Keep your batteries alive

[David Ragan]

About the rechargeable batteries, whether NiCad/Lithium, etc.

My friend, Rodney, about mid 50s, found his calling in life a few years ago working for Batteries and Bubs. He is the chief technician; was offered mgr, and said not interested. Smart guy.

He is really into battery technology.

So I asked him one day to replace my rechargeable batteries a couple of units that went caput.

He said it can't be done in an affordable way.

I said how do I keep my batteries alive, besides rotating them in and out of service.

He said every month, charge them, whether used in the interim or not.

So, that's I been doing. I keep a piece of masking tape on each one, and put the date of last charge on it. So far, have not lost another one .

[ken masoumi]

Charging them every couple of months (even when they are not being used) routine has worked for me with my AA & AAA NIMH batteries.

I have a good battery charger/analyser (Maha Energy MH-C9000) that can discharge, analyse, recharge batteries efficiently, it can also recharge/analyze old/weak batteries(does that automatically but it takes 18 hour or so for the very weak ones),most of my batteries are Duraloop made in japan,not too expensive but very reliable,the second best is Duracell rechargeables.

I highly recommend the Maha charger.

[Scott Brandstetter]

Thanks for this info David. I will adopt this method as well and keep tape on each battery. Great tip