BATTERY CONSTRUCTION
AND PERFORMANCE:
Stock Mattel vs. Playing Mantis (GP)
CONSTRUCTION:
Mattel outer casing: Metal
Uses "Dump" method for recharging.
Originally designed by General Electric exclusively for Sizzlers.
Playing Mantis outer casing: Metal/Plastic
Uses "Trickle" method for recharging.
Produced by GP, a huge battery conglomerate located in China.
PERFORMANCE:
There is still much confusion about old vs. new chargers with different batteries. I have not found any PUBLISHED data on the batteries and how they were constructed. But, here are my real world impressions and experience with both of the batteries and chargers:
Mattel (or modern replacement): Cars will run 4-6 minutes on a 90-second charge. Charging cars for more than 90-seconds will cause the battery to overheat and lose charging capablilities.
Playing Mantis: Cars will run 15-18 minutes on a 20-minute charge. Charging cars for more than that will not adversely affect the performance right away. However, continuous overcharging of these batteries will severely degrade the performance.
SWITCHING CHARGERS/BATTERIES:
1. I tried to use a Mattel charger to charge up a PM car. It promptly heated up the battery. This damaged the battery, and it would not retain a very good charge after that. Shortly afterward, the battery burned out.
2. I tried the PM Charger to try and charge the Mattel battery. It worked, but the performance was not as good as using the Mega-Charger. I have not pushed these batteries to the limit yet.
I recommend using the respective charger with the respective car. Because the charger connection and battery voltage are the same, you can try to swap the batteries out in the cars. Some contact adjustments might need to be made, however. The PM batteries are slightly wider due to the plastic casing.
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