Is it bad to use an airsoft gun before it its fully charged?

Question

I just got a new airsoft gun and i charged it for about 15 minutes and started using it to see its feel. And it wasn't as fast as i expected. I also dont know how long to charge it.

it has 8.4V 700 mAH

Answer 1

Well it's best with any new battery to fully charge it before use. This will keep the cells working at peak efficiency.

15 mins charge time would be barely enough to squeeze off a couple of rounds. No wonder it was slow.

Charge it properly before using it again.

To figure out how long to charge a battery for:

(battery capacity (battery's mAh rating)/charger output (mA - usually written on the charger)) x 1.4(for NiCad batteries, 1.5 for NiMh batteries) = time (in hours).

For example:

I have an 1100 mAh battery and a charger which outputs at 180mA. It's a NiMh battery so you multiply by 1.5.

(1100/180) x 1.5 = 9.146666 hours

Note that the result in decimal, so 9.16 hours is NOT 9 hours and 16 mins! 0.16 of an hour is approximately one sixth of an hour or ten mins.

Other things to note: The multiplier of 1.4 or 1.5 is to account for the resistance in the cells as you're charging, If you don't use it then you won't get a full charge.

Often online stores will tell you to change a battery for only a few hours. This is almost always wrong (they can't possibly know what combination of batteries and chargers you've got) they're covering their asses to prevent you from overcharging your battery on their advice and trying to claim for a new one...

Answer 2

Yes very much! You see when you under-charge a battery it means that you lose some of the life of the battery. You might have just messed your battery up permanently but still you should never under-charge your battery. If you did you can go to shortyusa.com and buy a new one for about $25. And to see how long you charge it just take your charger and see what it says. If your battery is 700mAH and the charger is 150 divide it. Making the time about 4.25 hours. I hope this helped.  

Answer 3

see what your charger says, typically you charge the batteries for a certain amount of hours, I think i had one that would charge in 6 hours, this was years ago tho.  using an undercharged battery wont hurt the gun itself, but the same rules apply to these batteries as other rechargeable ones.  Your typically supposed to charge batteries for a longer period of time when you first get them.  Also batteries develop memories, if you charge them for inconsistent amount of times, or before they are fully depleted, then they wont hold the charge as long as they should (think of a cell phone, mine doesnt hold a charge as long as it did when i first bought it).  Although what you just did probably isnt going to hurt your battery to a point that you will notice, just be consistent and follow directions in the future.

Answer 4

No theres nothing wrong with doing that, it won't harm the gun, it will just be less powerful then as if it were fully charged.