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I've found each battery pack to have its own discharge characteristic. I think that the packs vary more with age. All the hassle with battery packs is the price you pay to be able to be truly portable. I've seen post after post about rechargeable batteries on this forum but hardly anything about the proper use and treatment of Nicades or Nmh cells. Killer .1 That fast charger you use to hurry things along. It generates battery killing heat within the pack itself. Slow charge when ever possible.(C-10 rate). Killer .2 Not running the battery down enough between charges contributes to the so called memory effect. Figure a cell(Nmh. or Nicade) run down if its below 1.20 vdc. Both types of battery works within the 1.20 to 1.25 vdc range. Nmh batteries do have a memory despite what you maybe told by your local tool salesperson. Killer .3 Leaving your battery packs exposed to high temperature's such as inside a closed truck cab or tool box in mid-summer heat. Because I fly radio controlled airplanes I've had to learn about battery systems. The effect of the hot cab/toolbox escaped me for a while. Once I learned that storage heat was killing my tool packs I was able to double or even sometimes triple my battery life. A cheap cooler with reusable ice packs all but eliminated my battery problems. It's also cheaper than a battery pack. Killer .4 Don't forget that battery powered tool's in order to stay small and portable give up a certain amount of power in return. Working them twice as hard usually don't make-up for a tools that too small to began with. Don't expect a great improvement if you switch from Nicades to Nmh. The Nicade still has the edge. The next real advance in tool batteries will be a suitable Lithium-ion battery. It's here already but expensive.
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