I put my new NiMH batteries in the charger and pressed the buttons but the flashing yellow lights stayed on for hours. Why didn't it switch automatica

I put my new NiMH batteries in the charger and pressed the buttons but the flashing yellow lights stayed on for hours. Why didn't it switch automatically to charging mode?

Here's what's going on. The smart chips in your charger were confused and not quite smart enough. When you selected the conditioning feature by pushing the button you asked the charger to discharge batteries that had no initial charge. The charger works using delta V technology which senses a change in voltage but since the starting voltage for your new batteries was zero it couldn't sense the drop in voltage it was looking for and stayed in discharge mode indefinitely. This only happens with brand new batteries.

New NiMH batteries won't normally accept a full charge the first couple of charge cycles. It should take about 3 hours to completely charge new batteries (red light on). After the first charge use your batteries normally and then use the conditioning feature for the next 2-3 charges. This will bring your batteries up to full capacity faster. The blinking yellow lights should then only stay on less than 30 minutes and then switch to charging mode automatically as the voltage drops.