When I noticed that the Panasonic BQ-CC55 charger had several light indicators, I wanted to know the meaning of each. So, I decided to do some testing.
Before you continue reading this post, you may want to watch the short video I made about this topic. You can watch the video is down below.
If you see a solid red, it means the battery only has 20% or less charge. A solid yellow means a 20% to 80% charge. While a solid green means 80% or more charge.
If the lights are off, it means the charging is already completed. A flashing red indicates an incompatible battery. And lastly, a flashing yellow indicates a bad battery.
Read: Meaning of Panasonic Eneloop Battery Charger Lights BQ-CC17
Panasonic BQ-CC55 Charger Light Meaning: What Each of Them Means
I put the first battery, an Eneloop Pro, in the charger, and a red light came on. I then removed it and inserted another one. This one caused a green light to come on, moving horizontally along the LED bar before finally stopping above the battery.
I then added another battery, just like that first one. With this addition, the green bar of light extended horizontally and began moving along the LED bar. Eventually that light stopped and settled above the two batteries.
I proceeded to add a third battery of the same type, and again the green light started moving along the bar. Almost immediately, I added the fourth Eneloop Pro battery.
This time, a yellow light joined the green light on its right end, and by the time the bar of light stopped moving, the green bar was above the first two batteries, but there was now yellow above the third and fourth batteries.
I continued my experiment by removing the second and fourth batteries from the charger. The first battery remained with a green light above it, while the light just above the third battery remained yellow.
I then decided to return the batteries I had removed from the charger, but swap their positions. The battery that occupied the fourth position now had a green light shining above it, and the battery in the second position had a yellow light shining above it.
I concluded that it did not matter where I put the battery, I’d still see its correct level of charge.
I proceeded to remove the last two batteries on the right side of the charger, leaving the two on the left to continue charging. Soon, no light shone on the LED bar.
I now wanted to understand why the lights on the Panasonic BQ-CC55 charger behaved the way they did.
I came to learn that every one of the LED lights shows how much energy a battery has remaining.
In my case, the batteries that caused the green light to come up were already 80% charged, or slightly less.
As for the ones that caused the yellow LED light to come up, their charge level was at least 20% but it could be as high as 80%.
Then there was the battery that caused the red light to show up. This one had its power level at 20%, and it needed a whole 80% more charge.
When you have batteries in your Panasonic BQ -CC55 charger but no light on the LED bar, that’s a good sign. It means those batteries are fully charged.
If the light is moving along the LED bar, it means the charger is still trying to determine how much energy the battery still has.
As part of my testing, I tried to charge an Energizer battery. A yellow blinking light came up, followed by a red blinking light. This meant that the battery was unfit and incompatible with my Panasonic charger.
Now you know what to do with your batteries whatever your charger’s LED indicator shows.
