NiCad Controversy

June 20,1999

......snipped from a newsgroup

Fact is, just because someone uses them by the boatload doesn't make them an expert. The electochemical reality is what the issue is. Identifying what actually goes on inside of a Ni-Cad helps settle the argument of whether it's actually memory effect or if it's some other phenemonon mistakenly called something other than what it really is.

What goes on inside the battery is gassing, small gas bubbles building up on the plate (nickel hydroxide). By 1990 or so, most consumer Ni-Cads had been designed with internal venting to dissipate this gas buildup.

Many commercial application Ni-Cads use external venting, but consumer Ni-Cads need to be sealed to prevent leakage.

Gates Battery, NASA, Motorola, and many others have published information stating that the memory effect is a myth, miscontrued from improper charging and discharging methods and other symptoms. Yet the myth continues because some people apparently know more than the Engineers who developed Ni-Cads and other experts who have published this subject in painstaking detail many times.

The bottom line is, "memory effect" was dubbed in error.

Read Mobile Radio Technology, it's THE trade journal for people who are in the Land Mobile Radio and Cellular business. Read "Nickel Cadmium Battery Application Handbook" published by The Gates Battery Co. Gates Engineers are THE experts in the development of Ni-Cads.

.....to be continued