your experience w/ rechargeable toys?

I have to get my act together and charge these things regularly. Set up a program with a bank of them and just plug and unplug to keep the batteries at about 70% which is around where you want them if for long term storage, not completely topped up.

I had the surprise of my life last night when charging a few in a worry. My Lelo Elise 2 which has fritzed out (weird electrical shit trying to use it, too much to explain), basically it was useless. Or so I thought! Almost a year since the trouble, I thought what the hell and try to turn it on and it worked, but it was a lot weaker!!! I plugged it in and charged it for a while then went and used it in my excitement, LOL.

I am wondering if being in the pile (I admit, not really a pile, but next the magnetic Stronics while they recharged, might have don something. Or maybe they overcharged and damaged themselves in storage because they shouldn't have been so charged. I can't keep half that info straight. However, every toy I have left a long time or the ones that we dead for a while when I checked on them, all recharged. I am going to let you know as I slowly go through everything, how the different ones do.

One thing I like about the magnetic rechargeables is that they don't overcharge. I am not going to sit and watch a Stronic charge for two days (the first time) to see the exact moment it tops off so I can unplug it. I do my best to watch the charging toys, but sometimes you have to sleep, or, in my case, you get too sick to move. I'll be sure to post any interesting findings about this.

Edeneve, did you have anything to add? Did some of yours crap out?

I wish I had the time and the patience to try and find the link to the page I read telling about the different rechargeable battery types, how they work and what happens when overcharged, undercharged and long in long term storage(it was a very technical article, but it helped me). I am worried about some of my toys now and I am glad I have regular battery operated as well, so all my eggs are not in one basket. Now I need a solar recharger for my toys and E-readers in case the power is out or worse, the grid goes down. What else am I going to do but read and play with my toys with no electricity, LOL?!

What really pisses me off is that they are not putting in replaceable rechargeable batteries! For the fricking price of the toys (WAY OVERPRICED, IMO), when these are replaceable batteries, why are they not giving us that option instead of this planned obsolescence? Well, just answered that question, right? Come on back and re-buy/upgrade! One endless consumer cycle ... bullshit! I need to figure out some skills to rebuild this stuff myself and start rehabbing broken toys. OK, maybe only mine and close friends, given the ick factor, LOL. Really though, a mask, goggles, some gloves and sanitizer and I should be fine. However, I would FULLY support a company that set up a battery exchange program for their toys where once you cannot recharge them anymore yourself, you could open the unit with a screw for example and access the battery to remove and exchange JUST like with a cellphone! With the newer, more efficient battery types, they can make them in any size/style they want to, so there should not be a problem with design for them to claim they just can't do it! OK, I'm getting cranky, better stop.

OK so I went a wee bit off topic, but a post is better than no posting which is where we seem to be on this forum for now less

thanks WW. but I do have a couple questions. how do you know when a battery is charged to only 70% power? and what happens if the battery is fully charged?

hey, maybe you fell into something about malfunctioning toys that are weak cuz they won't take a full charge or even fail to charge at all. this certainly could help other people that have crapped out vibes. at least it's worth a try before tossing them. less

Sorry, but this will be messy, I have a migraine and it's hard to communicate, oops:

I can't remember the specifics of what happens, but when fully charged (for certain type of rechargeables batteries, sorry can't remember which, so I err on side of treating all like this), and then stored, it can damage itself due to the internal design. Google it if you need to, but that's why they don't ship fully charged toys to stores because they sit around for a long time. Leaving them fully discharged for storage is bad, too!! Again, I can't think/remember specifics, but an Internet search should find it for you.

I know how long the charges take normally to reach full (write it down if you need to keep track). Then, I know that if I only charge it just under what would be 3/4 of the time, that would be 70-75% OR, you can charge them fully and then run them for about 5 or more minutes to drain off some of the charge. What I do in those cases is to test them and run through all the patterns and speeds to see how it is all working. (Sometimes I have found missing pattern levels, such as only going to 1-4, instead of 1-12, depending on if there's a problem, so I like to check.) It helps to detect any loss in power if you test how all the functions run.

What I also noticed is that the lowest functions, the nearly indiscernible ones, are where I see loss of power, too! Go figure, but when I try to use them, they will slowly stop or become just the same low, constant buzz after a little while. I have no idea why and I only see this on Lelo because they so far have the only truly super low settings (which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! On the lowest pulse setting, it feels like you have a real, throbbing thing in you, like it has a pulse).

Oh, be very careful and don't store any Fun Factory Stronic vibes near electronics (so don't let whatever you watch porn on get near the toy as you use it!!). But also, keep them away from any other vibrator just to be careful (I mean rechargeable ones, don't know about regular battery ones). I don't know why, but I suspect being near those magnets did something to the workings of the Elise 2. And do not store two or more Stronics next to each other, the magnets do pull each other. less

Lithium-ion batteries have the longest life if they are kept between 40% and 80% charged.

Some other rechargeable batteries (can't remember which... NiMH, maybe?) need to be completely drained and completely charged each time or the battery "memory" will be decreased and the battery will no longer be able to hold the same charge.

So, while charging to only 70% would be beneficial for some toys, it may be detrimental to others depending on the type of batteries they use. However, I believe that many (most?) rechargeable toys are now using Lithium-ion batteries in which case the 70% rule should work just fine. less

Lithium-ion batteries have the longest life if they are kept between 40% and 80% charged.

Some other rechargeable batteries (can't remember which... NiMH, maybe?) need to be completely drained and completely charged each time or the battery "memory" will be decreased and the battery will no longer be able to hold the same charge.

So, while charging to only 70% would be beneficial for some toys, it may be detrimental to others depending on the type of batteries they use. However, I believe that many (most?) rechargeable toys are now using Lithium-ion batteries in which case the 70% rule should work just fine. less