Measure Battery Health?

[Kemosabe]

Is there a way to measure the health or remaining lifetime in your battery?

i have AW IMR 18490s from August 2012 that appear to be just as good as when I got them. however, its hard to remember what they were like when i first got em. from what i can recall, theyre the same as far as holding a charge.

from what i gather, these batteries should be able to be recharged 500+ times. i have 3 and theyve probably been charged 2x per week max. so thats around 100 charges a year, 200 maximum charges total (but likely less). could i conceivably use these batteries for another 3 years? does stability degrade as batteries age?

would they have a decreased max amp load as they grow older? i like being able to push my batteries to the 10A+ range, but not if its dangerous. these batts can do 16.5A when new, but does that number hold true as the batt ages?

thanks for any advice.

 

[Kemosabe]

bumpasaurus

 

[Stosh]

As batteries age their internal resistance will increase, which may affect the max amperage draw. Over the life of the battery if been dropped, over-charged, over-drained, left in a hot car on a summer's day, left in a cold car on a winter's day, rapidly discharged....etc, all will increase the internal resistance, lessen the effective max amperage.

If you measured the voltage drop under load of your batteries, and compared it to a brand new battery using the same mod and topper, the difference in V-drop would show the internal resistance. Any extra voltage dropped would be due to internal resistance, a little Ohm's Law and you could even tell how much...