Energizer® Rechargeable™ batteries are engineered to work with your most advanced, high-drain devices such as digital cameras, PDAs, hand-held games, portable CD players and MP3 players. And since they're renewable and reusable, Energizer® Rechargeable™ batteries work hard for you.

How Energizer Rechargeable Batteries work.

Like primary batteries, rechargeable batteries have four basic components—a positive electrode (cathode), a negative electrode (anode), a separator and electrolytes. But that’s where the similarities end. The chemicals inside a rechargeable battery are reversible, allowing them to be recharged again and again—the Energizer Rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride AA battery, for example, can be recharged up to 1000 times. Energizer Rechargeable batteries offer good performance and cost less per usage than their alkaline counterparts.

Energizer Rechargeable batteries are ideal for high drain devices that use a lot of power. But they should never be used in smoke detectors and are not recommended in other low drain devices. Here’s why: Primary batteries are—turned on— when they’re inside a device and the device is operating. But rechargeable batteries lose some of their power everyday, whether they are in a device or not—so it’s important to re-charge them often to maintain maximum capacity.

Charging The NiMH Battery

Before a rechargeable battery can be used, it must be charged. NiMH batteries are built in a discharged state.

Just like an alkaline battery, NiMH batteries provide electrical power from a chemical reaction.

When a chemical reaction happens in a battery, electrons are either produced or consumed. This kind of reaction is called an electrochemical reaction. To make these electrons flow in a useful direction, batteries include components called separators and current collectors.

When a NiMH battery is charged, the charger pumps electrons out of the positive electrode. This causes the nickel in this electrode to oxidize, or change from Ni+2 to Ni+3. During this oxidation, hydrogen atoms leave the positive electrode and react with the electrolyte.

Simultaneously during charge, the charger pumps electrons into the negative electrode. This causes a reduction reaction to occur, and causes this electrode to absorb hydrogen from the electrolyte.

Based upon the type of charger, the charger will automatically stop pumping electrons out of the positive electrode into the negative electrode after most of the hydrogen has been removed from the nickel. The charger can tell when this happens in one of three ways: through a change in temperature, a change in voltage, or by a built-in timer.

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