Why should I dead short my Ni-Cds?
 

I heard that it is best to run my 2400 Ni-Cds down, throw them in a tray until they are 0.0v and then dead short them for the next time that I use them. Can someone either confirm this or tell me the best way to care for my batteries? I get a good 7 minutes run rime from them so I don' tmind sacrificing run time for a bit higher voltage to get that extra "punch". I charge at 4- 4.5 A, after a run, I put them on the lights until they are 5.4v and then put them in a discharge tray to 0.0v. Is it necessary to dead short them afterward? Thanks for the input.
Dennis

looks like you got 17 views but no one responded. I'm not an expert on batteries but from what you are telling me, excluding the dead short, your doing everything right. I actually do the same thing your doing and I get more volts in my batteries. I don't know what type of charger your using but I have the Tekin B12 and on older batteries, such as my 2400, I charge them on P3 at 4.8 and get about 9.8, 10 volts.

I wouldn't recommending dead shortening your batteries after you put them on the tray. What tray are you using? I have the trinity real time 2, pretty cool it has that fan that draws more out of the battery once the lights go out.

Yeah, I have the trinity real time 2 tray. Right now I am using an old Tekin BC100L charger but it gets the job done. I could just leave them on the tray, but of course I only have one. Should I just bring them down to 0.0v and then take them off and store them for the week? I just heard that storing them dead shorted was a way to get more voltage and run-time. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

this much I do know Dennis, you don't want to leave them sitting in a closet at 0.0 for a long period of time, you take the chance of reversing the polarity and killing your batts.

We run every 2 weeks here in Memphis and I do exactly what you said you do, but my batts are not at 0.0

good luck and I do hope someone with more experience with batt gets on this thread and properly answers your questions. you can always as the guys at SMC

DO NOT DEAD SHORT YOUR BATTERIES!!!!!!!!!!! It just isnt a good idea. If you need to "store" your packs for awhile put them on discharge trays and leave them there. The only packs that you really have to fear "flipping" are the NiMH's and only those flip if you get them down too low. Alot of fuss is made over battery storage and to be honest I have never seen anything but trouble come from dead-shorting your packs. Hope this helps a little.
IKE

Dead shortining, people are extremely divided in two camps about this.

First: I dont do it personally.

Second: If you take each cell down individually on a tray, there's absolutely no risk for destroying the pack by cell-reversing.

As far as I know, the only risk are you might some false peaks and slightly shorter runtime.

So I'll suggest you try it with one of your older packs ! Do it over a period, not just once.

I have seen mixed results from dead shorting 2400's. 2000's were fine to do this with but with the 2400's I don't recommend it. You are doing the proper thing by discharging them after use, traying them till they are cool (at least 30 minutes) and then storing them. We have tried dead shorting them and have seen some do good and some do really bad. More bad then good. I would definetly avoid dead shorting them, but that is just my opinion.

Good info from SMC. Hopefully this helps.

http://www.smc-racing.com/maintenance.htm

after i run my 2400's i discharge them at 20 amps and then put then put them on a tray for like 2 or 3 days and i have seen a small increase in voltage.