Will running battery all the way down extend its life cycle between uses?

[Eddy Current]

For instance a drill battery or does it depend on the type of battery?

 

[chas3]

Battery life cycle

Battery life cycle

Thats what iv'e heard.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I think it depends on the type of battery

 

[Little Bill]

That has not been true for quite a while. The "memory effect" is non existant now.
Li-Ion batteries will just shut-off when they get low. It's better to keep it charged at all times or when possible. I learned this the hard way!

 

[ActionDave]

For instance a drill battery or does it depend on the type of battery?

No and no. I learned the hard way too.

 

[T.M.Haja Sahib]

No, there would in fact be deep discharge cut off circuit in well designed lead acid dry type battery power supply systems.

 

[broadgage]

Nickel cadmium batteries should be fully or nearly fully discharged from time to time or they tend to suffer from a memorery effect that reduces the capacity.
Nickel cadmium batteries are not much used these days.

All other common battery types should be kept fully charged when possible, and not needlesly fully discharged.
A good qaulity lead acid battery installation should have deep discharge protection that disconnectes the battery from the load when the voltage drops too low.
Regularly discharging the battery that far will still shorten its life.
The deep discharge protection circuit should be looked upon as the last resort, and not as the point to which the battery should be regularly discharged.

 

[Besoeker]

No, there would in fact be deep discharge cut off circuit in well designed lead acid dry type battery power supply systems.

Not many lead acid batteries in drills........
And NiCads are tolerant of deep discharge.

 

[T.M.Haja Sahib]

And NiCads are tolerant of deep discharge.

But they are not tolerant of high temperature due to any deep discharge as a result of continuous high current.

 

[supra]

But they are not tolerant of high temperature due to any deep discharge as a result of continuous high current.

Proven by my helper multiple times, usually after i tell him to go get the damn hole-hawg. :rant:

 

[Rick Christopherson]

A common mistake with discharging NiCd batteries is that the person over-discharges them. Don't run the drill until the motor barely turns. This over-discharges the battery pack. This can cause cell reversal, and that will destroy the cell.

The most common way to kill any type of battery is to leave it on the charger after it has been charged. Even an intelligent charger that switches to maintenance mode after fully charging the battery, the battery should not be left on the charger for extended periods. If it's a non-intelligent charger, then the battery should be removed as soon as it is charged. If you want to extend the battery life of your cell phone or laptop, then don't leave them plugged in all the time.

NiCd and NiMH battery life is dependant on how many charge cycles they have experienced. That even includes partial recharging. So for these batteries, it is best to run them through full discharge and charge cycles.

As for Li-Ion, the less fully charged they are, the longer they will last. There were a few posters that stated to always keep them fully charged. This is not correct. Their lifespan is based on calander-age, but will be reduced if they are kept at full charge. These batteries are not affected by how many times they have been recharged; only by calander age. But if they are not being used, it is best to not recharge them until they are needed. If they are going to be stored for a long time, it is best to have them at about 50% charge, but monitor them to ensure they do not drop too low. They have a very low self-discharge rate, so they can be stored for quite a while before they drop below their minimum voltage and their internal circuitry disables them permanently.

 

[K8MHZ]

A common mistake with discharging NiCd batteries is that the person over-discharges them. Don't run the drill until the motor barely turns. This over-discharges the battery pack. This can cause cell reversal, and that will destroy the cell.

The most common way to kill any type of battery is to leave it on the charger after it has been charged. Even an intelligent charger that switches to maintenance mode after fully charging the battery, the battery should not be left on the charger for extended periods. If it's a non-intelligent charger, then the battery should be removed as soon as it is charged. If you want to extend the battery life of your cell phone or laptop, then don't leave them plugged in all the time.

NiCd and NiMH battery life is dependant on how many charge cycles they have experienced. That even includes partial recharging. So for these batteries, it is best to run them through full discharge and charge cycles.

As for Li-Ion, the less fully charged they are, the longer they will last. There were a few posters that stated to always keep them fully charged. This is not correct. Their lifespan is based on calander-age, but will be reduced if they are kept at full charge. These batteries are not affected by how many times they have been recharged; only by calander age. But if they are not being used, it is best to not recharge them until they are needed. If they are going to be stored for a long time, it is best to have them at about 50% charge, but monitor them to ensure they do not drop too low. They have a very low self-discharge rate, so they can be stored for quite a while before they drop below their minimum voltage and their internal circuitry disables them permanently.

A smart charger will actually turn itself off when the battery reaches a full charge. Periodically, the charger will come on so it can check the voltage, then decide if it's time to charge or not. If not, the charger turns back off and waits until the next go around.

That's different than a float charge, which is a small, but constant maintenance charge. That keeps the battery charged, but shortens it's life. Before smart chargers we (ham radio / emergency service types) would use float chargers, but put them on a timer. That made all the difference in the world.

I have two smart chargers, one I use as a charger and a small 6w that I use as a maintainer. I have a pigtail on the battery of my Harley so I can keep the smart charger connected all winter. It's not much fun taking the battery out. I also have one on one of my vans so if I let that sit I can keep a charger on it as needed.

Neither smart charger will turn on if the battery voltage is too low. I play with batteries a lot and squeeze every last electron out of them before they go to the recyclers. One trick is to use a charged battery to force charge a totally dead one enough for the smart charger to turn on.

The larger of the two chargers has a fault code readout. You need some savvy to know what they mean, but if you do it is possible to fix some of the problems and get a full charge with no codes from a not so good battery.

 

[hurk27]

Nickel cadmium batteries should be fully or nearly fully discharged from time to time or they tend to suffer from a memory effect that reduces the capacity.
Nickel cadmium batteries are not much used these days.

That has not been true for a long time unless you guys on the other side of the pond still get these old technology Ni-Cads, I believe it was in the late 80's when we started seeing this problem go away, I can remember my old Mikita pistol grip drill warning about this problem in the instruction book. The rest I agree fully with, But there is some special instructions on LI-Ion I will mention below.

But they are not tolerant of high temperature due to any deep discharge as a result of continuous high current.

Kind of an empty response since most batteries are not tolerant of a high discharge rate depending on what would be considered "high" place 500 amp or more on your car battery and see how long it will last?

A common mistake with discharging NiCd batteries is that the person over-discharges them. Don't run the drill until the motor barely turns. This over-discharges the battery pack. This can cause cell reversal, and that will destroy the cell.

I agree with this statement, But why did you reverse this below????

The most common way to kill any type of battery is to leave it on the charger after it has been charged. Even an intelligent charger that switches to maintenance mode after fully charging the battery, the battery should not be left on the charger for extended periods. If it's a non-intelligent charger, then the battery should be removed as soon as it is charged. If you want to extend the battery life of your cell phone or laptop, then don't leave them plugged in all the time.

I don't agree with this if you are using the manufacture supplied charging unit, I have yet to find one that continuously charges after the battery has reached full float, everyone I have tested shuts off the charge and only turns back on when the charge level on the battery has dropped to a certain level it then comes back on at a maintenance charge level which in most cases is a much lighter charge level then when doing a full charge, if the battery has bad cell or two some chargers will keep trying to charge it back to full float but it just never reaches this voltage so it never kicks off, but smart chargers will detect this condition and shut down, my Dewalt charger will start flashing really fast when this is detected.

NiCd and NiMH battery life is dependent on how many charge cycles they have experienced. That even includes partial recharging. So for these batteries, it is best to run them through full discharge and charge cycles.

Why the reversal of your first sentence?

As for Li-Ion, the less fully charged they are, the longer they will last. There were a few posters that stated to always keep them fully charged. This is not correct. Their lifespan is based on calender-age, but will be reduced if they are kept at full charge. These batteries are not affected by how many times they have been recharged; only by calander age. But if they are not being used, it is best to not recharge them until they are needed. If they are going to be stored for a long time, it is best to have them at about 50% charge, but monitor them to ensure they do not drop too low. They have a very low self-discharge rate, so they can be stored for quite a while before they drop below their minimum voltage and their internal circuitry disables them permanently.

Ok there is some truth to the statement: "As for Li-Ion, the less fully charged they are, the longer they will last." but it only applies to batteries you are not going to be using on a day to day bases, and is one of the preferred methods for keeping a LI battery stable for a long shelf life 40 to 50% should do it to prevent crystal formation + there is another part to this that wasn't mention, and that is keeping it in a cold dry environment, placing them in your fridge will allow them to last even longer, but are you going to do this for a battery you are using every day? I would think not?

A smart charger will actually turn itself off when the battery reaches a full charge. Periodically, the charger will come on so it can check the voltage, then decide if it's time to charge or not. If not, the charger turns back off and waits until the next go around.

That's different than a float charge, which is a small, but constant maintenance charge. That keeps the battery charged, but shortens it's life. Before smart chargers we (ham radio / emergency service types) would use float chargers, but put them on a timer. That made all the difference in the world.

I have two smart chargers, one I use as a charger and a small 6w that I use as a maintainer. I have a pigtail on the battery of my Harley so I can keep the smart charger connected all winter. It's not much fun taking the battery out. I also have one on one of my vans so if I let that sit I can keep a charger on it as needed.

Neither smart charger will turn on if the battery voltage is too low. I play with batteries a lot and squeeze every last electron out of them before they go to the recyclers. One trick is to use a charged battery to force charge a totally dead one enough for the smart charger to turn on.

The larger of the two chargers has a fault code readout. You need some savvy to know what they mean, but if you do it is possible to fix some of the problems and get a full charge with no codes from a not so good battery.

I think you have some terms mixed up, trickle chargers like we used to use to charge up a motor cycle battery were the type that never shut off, this was not an issue back when we had maintenance type batteries that we could replace the water as it was boiled off, with todays maintenance free batteries we cant use these chargers, that is why they came out with what is called a float type charger, now a float charger is not a smart charger, it will bring a battery up to its float level and shut off, if the battery drops in voltage because maybe it is still in a vehicle and still have a small load, or on long term the internal resistance brings the voltage down it will kick back on and again shut off at float, again just like above, if you have a bad cell and the battery wont reach the full float voltage a float type charger my never shut off trying to reach this voltage. There are a few cheap float type chargers as you discribed but not the ones I buy.

In comes the smart charger, it not only can detect the bad cell condition, but many will go into a maintaining charge level it can detect by measuring how long the battery takes to drain and brings it back up with less current, but still cuts off, this lowers the charging current and does allot less damage to the cells, it can also detect other conditions and try to reverse it, but its to late tonight to get into that much.