Quote:
Originally Posted by lumpynose
That was definitely true back in the days of NiCd batteries. But with them it wasn't about overcharging but that the batteries developed a memory, if I remember correctly.
|
Battery memory is the urban legend that everyone remembers.
NiCd batteries had dumb chargers because such chargers were cheap and NiCd batteries are very robust, but not so robust that overcharging wouldn't eventually kill them, and it was definitely overcharging that killed them.
The reason users were told to run NiCd down then charge them for 12 to 14 hours then take them off charging that would minimize cooking. If the manufacturers hadn't been too cheap to put in voltage depression detection and automatically stop charging then, users could just put the battery on the charger and take it off whenever they felt like it.
NiMH need smart chargers to prevent quick death, and those chargers had to detect the voltage leveling off, which is more expensive and difficult than detecting voltage depression.
Lithium batteries need super smart chargers in order to not explode.
None of those battery types have what is thought of as charge memory.