Hi Bill,

Yes batteries decay over time no matter what you do or don't do to them. Cycling them periodically will help but they all decay plus today's packs generally have higher C ratings than 3 years ago and hold voltage under load much better ( = more power). When you buy batteries, make sure you find out how old they are (if they will tell you). Some guys mistakenly want to buy in spring thinking they will get fresher packs than buying in the fall when there is a good chance depending on the retailer that the packs you buy in spring are the same packs as have been sitting there since the fall so there is zero benefit to this logic unless you know when they were actually manufactured. I have seen guys buy packs that were well over a year old from places thinking they just bought "new" batteries when they had a year of decay already on them before they left the store.