Quote:
Originally Posted by Kos-Mos
Well...
it is BETTER to discharge a battery as close of it's maximal rating as possible. 10A is actually good for 2/3A cells. Large packs should be discharged around 20-35A, depending on the pack.
It is a lot worst to discharge a pack at, say 1A than not to discharge it at all. Mostly because higher rated cells are able to recover from discharge faster than the actual load, so the pack will be dropped further than at a higher discharge rate.
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Kos, you're talking about deep cycle batteries. Typical applications such as marine and UPS devices. Generally deep cycle batteries are very large, dense and heavy and many times the size of an airsoft battery. They have more mass which to act as heatsink, and it fact some are designed with heat sink technology built it. Airsoft batteries are chemically similar, BUT, they are by no means like that. They lack the mass to bleed that heat quickly and are not as dense.
You should probably include a provisio on that advice Kos, don't forget not all people are working with C's and D cells, there are a lot of sub-C and the short A stuff and thin material built batteries for things such as Vltor stocks and such. The mini NiMH's I sell fall into that category too. Those kinds of batteries often won't tolerate a 10a load very well for long periods without undue wear on the cells - these batteries are best used for high burst use such as airsoft or RC car racing.
The problem again is easy to detect. Forget the math - if you put your hand on the pack and its too hot to the touch, its TOO MUCH. Excessive heat is your surest sign that your battery is overloading either in charging or in discharging. The heat causes the bonds between the different material to expand and contract at different rates and it breaks the bond which increases the resistance of the battery - this results in faster development of 'memory' and of permanent separation of the substrate materials within the battery itself and thus the life of the battery.