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I have two NiMh batteries and one NiCd sitting on my shelf as dead as a door nail because people used TM/G&P/lightbulb dischargers on em ONCE. Thats all it took, dead short em to 0 volts once and their toast. Sometimes you can recover, sometimes you can't, what mcgyver said is true, never discharge to less than 1.0V/cell for NiCd and 0.9V/cell for NiMh.
NiCd don't need to be discharged after every use, really, honestly, its true. They should be discharged after every five or so top ups but again not to less than 1.0V/cell, quality chargers can do this very accurately.
NiMh should be discharged roughly once a season for people who play on a regular basis (at least once or twice a month) I usually do this at the start of a new season. As said, do not discharge to less than 0.9V/cell.
Trying to monitor cell voltage with some junk discharger like a bulb, TM, G&P, etc. discharger that is a straight resistor isn't too accurate and if you forget about it it can toast your battery. Invest in a good charger, my Duratrax ICE cost me ~$250 with the power supply but between batteries I've recovered with it and lengthening the life of my batteries because of how good it is I have more than paid for it.
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