wrote in message
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On Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:07:19 -0700 (PDT), "

stuff snipped

Best practice is not always possible - which is why I say better
charged than flat and open circuit - and better flat and open circuit
than flat and shorted for a battery - better flat and shorted for a
single cell.

You don't have to agree with me, but that's what I've always been
taught - and from what I gather from the very limited information on
the net, nothing has changed my mind.

Long term CELL storage - drained and shorted
Long term BATTERY storage - DO NOT SHORT.
If you cannot store drained and shorted (which is not practical for a
BATTERY of cells,) store charged - and recharge every few months.

As usual, you are free to store YOURS however you want.
And it's a free world - you can agree with me, or you can dissagree
with me.
So far nothing YOU can cite proves me wrong.

FWIW, I still have about 20 Lafayette hi-cap NiCads that were always stored
fully charged that still take and hold a charge. I've had cheap Chinese
batteries fail no matter which way they were stored. I've also tried the
whisker burning zapping method but the cells would never work as well as
unwhiskered cells afterwards. The damn whiskers would ALWAYS grow back.

I finally got a LaCrosse charger with an LCD readout of charge rates,
voltage, amount of charge taken, etc. for each individual battery (it holds
four AA/AAA's. When a cell turns up bad (i.e. takes 3Ah of charge instead of
800mAh) into the trash it goes. Life's too short to risk injury from
zapping. I had an AAA NiCad cell explode with the force of a .22LR. That
was that for zapping. I found myself asking "are you so damn cheap you
can't throw away a bad battery?"

I also test cells by charging them up and bagging them with a date on them.
A month or two later I discard all the cells that show under 1 volt. I've
had some interesting results with the newer NiMH batteries that can hold 80%
of their charge for a year. Oddly, the expensive Enerloop batteries fared
much worse in my tests than the much cheaper AC/Delco version. Go figure.
I'm guessing that each battery maker uses slightly different "goo" and
manufacturing techniques and one size/method of charging does NOT fit all.

I might try adding "drained and shorted" to some of what my wife fondly
calls "my science projects" but I've largely stopped using individual NiCad
cells for anything. Not enough power or longevity of charge compared to
NiMH. The new AC/Delco's seem to be ideal for things that tend to get
accidentally left on.

--
Bobby G.