Post by TOM KAN PAWhen I store my cordless drill, should I remove the battery from it, leave it
on, or is it six to one, a half dozen to the other.
Keeping it attached should not result in any drain, so it
doesn't make any difference if the pack is attached or not,
unless you have some light or electronic readout on all of
the time.
And the saying is six OF one and half a dozen OF the other.
The preposition TO doesn't make sense.
Seriously, leave them attached unless instruction for that
particular brand say otherwise. Even cheap batteries don't
discharge that rapidly. OTOH, the tendency for many home
owners is to ignore the batteries which sit for varying long
period and just die. Or, they let them sit, and then charge
them for long periods (forget them) and way over charge
them, damaging the battery pack. If you have a precise up
to date well controlled charger, you can just let them
charge, but most chargers are not that good. The best bet
is a maintenance program whereby you check the voltage of
the pack periodically and when it reaches a certain point
you recharge the pack.
Forget all the stuff people tell you about memory and
discharging the battery pack. You should never discharge
the pack below 1 V per cell or you are likely to damage it.
And a cycle is a cycle and a battery pack has only a certain
number of cycles in it, so don't every discharge just to
discharge; discharge because you are using it and don't let
it get hot. Remember; never less that 1V per cell. In
practice, that number should be much higher and could be as
high as 12V. When you tool is getting obviously getting
weak, check the voltage and that is the voltage that you
don't want to go below.
The biggest problem with battery pack is overcharging, heat
kills quickly. So if your instructions say to fully charge
in 4 hours, never charge more than that, and if you use the
tool only a little and want to recharge, recharge for only
an hour or so. Check the voltage after the pack sits unused
for several hours and charge some more if needed. A fully
charged 12V pack probably reads around 13.2 volts. Check
the battery pack every month and charge it. You should
charge about once a month if you don't have and accurate
trickle charger (and most aren't accurate). Good Luck, and
if you need more information just do a google search on
Battery Memory and only read the ones that are from
universities, Government (e.g., NASA), or battery
manufacturers. Good Luck.