BATTERY TIPS

Taking care of your new battery pack
Normally, a new battery pack comes in a very low charge condition and must be fully charged before use. Refer to the user manual of your portable electronic equipment for charging instructions.

A new battery pack needs to be fully charged and fully discharged or "cycled" as much as five times to condition them into performing at full capacity.

Your equipment may report a fully charge condition in as short as 10 to 15 minutes when the new battery pack is being charged for the first time. This is a normal phenomenon especially for Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) and Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) chemistries. When this happens, remove the battery pack and let it cool down for about fifteen minutes then repeat the charging procedure.

"Conditioning" (fully discharging and then fully charging) is necessary so as to maintain the optimum performance of a battery pack, and is recommended at least once a month particularly for Ni-Cad and Ni-MH batteries. Failure to do so could result in reduced charge capacity and can significantly shorten the battery pack’s useful life. Lithium Ion batteries do not require conditioning.

It is normal for a battery pack to get warm when charging and during use. However, if the battery pack gets excessive hot, there may be a problem with the portable electronic equipment’s charging circuit and should therefore be checked by a qualified technician.

Rechargeable batteries undergo self-discharging when left unused for long periods of time. This is normal particularly in the case of Ni-MH and Li-Ion chemistries. For best results, always store a battery pack fully charged. It should be removed from the equipment and kept in a cool, dry and clean place.

The amount of runtime a battery pack produces depends on the power requirements of components in your electronic equipment. This could be the hard drive setting, screen intensity and back-lighting on notebook computers, the liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and floodlight feature in a video camcorder, or the tri-mode communications network of a cellular phone. Always refer to your equipment’s user manual for power management settings.

Battery Dont'ts
Rechargeable batteries contain a considerable amount of energy.

DO NOT leave on charge for extended periods.
DO NOT short circuit terminals.
DO NOT drop or mutilate.
DO NOT disassemble.
DO NOT place in fire or near sources of extreme heat.
DO NOT expose to moisture or rain.

WHAT IS A CAR BATTERY

A car battery is a type of electric battery that supplies electric energy to automobile. They can be a SLI battery (Starting - Lighting - Ignition) to power the starter motor, the lights and the ignition system of a vehicle’s engine or a traction battery (used for the main power source of an electric vehicle).

They are usually lead-acid batteries that provide a nominal 12-volt (actually 12.6 volts) potential difference by serially connecting six cells that each produce about 2 to 2.1 volts. As other batteries of its type, it is made up of plates of lead and lead oxide. These plates are submerged into a 35% sulfuric acid and 65% water solution called the electrolyte solution. This process causes a chemical reaction that releases electrons, allowing them to flow through conductors thus producing electricity. As a lead acid battery discharges, the materials of the lead plates react with the acid of the electrolyte, changing the surface of both plates to lead sulphate. When the battery is recharged, the chemical reaction is reversed. The lead sulphate reforms into lead oxide and lead, restoring the plates to their original condition, allowing the process to be repeated