Since there are opinions being slung left and right, I'll give you mine.

First take a look at this web site http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/

You can read the bio and there is a bunch of information there, so I won't
repeat it here.

Second, my opinions:

I've been using NiCad's for 15 years flying R/C airplanes. In that time, I
have never had a battery develop a memory nor have I ever had a battery fail
in flight. I have made, literally, hundreds of flights and put my batteries
through many charge-discharge cycles (but not to complete discharge). I
cycle my batteries once a year on a modestly priced battery cycler. It
discharges the batteries down to 1.1 volts per cell and then recharges them.
The ONLY reason I do this is to determine the capacity of the battery pack.
If my pack drops below 80% of stated capacity, it flies a bench from then
on.

I believe the secret is do not leave a battery pack on constant trickle or
ever let it stay completely discharged for any length of time. I wrecked a
number of packs before I figured that out (using expensive battery
maintenance equipment I might add). I do, however, keep them charged by
charging them at least every 2 or 3 months. That is not a problem since
they usually get this through normal use.

I maintain my Dewalt cordless drill in a similar manner. I don't check for
capacity, but I do note how long the packs last in use (no crash possibility
here). When I graduated from a 9.6 volt drill to a 12 volt drill, I passed
the older Drill to my BIL. I had it 4 years and he is still using it 6
years later with the original packs. The 12 volt drill is, of course, 6
years old and still on the original packs.


--
Regards,
Mike
Flower Mound, Texas
"