Just dug through an old box of batteries and found some ni-cads in D and AAA. Not sure if I am reading the date code correctly, but I think it’s 1995. Charged up some of the Ds and they ran a 2 cell bulb type light for about 2 hours. Not very brightly though, but then it wasn’t a krypton bulb.
Some of them are still in the package.
Are these worth keeping, or should I recycle them? I rarely use a D cell light,(don’t remember the last time) but I am a bit of a packrat, so I hate to dispose of anything that might be useful at some point.
Nicads are pretty dated. Plus they suffer from memory effect and can be a PI”TA to recharge. If you can get a few hours out of em for around the house OK…but don’t bet your life on em in the real world.
I majorly dislike nicads I am the same about getting rid of things as you but I say toss them (safely because they are highly toxic and will eventually leach into the ground water)
NiCd need to be discharged before charging , hence the memory effect,
I have a Ryobi NiCd power tool that I now discharge and charge off my hobby charger, since doing this I’m getting better life out of the power tool.
In the old days when we used NiCd cells for our flash guns (studio photography) I built a power supply especially to discharge the NiCd and then charge them up, this was way back in the late 70’s
The other issue is they have a high self discharge rate just sitting idle.
NiCd cells are well known for taking an absolute beating and continuing to work. But compared to today’s battery tech, they don’t really measure up. If you don’t have a specific application for them I would suggest you recycle them safely and be done with them.
Thanks, I will try to turn them in at a recycle place if I can find one.
Some grocery stores have battery recycle bins and Batteries Plus stores do as well.
many home depots and lowes recycle rechargeable batteries
Best Buy and Target collect batteries.
Use them in MagLite LED flashlights, low current requirements, and an 8 cell boom box.
NiCd self-discharge isn't nearly as bad as NiMh. I have some 29 year old NiCd Ds that still perform above capacity spec - just not at any current over 1A. They are far, far more tolerant of abuse than (especially the high capacity) NiMH. Just run them flat then short them till they're at approximately zero volts and recharge them. If they don't leak, there's still life in them. The ones I have were my sole source of electricity 1984-86 and were often recharged in my motorcycle. So they haven't had an easy life. No NiMH will take that treatment. I've killed them being a lot nicer than that and charging them on far better chargers.
When they die, they are hazardous waste though - most battery recyclers in this country will only take zinc-carbon and alkaline cells.
Yeah, non-LSD NiMHs usually have a way higher self discharge rate than NiCd cells.
In some applications, there still have their place today. They can easily be used in series configuration for a long time without expensive balancing circuits (just overcharge them with a small current for some time) and perform ok in low temperature conditions.
But I guess for the normal household usage, other chemistries will perform better.
Was a nice time though. I used them a lot for RC in my very early teens. The cells had to take so much abuse. 
Wouldn’t want to do that with Lithium cells.