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Can regular 1.5V batteries be charged?
I found an AA LR6 alkaline battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh. Does this mean it can be normally charged to this capacity?
Unfortunately, charging such batteries makes no sense and we definitely advise against such action - why? We explain in our article.
Can I charge disposable batteries LR6 AA, or LR03 AAA?
We absolutely do not recommend charging typical 1.5V alkaline batteries. The designation LRXX refers to a disposable alkaline battery – meaning a non-rechargeable battery.
Among our customers, there is a belief that when a given cell has a capacity expressed in mAh, it automatically associates with a rechargeable battery and the possibility of charging it.
Meanwhile, the mAh unit defines the capacity of any disposable battery as well as a rechargeable one - it is measured from discharge under specific conditions (which means that the disposable battery is already used up after such a test and is only suitable for disposal). By definition, this value allows for comparing the performance between some homogeneous power sources. However, it is a fact that this unit is much less frequently provided for disposable batteries (why? – we explain in another post). In the case of many rechargeable batteries, however, providing capacity in mAh is an obligatory requirement for the manufacturer – hence it may be a more frequent association of this unit with rechargeable batteries.
There are indeed chargers on the market that can charge even standard disposable 1.5V batteries.
Charging disposable batteries has been and is the subject of experiments, also in our internal lab. One can try to apply a constant current of 50-150 mA to a typical "AA" LR6 alkaline battery and charge it in this way until reaching a voltage of 1.5-1.6V...
However, this really makes no sense - the more discharged the battery, the harder it will be to "charge" it this way. A charged battery can only store part of its original energy and, perhaps most importantly, the risk of leaking such a battery dramatically increases.
Such "super intelligent" chargers, which supposedly can charge alkaline batteries, are nothing more than very simple designs with very low charging current - there is nothing innovative about them, quite the opposite - we definitely discourage such inventions, unless for the sake of experiments and fun ;-)