This has been going on for a while now, and I'm fed up with it. My Wii remotes won't charge if I put them into the cradle for the station.

My station is a Nyko brand. For a long period of time, I didn't play the Wii, and I didn't use the remotes. I'm assuming this is why, but I'm not sure.

I put in the remotes, they won't charge. I either have to press them down against that.. er.. metal/copper/brass thing on the back, and even then, it doesn't work all the time. I managed every now and then to get both of them charging.. but it takes quite a while. I tried cleaning it(I'll try again), but it didn't work. Any info on this?