There are certain things that everyone just knows are true. Whilst The Internet has vastly extended the reach and durability of such knowledge, many known "true" things precede Internet contamination.
One such is the memory-effect of batteries. We all know that one can wreck a rechargeable battery's useful life by failing to discharge it more or less fully before recharging. All rechargeable batteries have a finite life, but this egregious behavior causes a battery to permanently behave as though it has less capacity than it was designed to deliver. Hence, the bad "memory" effect. This fact is sustained by decades of writing and therefore is readily confirmed by LLM query searches (so-called AI). Such a search will produce considerable material (with copious references) which assure the reader that one is doomed to suffer under this scourge unless mitigation measures are taken. An aside: Here we see an example of the failings of the current fixation with LLMs. The models are flooded with confirmation of a fact from what they assume are always reliable sources, and the model is incapable of rationally questioning such an obvious truth, and making a rational judgment as to what is correct. LLMs exhibit this and many other failings across all their research and confirmations. The problem is that it 'taint so. There's no such thing as a consumer-level battery "memory" plague. There never was. It's among the most solidly embedded urban myths (some may be grinding their teeth as I call it out even now). As with the Y2K hysteria a generation ago, there is some particle of truth beneath what we are convinced we should believe, but said truth isn't relevant in the context we see affirmed around us. Current generation Li-iON batteries are not exposed to any memory effect danger. Nor are the older NiMH batteries (seen in most laptops in prior years). These battery-types experience degradation over their usable lives from various causes, but none result from a permanent "memory" owing to improper use or recharging. Contemporary Li-iON batteries have sophisticated changing technology that make it difficult to impossible for consumers to improperly charge them. Improper charging could damage NiMH batteries if the charging system was poorly designed-but not cause "memory" to develop. NiMH batteries do not develop the "memory" effect, despite what Internet searches will say. According to General Electric's technical literature on batteries it produced 30 years ago, a specific type of NiCad battery might develop a permanent "memory" in a certain specific use-case. This statement did not apply to all NiCad batteries and the conditions required to cause memory in the affected type would never occur in consumer applications. For this to happen, the affected type would need to be discharged to precisely the same level for hundreds of consecutive cycles. GE said that this behavior had been observed in certain aviation batteries that were discharged to exactly 25% and then recharged. We may rest easier tonight as we charge our mobile phones. Old Man Wardell "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Anonymous aphorism that is first noted in 1874 and has evolved over time. Often attributed to Mark Twain. David Wardell (757) 561-0582 <mailto:da...@wardell.org> da...@wardell.org <https://wardell.us/url/b5s86> <https://wardell.us/url/s9qvz>
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