I Beg to differ with you.
I have on occasions, and know friends who have damaged
Ni-Cad batteries. They were damaged by partial depletion
then recharging. They were in sealed waterproof torches
and over a period of time the batteries were damaged by
that method of charging. I now always run my batteries from
full to empty no mater what type.
taz.


Top-up charging is the best regime for NiCd's used in a torch. Full
discharge every time simply wears out the cells unnecessarily.

Of course cells vary enormously in quality and it is virtually
impossible to buy decent ones from retail outlets.

--
Keith Lewis

I agree Keith there are a lot of variables to batteries and the way
they are charged. The trouble with most set-ups IMHO is one cell
will fail in the battery and then the battery as a unit starts to perform
badly. Good cells are hard to get hold of and can easily be damaged
by incorrect use. In my experience if a cell is sold with the label good for
2000 charge cycles I've found that, that number can be reduced by half
if not even 3/4. So in real terms a battery that should be good for 2000
charges sometimes only last for 500 maybe 1000 charges.
Not a scientific answer just my own experience.
taz.