Battery Memory?

[The Great Wallsendo]

Been reading that battieres if not treated correctly can develop a "memory" and thus become less effective - how do you negate this effect?

..just bought some new batteries for the headlamp and I'm keen to treat them right in order to get my moneys worth

info appreciated in advance

 

[mark]

Been reading that battieres if not treated correctly can develop a "memory" and thus become less effective - how do you negate this effect?

..just bought some new batteries for the headlamp and I'm keen to treat them right in order to get my moneys worth

info appreciated in advance

you can't, not entirely anyway. all batteries build up a memory over time.

when they are only partially discharged, batteries 'remember' the unused charge next time and don't cycle fully

best way way to minise the memory effect is by deep cycling them - letting them fully discharge before recharging.

its balancing act though, if they are deep cycled every time, one of the cells might get out of balance with the others and overcharge itseld when it recharges.

with the laptop batteries I try to fully discharge and fully recharge them every 4 or 5 cycles. seems to be the best 'balance' I've found

the lithiums in my current laptop are currently showing 374 cycles and are still going strong (good for about 4 hours), but thats about the limit, I'm expecting them to fall off a cliff and just collapse really quickly and day now!

 

[The Plum]

just leave it on all day in the house and let it go right down now and again mate then charge from flat ,that stops the memory and keeps it right

 

[63jul]

hi walsendo dont post often but might be able to help re battery memory. the ni-cad battery of old did develop a memory if not charged and discharged fully, hence the introduction of the metal nickle hydryde which they say is less prone to memory. the latest lithium ion batteries are said not to develop a memory and can be left in any state, or charged at any time without harming the battery or it developing a memory. all rechargable batteries regardless of type require a few charge cycles for the battery to build up its full capacity. ta andy

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

hi walsendo dont post often but might be able to help re battery memory. the ni-cad battery of old did develop a memory if not charged and discharged fully, hence the introduction of the metal nickle hydryde which they say is less prone to memory. the latest lithium ion batteries are said not to develop a memory and can be left in any state, or charged at any time without harming the battery or it developing a memory. all rechargable batteries regardless of type require a few charge cycles for the battery to build up its full capacity. ta andy

Cheers for that - good info...cheers lads

 

[treeboa]

tip, if you have replaced a set that have developed a memory, heave the old set in the freezer for a couple of days and then let them thaw out before recharging, does not work on all but i have had it work on a couple lappy, phone and nicad batts, does not work on std or lead acids though

 

[5150]

Price of Nimh's these days makes it pretty moot, I used to get mine from 7dayshop (7dayshop.com - Online shopping made easy !) also got 2 of their fast chargers, handy since they come with a car adapter so you can charge while you're on the move. Seem to have put the prices up looking today though. Aldi does 4 AA's for £2.99 and I've got a few sets of them, seem decent enough quality and certainly hold up in the big digital camera I've got.

 

[kela66]

i don't know if this applies to your light but my old bike lights manual suggested charging them a couple of times in the summer too ie when you don't use them for months or they may not fully charge up the next winter