The proper care and feeding of rechargeables will get you a few years of life, generally speaking. My experience with them has taught me that after a couple of years I should expect to see degradation and replace them. Recharging on a daily basis gets you 1000 days max. That’s about 3 years of daily charges. But not all batteries are equal. Slight performance variations could mean a shortened longevity. If you use aftermarket charging systems for your rechargeables, it would be smart to use the charger that “conditions” the battery. It’s simply a trickle charger that shuts down once the battery is fully charged, monitors that charge level while the battery is still in the charger, and “tops it off” when it sees a drop in the charge level. Some cheaper chargers don’t shut down after the battery is fully charged, requiring the owner to remove the battery from the charger. This is obviously not the kind of charger to use. It will continue to attempt to charge the battery which in turn generates heat within the battery. And as heat is the enemy of all things electronic, the battery will suffer. But Lithium-Ion batteries need to be charged, each cell at an equal level. This requires the charger have the ability to monitor the status of the battery as it is being charged. So Lithium-Ion chargers need to be used for lithium-Ion batteries. Not just any charger will do. To attempt to charge L-I’s using a charger other than one specified for L-I’s could be hazardous. Defective L-I batteries have been known to heat up, catch fire and explode. A shipment of L-L batteries caused a fire on a Boeing 747 air freighter which caused it to crash, killing the crew. (The fire warning and extinguishing methods worked as expected but the fire grew larger... even after they depressurized the cargo hold, which depletes The available oxygen at altitude. What they didn’t think about is L-I batteries generate their own oxygen when burning!)
Lithium-Ion batteries have a great shelf life... a good one can hold a charge for better than a year!
the long and the short of it is if you get at least a couple of full years service from the batteries, you did good. Anything more and you did better. Just remember to keep you batteries cool and your powder dry!