From: BobEngelhardt@comcast.net   
      
   My post was about torque & current, but I got to wondering about   
   capacity degradation.  So I built a capacity tester and got the following:   
      
   12v (2 batteries, 5 & 7 years old): 11+wh versus 14wh spec - 21% loss.   
   They got quite a bit of use at home, apt building, and Habitat.   
      
   sm 18v battery, 6+ years old: 19+wh vs 23wh spec - 16% loss   
      
   lg 18v, 6+ years old: 40+wh versus 54 spec - 25% loss   
      
   These batteries are spec'ed in watt-hours instead of the usual Ah and   
   watt-hours are trickier to measure.  I got the Ah easily enough and   
   assumed a straight-line voltage drop, to 3v/cell cutoff that I used in   
   my tester.   
      
   As an aside - I measured the peak current on one of the 12v batteries   
   and got 23A.  But peak current isn't spec'ed, so I don't know what the   
   loss is.   
      
   Bob   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)