Cuda 400 battery problem

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leabre

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
566
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Location
Orange County, CA
# of dives
200 - 499
I have a new Cuda 400 that I bought in May or June 2012. This past Saturday was the 4th dive with it. I have never depleted the battery yet and charge it just before using it. On Saturday I did about 20 minutes of burn time in 4th and 5th gears towing a buddy (me in dry suit him in wet, both single tanks). Used it for 10 minutes out, and 10 back in. At the tail end of the second 10 it reverted back to a lower gear every time I would up shift. It sounds like I may have drained the battery. But I charged it last night and after about 40 minutes the green light started blinking and not long after it indicated full charge. Should suspect the battery may have a problem, the charger, or something else?

---------- Post added January 22nd, 2013 at 09:58 AM ----------

UPDATE: I powered off the charger for a while and then turned it back on and it took at least 5 hours before indicating a charge. So it appears that I did drain the battery but perhaps the charger has a problem?
 
Last edited:
I have a new Cuda 400 that I bought in May or June 2012. This past Saturday was the 4th dive with it. I have never depleted the battery yet and charge it just before using it. On Saturday I did about 20 minutes of burn time in 4th and 5th gears towing a buddy (me in dry suit him in wet, both single tanks). Used it for 10 minutes out, and 10 back in. At the tail end of the second 10 it reverted back to a lower gear every time I would up shift. It sounds like I may have drained the battery. But I charged it last night and after about 40 minutes the green light started blinking and not long after it indicated full charge. Should suspect the battery may have a problem, the charger, or something else?

---------- Post added January 22nd, 2013 at 09:58 AM ----------

UPDATE: I powered off the charger for a while and then turned it back on and it took at least 5 hours before indicating a charge. So it appears that I did drain the battery but perhaps the charger has a problem?

The fact that it took 5 hours on the second charging attempt indicated that it did a real charge, How much run-time did you get after the 5 hour charge?

It could be that with only 4 charges in 7 months that the battery just needs a few cycles to get running smoothly, whenever we test a battery here at the shop that hasnt been used much it takes 4-5 cycles to get to full capacity
 
The fact that it took 5 hours on the second charging attempt indicated that it did a real charge, How much run-time did you get after the 5 hour charge?

It could be that with only 4 charges in 7 months that the battery just needs a few cycles to get running smoothly, whenever we test a battery here at the shop that hasnt been used much it takes 4-5 cycles to get to full capacity

Ben, thanks for the reply. That makes sense. I haven't used the scooter yet since the 5 hour charge (that was this morning) but plan to soon and will report on the run time.
 
Ive seen very poor performance out of my 400 battery when it has sat there for 2 months or so unused. Running in a bucket a few times seems to wake it up and brings it back to what I consider normal.

It's pretty annoying as 2 months isn't a long time between splashes in my view. I got 7 min out if it the other day, then 70min on the next dive after a few runs in a bucket in the days between. I saw the voltage register as little as 10v which give me cause for alarm though, but seems to be fine after a few runs. Battery is 12-18months old I think.

Otherwise a great little unit.
 
NiMH batteries have a high self discharge rate, especially in hot weather. You should charge it every month whether its used or not. And charge before any use.
 
I had a similar problem last month on my 650, during a cave diving trip. I would only get 25-45 min run time & the scooter was only about 4- 5 mos old. I discovered it was only charging about an hour & a half before moving to the "Trickle charge" mode. On the last night of using the scooter, when I plugged the battery in, I noticed that the charger cooling fan ran about 5 seconds, then stopped. I repeated this a couple more times. A buddy of mine who had a small fan, let me borrow it. I charged the scooter a full 6 hrs before it went to trickel charge, using the exterior fan. I contacted Dive Xtras about my problem & what I discovered. They had me send in the charger's serial #. It seems mine came from a bad batch of chargers. They sent a new one out to me right away! Great customer service!
 

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