All NiMh manufacturers have had problems. Its important to know WHEN somebody bought batteries, and where the manufacturer was on their own learning curve. In the early days Harding had trouble with leakers, self discharge, inconsistencies, etc. Why even our very own GM/O has problems. Or maybe you'd like to quiz Ovonic's Lynn Higley about the 1997 Tour de Sol. That's part of the game and part of the learning curve. Remember Stan has always said this is the "engineered battery" and the engineering will never be done.
I've known of Harding for about two years, which coincides with the purchase of my first batteries from them. No problems. Zero. I've stuck these puppies in a Maxim 713 fast charger and pumped a C1 charge rate into them out of one of my old EV batteries. I've been a naughty boy and sometimes drawn 1 amp out an AA cell, for a fair period of time. You've read what my malevolent battery abusing children have done (actually they are ok kids). I'd kind of like to see one fail, just so I would know what the failure mode looks like; but my curiosity hasn't been quenched. Read John Dvorak in the August issue of PC Magazine. Talk to 1 800 Batteries. Talk to Vivitar, Minolta, and other digital camera manufacturers-- don't take my word for it.
I'd also fault Real Goods for not selling a charger with the cells. And this is a guy speaking who has several thousand dollars of battery chargers in his garage for several electric vehicles. Sure a high end charger might taper down, but even the integrated circuit guys give large legends about just plopping a NiMh cell into a circuit designed for NiCad. Judging from the fact that RG has never-- in my experience with them-- shown a NiMh kit of cells with approved chager, some of your buddies problems may certainly be of his own making. They certainly aren't doing a favor to their catalog customers by just telling them to use an "intelligent charger". I've got laptops and integrated circuits plugged into chargers and I've seen "intelligence" do some pretty stupid things.
My point on Real Goods and NiCads is this: Cadmium is TOTALLY divergent from their mission. Even if they want to, they soon won't be able to buy and resell NiCads. Switzerland probably has more EV's per capita than most other countries. Given NiCad's density over PbH2So4 why do you suppose that they don't allow them to be sold? Ever read an environmental journal on the effects of cadmium poisoning? You should take a look at NiCad recycling rates. Get a hold of an Inco annual report and look at what their Inmetco subsidiary is doing on recycling. Its impresssive but my god how much cadmium is leaking out of landfills and going up incinerator stacks? And why? |
