battery storage

[andyken]

Winter is setting in, should the ni-cad battery packs be stored...full, 1/2 or dead?

 

[GoffeeRedCat]

my dad use to be an engineer for motorola and he once tested different batteries for the brick, i believe he said ni-cad can be stored dead or full, but never half! i think the theory behind it is that ni-cad had "memory eefect" to where the cells remembers the discharge and recharge, so you may only get half use of the battery if you leave it half full. but don't quote me on that, in sure someone can chime in on this!

 

[Guest]

I would charge it. When your ready to use it cycle it a couple of times.

 

[Tehlugz]

my advice would be to store nicad's at 90%+ charge for the simple reason that a fully discharged cell may degrade chemically and loose it's polarity which would render it somewhat useless

it all depends on the storage conditions, but most cells loose about 4% charge per month

some more, some less

if you plan to quit rc'ing for more then a season i'd recommend simply buying new cells because even if you cycle them they'll never be 95+% ( competitive ) again

you could also invest in a fancy cell care charger that holds a cell in a usable condition by adding a tiny charge/discharge cycle to keep it fresh

chargers like:

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-BL700.asp

that is assuming you have a splitable pack, else you could get an led ( or other low cycle load ) and let it slow discharge and recharge it once a month or so for a similar effect

this will also help balance the pack voltage