Used batteries and the 701 charger thread - a clarification

["David Ross" <ross@math.hawaii.edu>]

I've been asked for clarification of my warning about buying used laptop
batteries.  I'm not an engineer, but my understanding is that Lithium-Ion
batteries have a relatively small number of charge-discharge cycles in them
(300-500, depending on the battery spec), and that when they're gone, they're
gone.  I didn't mean this to apply to NIMH or NICAD batteries, which do have
their own problems but which have a relatively large number of cycles.

- David R.