Zapping NiCads

I never had luck at maintaing operating voltage. If you don't run down the cells much, you might get by. They will try to go back to the shorted condition. I would say keep them on charge, but that is another reason they go ad. Good luck.

Greg

work fine now.

IMO, once you dissassemble the battery pack, what's the point? The zapping may get you some more life, but it's not like it;s a new set of batteries. And considering the effort in taking apart and putting it back together, I'd just go with new. You can buy new batteries to replace them with on Ebay. I did that last year with my Dewalt driver/drill. For $17 it's better than when it was new 30 years ago.

th work fine now.

or get the pack rebuilt by PRIMECELL.COM, higher capacity cells and fresh too:)

gregz wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.o rg:

I suggest he find a local battery rebuilder and have them redone right with new cells. Or if your charger can handle them,get higher capacity NiMH cells installed.

they don't short like NiCds do.

Since the whisker grew in the first place, it'll grow right back.

Sometimes. For a short time. Bottom line; replace the cells.

te:

If you can keep the battery pack on a constant ;low charge, that will usually prevent the wiskers from forming a real short, it apparantly burns them off oas the just get to the shorting point. But if no constant charging, then good luck.

Requiring a constant charge makes a batteries pretty useless. ;-)

The point being, that once a dendrite forms, it's made a channel through the insulator. After (part of) that dendrite is burned out, another will quickly form because 1) the insulation barrier is compromised, and 2) because the dendrite isn't completely gone. It will regrow quickly.