We all know about the conflicts of over charging or not draining down drill/ tool batteries. Most are now past that stage of “run the tool till it dies” mentality.
My Computer a Toshiba Satellite recommends a drain down once a month. Hmmmmm. Why is that? Cordless Phones also recommend this..
I have Bud in a battery shop, and he explains it as “buyer beware” this practice actually limits the overall life, hence more batteries sold.
some packs can’t be re”packed” and my ‘puter is one of them..another recent corpse is my wife’s cell phone battery..a Kyocera..less than a yr. old. It won’t hold a charge.
Any thoughts or experiances?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
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It's a function of A) The type of battery, some (NiCads in particular) do have a "memory" and B) The charger. Some of the newer chargers have a microprocessor that "conditions" the battery while it's charging. My experience has been that the manufacturers recommendations are pretty accurate. With some perseverance I think virtually any pack can be rebuilt, very few devices have custom made battery cells.
It has to do with battery type, but contrary to "common knowledge" it's backwards from what many folks think. (I have this on good authority from some real live laptop battery experts -- the guys that actually design the things.)
NiCads SHOULD NOT be run all the way down. However, if you're not planning to use them for awhile, allow them to self-discharge naturally from whatever state they're in vs leaving them on charge or recharging from time to time.
NMIH batteries SHOULD be run all the way down (to the point where the device stops working, at least) occasionally. (Don't know whether they are best stored charged or flat, though.)
Lead-acid batteries should never be run flat. When stored they should be on trickle charge or be recharged regularly.
(A little warning here about "trickle charge": Many chargers produce far too much current in trickle mode and will damage a battery if left charging all the time. Better to have a timer on the charger so that it only charges an hour a day, or, if you can find a week timer, maybe 4 hours/week.)