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On 27 Jun 2005 13:18:23 -0700, wrote:

Doug Kanter wrote:
Yes, it's a boating question. :-) The rechargable batteries that came with
my Raytheon handheld VHF are total crap. It'll take regular AA batteries,
but I'd also like to keep a set of rechargables handy.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's already been through the
mill, as far as buying (and discarding) lousy batteries & chargers, and
finally reaching nirvana with a particular brand that actually works.

I do know that rechargable batteries have a 'memory'. It's best to
totally discharge them once in awhile, and after you discharge them,
they will last longer. My cell phone shuts itself off when the battery
gets to a certain point. I took it to the store and they have a machine
to completely discharge it, then charge it up, and it made a lot of
difference. Also, my camcorder battery charger has a setting to
"recondition" the battery, and it does the exact same thing, discharges
it completely.

You should never discharge a rechargeable battery flat - in particular
the new NiMH and LiON batteries. 1/4 charge is fine.

But here is a good tip for you - found this out by experiment back
when I was actually working at Wannabe Big Time Mini-computer Company.

If you only charge the batteries to about 80% of full charge, you'll
be able to get 500 to 1000 cycles from them. We discovered that all
the 'wear' on a battery occurs as it transitions from nearly fully
charged to completely charged, and so if you only charge to 80% of
capacity, you'll get much longer life.

It's kind of a pain to do this, but it does work. We used to use
NiCAD devices to keep memory ticking over and that's what we
discovered through experimentation based on some information from the
battery manufacturer that we sort of cadged during a technical
discussion one day. One of my engineers got this - "I wonder" look in
his eye, he talked it over with me - we did some experiments and I'll
be damned if it wasn't true.

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