How do you store your batteries?

Old NiMH batteries tend to die anyway. They basically had to be re-conditioned on a regular and frequent schedule.

Newer “LSD” NiMH is much better at remaining useful for years and years, and doesn’t require much maintenance or special care. It’s still a good idea to fully charge and fully discharge them though.

Li-ion is different than either of the above, since it doesn’t like being fully charged and really doesn’t like being fully discharged. It’s happiest right in the middle.

LSD like the drug? :stuck_out_tongue:
I mean I didn’t expect them to die so fast, some of my other nimh RC battery packs were perfectly fine sitting fully charged for long periods of time.
They must have been lower quality cells or something.

I use eneloops, so I voted for fully charged. The poll did not specify what chemistry . . .

I have some experience with 10 year old nimh non eneloops I came across recently. Roughly 50% were toast, the other 50% I was able to charge and discharge a few times and now they deliver near capacity. I don’t have a accurate way of measuring the capacity, but they last for 5 hours at 75 lumens in my TN Archer 1AV3. This is how long Thrunite claims they will run at 75 lumens, but does not specify a battery type. So these old cells can still be usedful. Mine were a mixture of Energizer 2500s and duracell 2650s. I will say the duracells had a much higher recovery rate than the energizers. Like 7-8 duracells and 2-8 energizers. I think the energizers had seen a few quick (15 min) charge cycles in their life though.

HPAC: High Precision Air Conditioning.
Designed specially to cool temperature heating from equipment. On the other site are comfort air conditioner designed for home application.

I keep them at 100%, battery are cheap enough to not worry about replacing them, But in an emergency every % point may count.

Any of my device with built in li-ion battery`s phone/tablet are charged to 80% and never drop below 20% apart from an 12 month recalibration charge.

John.

I keep hundreds of 18650 laptop pulls in original condition, some still in battery packs; and
old RC li-pos and assorted other potentially toxic or energy dense dangers, in tin boxes in a shed away from the house.

Lots of fully charged Li-ions are kept in torches all over the place, and a bunch of depleted cells waiting to be charged are kept piled in plastic boxes on a desk.

No special voltage for storage, some fully charged, some fully depleted. Have a couple of hundred lithium ion batteries and in 8 years or so have only had 2 or 3 batteries go bad, this is including 8 year old batteries. Storage voltage level is overrated.

I agree on this, I keep extra batteries for emergencies. Whenever I would need it I know its fully charged. That’s the reason I bought a lot of 18650 for power outage in an inevitable time.

I try to keep mine stored at 3.6V to 3.7V. Of course the few I use, I fully charge. I recently found a Panasonic 18650B in a light that used to have 3300mAh when I first got it. It now only has a capacity of around 2800mAh. It was sitting fully charged for about 2 years. BTW, as a fully charged cell self discharges, the stress on the cell is relieved somewhat as the voltage declines. Even though, it harms the cell. Imagine how much more harm is done when cells are left constantly charging in laptops that are plugged in. Those cells see tremendous stress as they are constantly topped off and receive more stress with no relief.
Then think of the even more stress that GPS units receive stuck to the windshield of a car in the hot sun. In fact that combined with the black case many of them have, leads to an early death. The only GPS units I have that still have working cells are the ones with white cases.
I was greatly encouraged when I opened up a brand new, unused GPS receiver that I had purchased in 2006. Before I turned it on I opened it up and checked the voltage on the included Li-ion cell. Even though it was 10 years old, it was sitting at around 3.5V. I charged it up and did a capacity check with my OPUS. I don’t remember the exact number but it tested out to around 95% of capacity. Also the GPS had a run time of about 3 hours, it’s stated runtime, and that too confirmed that Li-ion cells do very well stored at half capacity, even the ones manufactured 10 years ago. I can only assume they are even better now.

I don’t really “store” cells… even though i have a small metal suit case with between one and half dozen spare of each size - probably more 18650 though, in appropriate plastic cases. Those are ‘new’ or not yet used except for a few i happen to use in a rotation - but i usually don’t put them in this ‘bin’; i tend to keep them close to the device they are used in.

The big chunk of my cells are ‘stored’ in flashlights (totally lost count since i joined BLF), hopefully fully charged. Most i don’t use much, and when i happen to use one, i usually top off the cell right away before putting the light back in it’s place.

I understand that Li-ion batteries will last longer if treated just right… but i’d rather have cells ready to use that will decline faster then cells i can’t use right away if i need them, but that will last longer. During the past four years i’ve used them, li-ion cells have evolved faster then their obsolescence rate so that you probably want to renew them for increased capacity and/or amps.

I store half of my LiIon cells at 3.7 volts. The rest are fully charged. My shelf queens have no batteries installed. But the rest, 20 plus, have fully charged batteries installed and ready to go. In an emergency, I have 5 portable USB chargers, plus 4 UPS’s with USB outputs, and a generator if things get really bad.

A great comment ToyKeeper, and very good advice. I long ago, quit plugging in my cell phones overnight to charge, for just this reason. When doing so, and if the phone is left on. The charger will bump the battery back up to 100%, about 5 times a night. Not good at all, for long term battery life.

I tracked and charted this, via an App on my phone at the time.

I tell people this, and many of them think I’m crazy. Oh well, I tell myself . . . They will live and learn. Hopefully. :sunglasses:

I used to make and keep log records for my 18650 cells. Lots of columns. Lots of notes. But I started to have to have more important stuff to do such as needing to deal with other peoples unresolved alanon issues. So all of this went by the wayside. Now, I rotate my cells as best as memory allows.

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Each one of my lights have their own cells and they are always fully charged and ready to go. I have a rotation set up for my trail lights and my EDC lights.At the longest they may be idle for about a week.

I guess it would be economically more feasible to have sets of cells used in “like lights”. I have never done that.

So if the power went out for a month, I would have no problem with navigating inside or outside in the dark.

As far as my cells[extra] that are stored. I keep them ~ 3.60v and they are stored at room temperature in the plastic cases that most manufacturers/dealers give us when we purchase them.

plugged in 24/7 for MONTHS?

hmmm, thats what I do with my laptop

wow, good info!

So, charging a LiIon ONCE between uses, putting it in a case and carrying it as a spare, and NOT topping off the charge, 5x nightly, for 6-18 months, is fine?:wink:

I’d have to find the numbers again, but I’ve heard that a li-ion cell stored fully-charged will permanently lose something like 20% of its capacity after a year of storage, compared to like 1% or 2% if stored half-full.

So… it doesn’t inflate and destroy the battery, but it’s not particularly healthy either.

[quote=ToyKeeper]

permanently… wow
thanks for the education

Let’s see… this has lots of interesting info.

ToyKeeper is very on track. Did you read BU-808? That's not a joke. The li-ion battery industry has a lot to benefit from charging cells up to their maximum specced voltage and letting them sleep/operate at or close to those levels: both capacity claims and overall sales increase.

3.92/4.2 of maximum voltage for removal of all voltage related stresses.

The longer a cell is kept at high voltage, the more it degrades.

Modern li-ion cells keep above ⅔ of their specced maximum energy at the aforementioned “no voltage stress” value. Thus, keeping cells within this maximum lifespan window really pays off, and no major energy loss after a year vs a fully charged set because of its accumulated damage.

Of course, believe as you wish (and deal with the consecuences).

how about a portfolio.

me, worst cells fully charged ready to go.

best cells half charge room temp

extra very good laptop pulls half charge freezer.