Let's stamp out this bad idea. ALWAYS recharge as soon as possible after use. The further you discharge a battery the more you shorten its useful lifetime. This is true of all battery technologies. I know you have heard clueless vendors say you want to completely discharge a battery before recharging. Perhaps they are trying to increase sales. Furthermore, larger lithium type batteries are not only damaged by total discharge, they also become unstable when totally discharged. They are potential bombs if totally discharged. Therefore the manufacturers embed a microprocessor and a discharge mechanism inside the battery so you can not totally discharge these batteries if you wanted too. Yes the so called 'gas gage' may show zero charge remaining. Internally there is really 20 to 30% charge you can not access.
This questionable practice of total discharge was started with NiCad batteries in order to equalize charge. It didn't work and shortened battery life so it was soon abandoned. Unfortunately many dealers did not get the message. 73 Fred, AE6QL -----Original Message----- From: Elecraft [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Bondy G4NRT Sent: Monday, August 10, 2015 3:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Elecraft] Portable Power <Clip> Should they be left to run down and then charged or kept continuously on a charger? <Clip>< ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
