battery length?

[aegfairfield]

ok,so, most of you know of my being new to airsoft, and i have a question since i am going to purchase an Echo 1 m4a1 but the only concern is battery length (not battery life) if i charge the battery all day the day before i go to a say, 5 hour game, would the battery last 5 hours fully charged?

not really asking for an Echo 1 opinion, but aegs in general, if fully charged, would the battery last 5 hours?

thanks in advance.

[Evil Head]

Battery run time is going to depend on your style of play. If you fire semi auto or in short burts using standard mags or a single hicap, you could stretch a low mah battery through out a day. If you plan to go in spraying away, plan to have to recharge or change batteries. I have made it through a day on a single 8.4v 1500 mah battery during milsim events. On more casual days, I have burned up a 9.6v 2000 mah battery in half a day. Your charger could also effect your run time. Cheaper chargers tend to give you less peak than more expensive ones.

To sum it up, there are many things that are going to affect your run time like temperature, semi auto or full auto, charger, and bunch of other factors. You are going to have to feel it out yourself. If your are conservative and with a good charge, I don't see why you couldn't make any battery last all day.

[brandon]

I just want to add that you most likely should not be leaving your battery on the charger all day long. Most of the time this will ruin your battery. I'd say just charge it until it gets hot (easiest way to determine if your battery is charged) and then take it off. Then maybe throw it back on the charger for a few minutes the morning before you leave to play.

Again, thats just my two cents, others may have some better advice or "tricks" for you.

-Brandon

[M&N]

The only full proof way to tell how long you have to charge is divide the out put of the charger by the total capacity of the battery take the number and add one to it.

EX. output 500mah divide 1500mah = 3hours plus 1 more = 4 hour charge time

[Agent Spencer]

Or just go to AA or AirsoftSmith and pick up a Smart Charger that will tell you when the battery is fully charged. If you just follow brandon's method, you run the risk of melting the battery.

Spencer

[hkrazy]

The JG/ECHO 1 series comes with a 1100mah NiMh battery if I am not mistaken. If you charge it fully and leave it around for 10 days, it should have self discharged itself. In combat, your battery should last a little over 1000 rounds.

As for charging, look at the charger. Normally, the cheap package chargers are about 350 mah. Thats how many Mah it puts in the battery each hour. so if your charger is 100 Mah and battery 600, then you would charge it for 6 hours. If the charger is 350 mah, and the battery is 1100, 1100/350=3.14 hours.

But if it gets hot, take it off. Heat is bad, especially for NiMh batteries.

Woah, the 2 previos posts went up while I was writing.