Hej Bob Blick wrote:

>That's the problem with manufacturer data - it's wrong.

Certainly har to read - if You can ever get anything... but I have actually=
 got nice and apparently correct data from VARTA, Panasonic and some Taiwan=
 mfg.

> Another poster
>mentioned 5% per day based on his experience and I said 10% based on my
>experience. We're both right, and the manufacturers are very optimistic.

I would=B4nt say you are wrong, but far away from my experiences.
I would believe some of this is the reason:

1) The cells are damaged by overcharging or overheating by a bad charger,=
 overdischarged in application (does it really turn off completely in time)=
 or other damage

2) The appliance (or the battery meter electronics found in some laptop=
 batterypacks?) use idle current?

I have personally had good experience with Both NiCd, and even better with=
 NiMH.

I had my *two year old* original cell phone (NOKIA) battery pack (NiCd)=
 lying some (3?) months, without use, and when plugging it in the phone i=
 was surprised the phone indicated "2/3" (and really worked)!

Almost all my battery powered things (mostly DVMs) i have NiMM cells in.

Chargers, I have had some bad experiences regarding overcharging.

"Forgetting" discharged cells lying on the shelf is no good either - charge=
 before storing, to avoid them "overselfdischarge"!

-snip-

>Battery manufacturers have ALWAYS LIED, get used to it. Duracell also
>claims a D-alkaline has 18AH, and I have tested them under their
>conditions and never gotten better than 13 or so.

I personally dislike a lot of battery manufactueres for difficulties in=
 getting data in earlier projects, Duracell too, difference is Duracell is=
 just a lot more expensive...
Pity, i heard they bought VARTA, which I used before...

Well Battery chemistry is no easy task, very temperature dependant etc, but=
 data is usually very hard to get.  Like have you seen capacity marking on=
 primary batteries in normal stores?  And the Duracell TV-ads about their=
 cells giving a lot more life to toys, although independant tests have shown=
 that it is no big difference, and some even slightly better and much=
 cheaper.  Sorry i forgot which, now... i only learned to avoid Duracell. =
 (BTW word play: "Dyracell" in swedish =3D "Expensivecell")
Doesnt matter, NiMH rules!

-Not just techically, also economically and environmentally :)

And lithium is coming :)

/Morgan

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