George,
If you have the rechargeables I think I would run the battery dead or close to it and then recharge for 16 hours or so and run it again untill it goes dead, just make sure you have your alkiline pack with you so when it does it you can put those in and keep detecting. Now if you only use the Explorer a couple of hours and then leave it sit for a week or 2 then the battery will lose a little bit of its charge so it wont last as long.
Being they are the nickle hydride batterys you dont have to worry as much about it getting a memory so when it does get low or after 8 hours or so you can recharge it then too before you go out.
On the recovery setting I would run none if in normal areas, fast in trashy areas or where there are lot of targets and deep in areas where there isnt as many targets and the ones there is could be old and deep. I have even run both on if i want to go real slow and there is a lot of targets for it to see, but you have to go real slow.
Rick
