On Sun, 28 May 2006 21:09:15 +0100, T i m wrote
(in article ):

On Sun, 28 May 2006 20:23:39 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


I have had Nicads in many forms and uses over many years and never
experienced this 'memory effect' ?

Of all the rerchargables I have had so far the Nicads have shown to be
the most durable ..

Provided that they are good quality ones, properly charged with a decent
charger then that may well be true.

That isn't the application here though.

Isn't it? I suggest (within reason) any production battery / charger /
portable drill used *properly* will do what the OP requires but none
will do what he hoped ;-)

The trouble is that the hoped for use and doesn't equate very well to
"properly", and will be exacerbated in an entry level product

True, possibly so with a *very* cheap one?

A thought though .. is there a factory somewhere that actually
bothers to turn out completely duff cells or are they all going to be
useable these days (not prime steak but useable nonetheless)?

For products sold on price, certainly. The retailers demand quite
substantial margin so it's not hard to work backwards.



I have several sets of *cheap* 7.2V nicad packs that are quite old
(~10 years) have been used both hard and intermittently (fast charge
rates then left unmaintained for *years*) and they are still up to
spec (according to my cycler).

Morse frustrating is some of the cheaper (unbranded) cells seem in
better fettle than some Sanyo's of the same age / useage? ;-(

Who knows? A couple of years ago when the industry norm was 12 and 14.4v
tools and was just starting to add 18v ones, Panasonic came out with a 15.6v
product. It outperformed and outlasted 14.4v products from other vendors ,
which is not surprising. What was surprising was that it outperformed
almost all 18v products apart from the very high end ones. The reason was
the battery technology.




So, is it possible that yer 20 quid with 2 batteries and a reasonable
auto charger / reversable / keyless market cordless would perform
similarly well (for the op) as a 200 quid one might (re self discharge
/ battery life etc). I know the one I bought does ..?

It depends on your criteria. The OP's were battery longevity in the face
of little care and occasional use. Other issues such as precision,
control, ease of use, ergonomics, service and spares were not mentioned, but
reasonably would not be expected in an entry level product.

If one spends £200, all of those things can be expected and obtained as well.
For £60-80 one can get something with reasonably good batteries that will
last well.



I'm not suggesting there isn't a difference here of course .. you
generally 'get's what ya pays for' but sometimes the 'white label'
stuff has the same contents the fancy wrapper .. ?

TTI are masters of that.




All the best ..

T i m

p.s. My De-Walt cordless has been a pretty good workhorse but both
batteries will be (nearly) flat if left for a long time (but will
liven up within a couple of cycles) ;-)