I've been using rechargeable-battery powered equipment, starting, I guess, with pocket calculators since the early '70's, and was recently reminded of a rather peculiar situation.

As some of you may have noticed, I like to wire-wrap one-off's rather than going to PCB with them. This means that I use various wire-wrap tools, including, among others, a NiCd-powered Gardner-Denver tool that I bought in 1979. I was noticing a few days ago that one of the battery packs I have for it is the original, with the original batteries that came with the device. This battery pack takes about 3-4 hours to reach full charge and a charge lasts, under full usage, about a week, 8 hours per day, with about a 40% duty cycle, by which I mean that it's being used about 40% of the time, and actually runs its motor perhaps 10% of the time, placing, perhaps, a leisurely one wire (with two ends) every 10 seconds.

I own many rechargeable-battery powered devices, and most of them suffer from short battery life. The ones on my 2-line Uniden cordless phone last about six weeks before they break down and refuse to take a charge sufficient to operate the telephone. Sometimes, the unit stays on the base for days at a time, yet the battery is too discharged to operate the phone. These batteries cost >$35 each, yet they don't compare at all with the $4 batteries my single-line (later model) Uniden cordless phone uses. I've had two such phones (lost one in a burglary), and, sadly, both performed equally poorly. Most cordless phones, just as an example, seem to last about a half day when the phone is used quite a bit, between charges, and perhaps three days when used very little or not at all. Some seem to "die" despite the fact they're on the base much of the time.

I've had a Norelco elelctric razor that's served very well, though, after about 15 years, I had to have the NiCd batteries replaced.

What is it that makes some chargers work so effectively, while others seem to work barely at all?

Why do consumers tolerate such poor performance of, in many cases, very costly appliances?

Wouldn't you think that manufacturers would have figured out how to manage this problem by now?

RE