Nowadays, everything is cordless and mobile - and this means rechargeable. Of course, all our rechargeable batteries are covered under the manufacturer's warranty. Right? Yeah, right. Replacement rechargeable batteries are expensive, especially for specialty devices, such as Segway Human Transporters. Replacement battery packs could cost upwards of several hundreds of dollars a piece. If you're experiencing poor performance or reduced range, there may be another option to purchasing new replacement battery packs.
This procedure is referred to in the battery industry as "cycling". Simply put, this is the process of subjecting your battery packs to full charge and discharge cycles, thus reducing or eliminating the "memory effect" that transpires during normal use with Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) and Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries. Although this process has shown to increase the charge capacity of NiCad and NiMH batteries, NEVER perform this process on Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, which are commonly found in cell phones and laptop computers, and NEVER on Lead-Acid (Pb) batteries, which are commonly used for automobiles and power back-ups. Always check your battery pack before you begin, as they should indicate which type of batteries are contained in the pack.
Drill Battery Charger
Performing the cycling procedure on household or handheld rechargeable batteries that are NiCad or NiMH should greatly increase charge capacity, including many common items, like cordless phones, shavers, power tools, etc.
First, a little about the phenomenon known as the memory effect (mentioned earlier) that occurs in NiCad and NiMH type batteries. The memory effect happens when the device containing these types of batteries only allows discharge of a small portion of its potential capacity before a recharge, e.g. speaking on a cordless phone for a few minutes at a time, or taking a short spin on the Segway, then placing them on the charger, and repeating this process. Over time, the cells within the battery pack will "remember" the short duration of usage, and then act as if that duration as its full capacity.
At this point, you notice that the device is not performing correctly, in that it requires more frequent charging and its time of operation is diminished.
Most of the time, you can cycle your battery and recover much of its lost potential. This simple procedure may take a little time, but is simple to do.
All that is required is to operate the device, or allow the device to discharge, to the point that the battery is nearly fully discharged. As an example, for a cordless phone, you would push 'on' or 'talk' and allow the phone to operate until it shuts itself off due to low battery. Then, fully charge the phone, without interruption. Repeat this process three to five times. This should help to reverse the memory effect and restore battery performance.
One word of caution: when discharging a device during this procedure, the goal is to have the device to become nearly empty, not fully discharged. A complete and total discharge for NiCad and NiMH can be damaging for these types of batteries. Most items, such as cordless phones and Segways will shut themselves off automatically before a complete discharge. Items like cordless drills and shavers should not be left unattended as they will not shut off before complete discharge. Hence, my husband is often found walking around with his shaver or cordless drill running in his hand waiting for the indication that the battery is near the end of its cycle. You will notice when the device just stops or slows to a crawl.
By the way, we performed this cycle process with our Segway, and received over 30% increase in total capacity after just 3 cycles. We kept the Segway leaning against a wall, in a safe, secure location, in the balance mode until the batteries discharged themselves. Have no fear - the Segway prevents total discharge of the cells by shutting itself off prior to the point of full battery discharge.
No worries if you see an increase, but not after the third cycle, this just means the batteries have a new memory and are ready to go. Also, if you don't get an increase in performance, this may indicate a more serious problem, such as charger malfunction or damaged even dead cells.
Cycling is cheap and easy. Try it and keep track of battery life for each cycle so that you can see the performance increase. Last, but not least, enjoy all the money you're saving by not replacing all those poor performing rechargeable batteries!