charging the battery

[Guest]

true of false?

1) lithium ion battery should only be recharged when completely drained.

2) nickel cadmium battery should only be charged when completely drained.

 

[Zilbandy]

true of false?

1) lithium ion battery should only be recharged when completely drained.

2) nickel cadmium battery should only be charged when completely drained.

Due to the wording of your question, the answer to both of your
questions is false. Google on the battery types and read about them.

 

[smlunatick]

Due to the wording of your question, the answer to both of your
questions is false. Google on the battery types and read about them.

Nickel Cadmium (NiCa) seems to also "suffer" from charge usage
memory. That is to say, if you charge it before it is completely
drained, it will only retain the "charge" that you have used, on it
next recharge.

Li-on batteries have no "charge memeory" so you can charge it at any
time.

 

[Zilbandy]

Nickel Cadmium (NiCa) seems to also "suffer" from charge usage
memory. That is to say, if you charge it before it is completely
drained, it will only retain the "charge" that you have used, on it
next recharge.

Since most battery packs have more than one cell and are wired in
series with each other, discharging the battery pack could be
potentially harmful to a cell that is a bit 'weaker' than the other
cells. As the better cells discharge, the weak cell will reach totally
discharged before the others. As the others continue to discharge, the
discharge current actually attempts to charge the dead cell in a
negative direction. This could further damage the weaker cell. For
that reason, battery packs should never be totally discharged.
Ideally, you would want to discharge them to near zero, but not fully
to zero. In the past, I have found some good info in the following
newsgroup:
sci.chem.electrochem.battery