The Medway Handyman wrote:

Is it possible to find out how much charge remains in a drill/driver
battery? Connecting a multi meter doesn't seem to give sensible figures.
Any way of measuring the charge remaining?

Not with much certainty. The only realistic way is to charge it with a
decent delta peak sensing charger. You then get an indication of how
flat it was by the charge time.

Also, I have a rechargeable torch with apparently a sealed lead/acid
battery. Can I simply charge this whenever, or will the battery develop a
memory? Should I wait till it goes flat?

Sealed Lead Acid batteries don't have a memory effect and quite like
being "float charged". The thing they like least is deep discharge.

Lastly, I have an SIP 18v circular saw about 9 months old with 2 x 1.9 a/hr
batteries, but they don't seem to last any length of time at all - never
have done. Anything I can do with them?

Re-cell them with better quality (and higher capacity) cells. It is
surprising the improvement you can get from some tools just by replacing
the supplied batteries.

General tips for NiCd / NiMh batts:

Discharge them until they shown signs of fading - don't carry on using
the battery after that point.

Use a decent charger / Don't overcharge

Don't charge a hot battery - if you have been working it hard, then let
it cool for half an hour before charging. (helps to have three batts for
this reason)

Periodically recharge them if left in storage for any length of time.





--
Cheers,

John.

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