On May 9, 2013, at 2:03 PM, ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
I must admit I've never liked recheargeable
battereis. They als seem to
have a ridiculously high self-discharge rate, so unless you use the
device all the time (and thus keep it charged) , you will find it flat when
you want to use it. I would always pick the direct-mains powered tool.
For regular household use, the newer low-self-discharge NiMH batteries
have worked well for us. We put the AAs in C size adaptors for use in
a baby swing, and it ran the swing for a good week on a charge (not
100% duty cycle, of course, but not bad for AAs). We've been using
them for about two years now and none of them seem to be showing signs
of decreased charge life, either. I'm not sure I trust Sanyo's claim
that you can stick them in a drawer for a year and still be at 75%
capacity, but they're not as freakishly bad as the NiCd batteries of
the early '90s (which was previously my last exposure to normal
household rechargeables).
- Dave