Batteries - to date I have only bought them from IMR. I assume they are going to start only selling to Business??
This is what I am worried about in a few years when I need to replace them, where am I going to find them - hopefully the local B&M will still carry them or I guess I am going to have to figure out which replacement batters for powertools use good batteries and get those to pull apart?
Any ideas on batteries?
I've been thinking about batteries. Somewhere (Mooch's blog?) I saw numbers for how much batteries degrade over time. If they are stored in the best possible way, at the right voltage, 3.6ish, in a fridge, they can be in pretty good shape after 5 years. I don't remember the numbers.
Normally I recycle batteries after 3 years, but I had some AW batteries that I kept for longer because they stopped making them. After 5 years of use they were still working fine. And I charged them up and put them in a rack until their turn came to be used again so they spent a lot of their time sitting around fully charged at room temp.
What I'm thinking is I should get a good supply of spare batteries and stick them in the fridge at 3.6V, and start keeping batteries in use for more than 3 years. Probably need to figure out how to test their condition. Seems like I would be good for 10 years or more if I did that stuff. At least that's a better plan than just hoping for the best.
That's based on my low power vaping. If you use batteries close to their power limit, especially in mechs, you would have to be more careful.
Long term they will probably come out with some safer battery technology. If there was something smaller than 18650 someone will produce a sled that would let you use them in 18650 mods. Who knows what's down the road.