On Apr 1, 11:50*am, J Burns wrote:
Anthona wrote:
I just purchased online from home depot an edger/trimmer...In the
specifications it said electric, *nothing mentioned about batteries.
and i thought that was what i getting. It turned out it was cordless
with 18v ni-cad battery. Now from past experience, i have had bad luck
with those batteries...mostly through my ignorance of different type
of batteries..Recently i learned that Lithium batteries were the
better choice, if i was going for cordless. I went back to the site
and sure enough, the heading of the sale did say cordless. Now can
someone tell me how to maintain these batteries when not in use?
Obviously here in the new england area i won't be using it all year.
The *manual says nothing about that.

NiCads last for far more discharge cycles than other batteries and are
more tolerant to high discharge currents and overcharging.

The problem is crystal growth. *It reduces capacity and eventually
shorts the cell. *Leaving the cell on a charger causes the fastest
growth. *They also grow when a cell sits.

Once a month, exercising a cell by discharging it down to 1 V will
dissolve crystals and increase life expectancy by about ten times. *If
it has been more than 3 months, slowly discharging from 1 V down to 0.6
V may help.

Having 15 cells in a sealed battery pack complicates maintenance.

Drain a Nicad pack and you can easily reverse a cells polarity and
ruin the whole pack, 1.2v is considered discharged, I wonder if 1v is
bad for a single cell V. I have 20 yr old packs that still get me some
use and I never drain them past when the tool slows down or excersise
them.