rruff
Advanced Member
It's not dropping while the meter is on it. It's dropping over the course of many days.rando said:Sounds like maybe you have a relatively low impedance (ie resistance) meter. The meter itself is loading down the batteries and causing the voltage to drop. Otherwise you are right that it makes no sense that a battery that has sat for 4 - 5 years would suddenly start dropping voltage quickly.
Of the cells I've tested so far, most of them have very little charge, even if their voltage is high. And the ones <2.8v I'd expect to have near zero charge. So maybe the change in voltage on a drained cell doesn't mean much?
I'm going to cycle as many as I can in the next few days and see what their capacity and efficiency is, and if they hold voltage as well as charge for at least several days after. And I sent Doug an email too.
So far it looks like the low voltage cells tend to have a little lower capacity and efficiency (though this varies quite a bit), but once charged the voltage is stable (~3.33v).