Battery storage

Hi - I expect like many I have bought extra batteries for my EM1 ii for the trip away. On coming home what is the best state to leave them in if they are not going to be used for quite some time? As they are not priced as consumables, should I charge up and store, or leave them in their fully used state to try and preserve working life. Or does it not matter as lithium batteries naturally deteriorate with age. Thanks

Andrew

You should always charge lithium batteries for storage. For the best long term battery life in your system, you should probably routinely use all of you batteries.

dwkyre said:

You should always charge lithium batteries for storage. For the best long term battery life in your system, you should probably routinely use all of you batteries.

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Agreed.

I always rotate my batteries, although I have never needed more than one spare. At the end of a day’s shoot, I take the battery out to recharge and immediately put another fully charged battery in.

Thanks guys. I'll make sure all are charged and rotated.

Aucupium said:

Hi - I expect like many I have bought extra batteries for my EM1 ii for the trip away. On coming home what is the best state to leave them in if they are not going to be used for quite some time? As they are not priced as consumables, should I charge up and store, or leave them in their fully used state to try and preserve working life. Or does it not matter as lithium batteries naturally deteriorate with age. Thanks

Andrew

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The good book on batteries says that for long term storage the batteries should be at 40% charge, then every year charge them up to full and then discharge to 40% and back into storage.

That's a pain to maintain.

So the sensible alternative is to label all your batteries as A/B/C etc and cycle them through in order to even out the wear. Never let batteries get to red warning, always pull them early or very early, change to next one in line and then recharge the removed one and back into the spares chain. Shallow discharge/charge lengthens battery life.



I simply change them in alpha order in both cameras. They get little use between trips away.

Regards.... Guy

I have 8 batteries for my current active cameras (GX85 and GX7, my main cameras, GF3 is a backup) and 4 batteries for GX1, another backup camera that rarely used in these 2 years.

I need so many because usually I shall use 2~2.5 batteries per camera a day on my normal travelling.

Back home, I shall have all of them fully charged, and keep in a drawer which keeps my accessories. The GX85 and GF3 will keep in the Auto Dry cabinet without battery nor SD card. The GX7 will has a battery and SD card and is ready to shoot anytime.

When the battery in GX7 has been emptied, I shall replace it and the emptied one will be recharged. Usually if not many shooting a battery will be replaced every 1~3 weeks. Therefore all of the batteries would be used on rotation basis. The batteries of GX1 would be checked every 6 months or so ensuring they are always under optimal condition...

Although some of these batteries are already 5~6 years old, they are still quite healthy until now.

Thanks Guy - eminently sensible! I had go into the red with all three of my batteries last week (incl the extra non OEM I'd bought just in case) so I hope that wont harm them too much.

Andrew

Thanks Albert

Rotation seems to be the answer.

Andrew

Once a battery is put into service, the worst thing you can do is leave it in a state of discharge for storage.
I believe this applies to all battery chemistries.

Some cells will naturally have a longer lifetime than others and I don't think there's any predictor for battery health vs usage lifespan.

A rotation scheme is probably best practice.

Just curious: how do you discharge a battery on the side, if not by using it in the camera?

I had read somewhere in DPR that new battery should be trained to get it fully charged. But I have no idea how to perform the discharge part.

Guy Parsons said:

Aucupium said:

Hi - I expect like many I have bought extra batteries for my EM1 ii for the trip away. On coming home what is the best state to leave them in if they are not going to be used for quite some time? As they are not priced as consumables, should I charge up and store, or leave them in their fully used state to try and preserve working life. Or does it not matter as lithium batteries naturally deteriorate with age. Thanks

Andrew

Click to expand...

The good book on batteries says that for long term storage the batteries should be at 40% charge, then every year charge them up to full and then discharge to 40% and back into storage.

That's a pain to maintain.

So the sensible alternative is to label all your batteries as A/B/C etc and cycle them through in order to even out the wear. Never let batteries get to red warning, always pull them early or very early, change to next one in line and then recharge the removed one and back into the spares chain. Shallow discharge/charge lengthens battery life.



I simply change them in alpha order in both cameras. They get little use between trips away.

Regards.... Guy

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This is 100% correct, alot of old habits from older battery tech have hung around, and can be quite destructive to new batteries.

Well said Guy, clearly a cool guy <3

The answer is easy, don't store batteries, just use your camera many times every day and rotate batteries.