I wholeheartedly agree with this. We used NiFe batteries to run high speed cine cameras (these cameras need a couple of hundred amps to accelerate to speed) for many years. To my certain knowledge the cells we had were at least 30 years old and still working fine. In theory, there's no reason why a NiFe cell shouldn't last for as long as the physical case etc remains intact, as there's no significant chemical degradation in the cell that can't be simply fixed by filling them with fresh electrolyte (potassium hydroxide - nasty stuff!).
These cells were very common in long life utility applications, like telephone exchanges. I believe they were also used in diesel electric submarines and some smaller applications, like miner's lights. They don't have the convenience of sealed cells (they need regular watering), and are certainly big and heavy for the available capacity, but their robust nature and long life tends to make up for that in many applications.
Jeremy
--- In electricboats@
>
> They where somewhat common in railroad and telco use. Email these
> folks for care and feeding advise: http://www.beutilit
> Outside of the need to keep them watered, they should last forever.
> These really should be the batteries that you and I have in our cars
> for starting, but about 80 years ago some auto executive decided
> everyone could just buy lead-acid batteries ever three years instead
> of paying twice as much for the first battery and it lasting the life
> of the car. Sigh
> Costing us all six times as much in the long run, and polluting the
> world with tons and tons of lead! ;-)
>
> These would be my second choice in battery technology for traction
> application after LiFePO4. The LiFePO4 win out on weight and upkeep
> like lead NiFe need regular watering.
> But NiFe win out on longevity, They can be 100% discharged with no
> harm! Not many other chemistries can say that!
>
> Good luck with them. How much does each 6v cell weigh?
>
>
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