[Doc Wu]

My team usually ends up buying 2-4 batteries each year. We use the best ones at competitions and relegate the older ones for practice or shop testing.

After a team accumulates a lot of batteries, keeping track of their age and condition is a chore. I have ours labelled and we keep a log at competitions. We are careful to use them in sequence, so that the last one used gets to charge and rest while all the others are used. Every battery is labelled with a number and we follow that sequence.

We test every battery once at the beginning of the season on a West Mountain CBA-III. It's a wonderful device which gives a real picture of the battery's condition, but it is time-consuming, often more than an hour per battery.

This year, we are considering buying fresh batteries for competition and calling everything from previous years either practice batteries, or recycling. You can get through most regionals with 6 batteries as long as they are good ones. Use a fresh battery for every match - never more than one match. You have enough time to charge the battery from your first match well before you reach a seventh match.

Put one person on your pit crew in charge of batteries so that they always know what is going on with them. Have them keep a log on a clipboard to track what time the battery went on the charger and when it came off. Analyzing these logs later can identify both weak batteries and defective chargers.

We have a battery manual for the team and review it with the entire team once a season. It covers everything from theory to handling to use and charging to spill procedures and recycling. A copy is kept in the pits for reference.