I have some Ni_cad batteries to charge but that charger died.
Would I be likely to get in a mess if I used the Ni-MH charge=er?

AA size

NiCad chargers typically rely on a delta V signal that the battery is fully charges (a slight drop in voltage when full). Not sure about NiMHi. That chemistry is more sensitive to heat and power draws, so the charger may be set up differently.

I wouldn't. NiCad and NiMH batteries have different charge profiles.

My two multi-bay "universal" chargers somehow know how to tell the difference between NiCAD, NiMH, and Li-Ion. They show me what they sense in each bay when I put batteries in them.

Are there still applications where Ni-Cad batteries are superior?

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Are there still applications where Ni-Cad batteries are superior?

Apparently when really extreme operating temperature range is required, otherwise no.

With nimh, the charger has to be smarter about detecting when the battery is charged, so there’s that, but these days the whole charging process is handled by a chip that costs a couple bucks so no big deal.

Nimh is higher capacity, doesn’t suffer from the dreaded “memory” effect (where only partially charging or discharging results in permanent loss of capacity), and isn’t full of cadmium (which is very toxic).

It used to be that nicd was cheaper and had a lower self-discharge rate (tendency to lose charge just sitting there). Nimh got cheaper as production volume increased, nicd got more expensive as production decreased, and nimh variants were developed with self-discharge far lower than nicd (like Eneloop).

It is almost impossible to even FIND nicd batteries these days because for almost every conceivable consumer use, nimh is far superior in every way that matters.