I would stick them back in, as with NiMH, you don't have to discharge before recharging. Maybe the charger is false peaking so to speak. You might have a faulty charger.

How long did it take to charge them initially? How quick is the charger supposed to charge them? My charger false-peaks fairly often with NiMHs. I've found that after a few charges / discharges it finally figures it out.

My initial charge and every charge after that has been right at 15 minutes as it is supposed to. So far, my charges and run times have been pretty consistent.

yes mine have been extremely consistant as well, i'd get some different batteries to see if it's a bad charger or if there's something wrong with the batteries.

I just got one today too. I got the one that can charge 2 at a time.

It's working perfectly. (knock on wood)

Should I use the car until the batteries die before storing?

possible they are not I-C3 cells you got? Rayovac does make numorous other cells... and chargers.

You shouldn't have to, NiMH batteries are not supposed to develop a memory like NiCad batteries. I hardly ever run my car for the entire capacity of the batteries, and when I come back, they are still good to go for the rest.

If you are going to be storing your car for a long while, I would at least remove the batteries from the car and transmitter.

i hear though it you plan you store the batteries for a long time of not being uses, you should leave them with a little charge. got that info from blindbatts

Anymore ideas?

well if your car has uneeded friction, hair in axle, bad bushings/bearings.. or whatever it will drain them much much faster...

have you charged them again yet?

You do have both the 15 minute cells AND the 15 minute charger yes?

yah i have both batt's and charger i tried rechargin them and now theyy run fine!:D

You shouldn't have to, NiMH batteries are not supposed to develop a memory like NiCad batteries.

I thought it was the other way around! i thaught the hydride had to be fully discharged and developed memory and cadnium it didnt matter, thats why all the beginner cars use cadnium, u cant screw it up. li-ion is still best tho in my oppinion. this would really suck for me if nicad had the memory cuz i would have like 20 screwed over batteries sittin in my race box

Ni-Mh batteries are mure resistant to the memory effect, however every so often you should drain them compleatly. As for storing them, it does not matter wether you store them full, 1/2 charge, or empty, Ni-Mh will not get damaged if they loose a charge. I know that if Gell Cell batteries (Like in wheel chairs) loose all power, they will not take a charge. They require a charge to be left in them in order for them to recharge properly. If you charge them whenever you are not using them they will last for years!

You never want to fully discharge any rechargeable battery. The best way to discharge to a safe level is to run the car until it cannot roll with the weight of the chassis. Then recharge. And yes NiMh can develop memory, it is just more resistant to than NiCads.

try this
 

Every once in a while when I stick a battery in the charger, It'll not make perfect contact and the fan will run, light will come on etc... but the batt will last a very short time. After getting irate, I make sure the batts are firmly in place and recharge and all is okay.

I don't know if this will help, but I always stick the batteries in first, then plug in the charger. I haven't had any troubles yet.

That what it says to do on most instructions (oh yeah ppl don't like to read instructions) for the chargers.

hehe I used to do that before I became a tech 9 years ago

one of mine started to bubble! acid?

me too
 

Yeah mine bubbled acid too, because I didn't believe it when it said not to stick rechargable alkalaines in the IC3 charger.... oh, well they were on clearance for a buck....

what brand leaked on you?

Strange, When I plug my 15 minute charger in, the light just comes on and goes right away after? What do you think is wrong?

Did you try to use the batteries right after you bought em. When the unit does what you say it does it means that you have a bad battery(ies) or you are charging the battery when it it already charged. The last thing it might be is that the batteries have developed memory.

Well i used it for quite a while, at most 1 month. I think the wires in the adapter are broken...any idea where i can get a spare adapter?

goto rayovac web page, email the support... they will probly send you a new adapter upon you sending one back... I did this back when I had the PS4... cuz the light was dim.. even though it realy had no problem with the charger...

the problem with alkalines is they truely are NOT rechargeable.. rayovac just chnaged the formula on them a little bit to make it a little bit safer to charge them, then made a charger that super duper slow charged them, if you put those alkalines on their they can do a hell of a lot more than jsut LEAK... they can burst into a FLAME that would be VERY hot...

the IC3 is ONLY for IC3 cells!!!

dont even bother using OTHER nimh in it... cuz those take 16 hrs or so to charge, use the PS4 charger for anyOLD nimhs u have, the keyis to not even bother buying the old nimhs any more, get the 15 minutes now.. the reast of the batteries out ther eare officialy OBSOLETE, NIMH and NICD!

Real men don't need instructions!