Agree. I don't believe in total discharge. I was involved with recharging
banks of NiCad batteries. We never deeply discharged and had them last for
20 years or more. Of course those were big commercial units. We never let
them get below 50% state of charge.

My theory is that memory only shows up if you repeatedly discharge to the
same level of state of charge. Varying the depth of discharge or even just
one deep one with wipe out any accumulated memory effect.

I think more important is the number of discharges.

For tools and the like I keep them on a curcuit where I turn on a switch
occasionaly for a few minutes. A timer would work too.


"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
I've read this isn't a good idea. Sometimes one cell goes weak before the
others, and then you get voltage reversal on the weak cell.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Olaf" wrote in message
...


I usually tape the trigger on when my Ni-Cd tools run low and let it
completely drain the battery before I charge it. They hold a good charge
for quite a while. I've found the tool wears out before the battery
does...
but I'm a little rough.