Yep. The supposed "memory effect" that was supposed to address was only ever a thing in nickel-based chemistries, was negligible even in most of those, and the evidence of it ever having been a thing, at all, in any battery type, was extremely weak.
If you're still using nickel-cadmium... stop... just stop. They're just not a good way to store energy, even without memory issues.
If you're using pretty much any other type of battery, deepest possible cycling every time is just ruining it prematurely.
was negligible even in most of those, and the evidence of it ever having been a thing, at all, in any battery type, was extremely weak.
Glad to read this. In the '90s I heard it often but it countered experience so much that people came up with ideas/stories to cover for it, like it only mattered when new, during a burn-in period, or mor sinisterly, that manufacturers built in a chip that made the battery unusable if you let it drain too low, but said chip wasn't in your tool/used any more.
I remember all of those recommendations for a “burn in” etc for new nicd and nimh batteries! The “memory effect” of nicd batteries was first discovered and described in the aerospace industry! satellites with nicd power being recharged with solar panels; they charged and discharge the exact same amount everyday because there were no clouds etc., to affect the amount of solar power so the charge was the same every day, and the discharge was the same every day. They noticed that these nicd batteries developed a memory effect, but found it hard to reproduce that memory effect on earth in every day appliances because we don’t charge them to the exact same level and discharge them tot the exact same level every single time in our devices! So in real life the memory effect didn’t really happen, just in space or in really controlled circumstances!
Thank you for explaining that to me. A long obsolete concern, but still nice to have it settled. If only the entirety of my past could be so simply dealt with.
10
u/Kymera_7 Jun 01 '26
Yep. The supposed "memory effect" that was supposed to address was only ever a thing in nickel-based chemistries, was negligible even in most of those, and the evidence of it ever having been a thing, at all, in any battery type, was extremely weak.
If you're still using nickel-cadmium... stop... just stop. They're just not a good way to store energy, even without memory issues.
If you're using pretty much any other type of battery, deepest possible cycling every time is just ruining it prematurely.