Basic li-ion battery care and maintenance

[Vetttech]

Question about point #3: Does this also apply to LiFePO4 cells? I have LiFePO4 batteries for my electric bikes. Should I go for a quick ride before stashing the bike in the shop?

Funny you should ask! I also own a Prodeco electric bike. It depends on how long you are stashing your bike for, I store my bike for about 5 months every year for winter. I do about a 4 mile ride on each battery pack before storing! I have had the same two LiFePO4 battery packs for about 4 years now, with no problems!

 

[Benm]

Perhaps that makes them more suitable for such applications then. I have little experience with these cells, but being able to cope better with temperature would definitely be a big plus.

One major downside of lithium ion cells is that they degrade more quickly at higher temperatures, even something like 30 or 40 celcius. For emergency use that probably would be a bad thing as you have little control over environmental temperatures and they could get pretty hot when not in use. One mishap there might be keeping them in a car where temperatures could go up to 50 celcius on a summers day even in moderate climates when parked in a sunny spot.

If you keep an emergency torch in the glovebox or something like that this is worth considering, and perhaps even keeping something powered by alkaline cells would be worthwhile (since you can more easily replace those from the average convenience store). If you need good capacity for volume/weight i'd still suggest primary lithium cells as those keep a charge really well over a very wide range of conditions, perhaps except for extreme cold: that poses problems for all types of batteries unless kept topped up by an external power source.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Your last sentence is a scary thought, Curtis. I also use mostly protected Li-ion batteries. I have a small number of unprotected for high current use.

I know. Of course many of these are using unprotected cells as they want the most capacity and don't want to pay the price.

Even the cheapest chinese chargers do this. 4.2V with a current limit is NOT hard to do.

Is a $25 nail better than a 2¢ nail? Probably, but there's no reason a 2¢ nail won't work fine for most people.

I would of agreed with you before, but I had a cheap charger completely destroy a pair of my more expensive Sanyo's through a faulty charge cycle. Luckily they were protected cells and only caused nasty sparking instead of an explosion. Since then I only used trusted chargers and batteries. Lithium's are volatile and should be treated with respect so if it means spending out a little more then so be it. A few £$€'s or a possible risk of a explosion. Unlikely but we all know it can happen and I don't want to take that chance.

If I had unprotected cells in that charger that day, I may have not had a house left. Instead I was able to just discard them.

 

[Radim]

Nice thread to be linked to the newcomers.

I would add the point that quality chargers have special function for reviving almost dead cells by charging them with low current. Inteligent chargers are worth the money - look for Nitecore and XTAR. I have XTAR for 4 cells (various types of batts) - easy to use with display showing current and voltage and estimating capacity charged in mAh. It is powered by 5 V and USB cable - very convenient even for travelling. I really like to see how much my lasers eat during laserpainting. My Sky beauty (I reviewed it recently) is very hungry. I'm always surprised how much it consumed.

 

[CurtisOliver]

I have an XTAR USB charger as well, but it is only for one cell. Highly recommend them.

473's are less efficient than the 532's so you have a nice powerful and hence draining pump diode. :beer:

 

[Radim]

Sure, Oliver. But I do not really care about how much it eats if batt can power it long enough (it is just interesting to watch the consumption) - it is f***ing awesome laser.

 

[CurtisOliver]

I'm glad that you enjoy it. Now to work on better battery tech so we can enjoy them for longer.

 

[Radim]

I like to say that battery future is in nanotechnology and capacitors - the currents dellivered would be limited basically only by how much could the material of it handle. Imagine coin sized batt delivering you like 10 amps at 12 V... Crazy dream...

 

[CurtisOliver]

That sure would be amazing. Let's hope science can make it happen commercially within our lifetime.

 

[WizardG]

Funny you should ask! I also own a Prodeco electric bike. It depends on how long you are stashing your bike for, I store my bike for about 5 months every year for winter. I do about a 4 mile ride on each battery pack before storing! I have had the same two LiFePO4 battery packs for about 4 years now, with no problems!

Glad to hear the batteries hold up so well over time. Thanks for the info! My LiFePO4 packs are brand new. Some dumbass left my old NiMH packs on top of the car the last time my wife and I went to the beach. Only one pack made it across the Astoria bridge.

 

[Cyparagon]

I would of agreed with you before, but I had a cheap charger completely destroy a pair of my more expensive Sanyo's through a faulty charge cycle.

Let's assume I believe that you correctly determined the charger to be the cause, and not the protection circuit, not the polarization, not debris in the socket, not a wild mains voltage transient, and not the cell itself... I'm sure you could find a personal testimony where someone had an identical experience with a $50 charger.

Taking a chance of a Li-ion fire

I bet you put a seat-belt on your toilet, too.

Like it or not, you take chances with your life every day.

 

[steve001]

Most of you RC guys will already know this information and can disregard it! This is for those who do not understand the nature of Li-ion Batteries and the maintenance and care needed for their longevity.


BASIC LI-ION BATTERY CARE AND MAINTENANCE

1. Invest in a good quality Li-ion smart battery charger. A smart charger will safely bring the charge up to, or close to 4.20 volts and not over that! If you go over 4.20 volts, you run the risk of destroying your battery. This is why i never trust the cheap chargers that come with some lasers.

2. Never discharge your Li-ion battery cell below 3.00 volts, as you run the risk of destroying your battery cell.

3. If you are not going to use your Li-ion battery for a period of more than 30 hours or more, "do not" store them at the full 4.20 volt charge as this will also slowly destroy your cell. When storing a Li-ion battery cell, they should be stored at about 3.8 volts for best results!

4. Li-ion battery's also like to be stored at cooler temperatures for longevity!

If you follow this simple guide, you will get much longer use and save alot of money on your Li-ion Batteries! JUST A HEADS UP! :yh:

Good info. Ask the administration to make this a Sticky topic.

 

[CE5]

I was asking another member about batteries, and they sent me a few links. Here is one of them. Compliments of BowtieGuy.

Batteries and chargers

And protected cells have been mentioned several times in this thread, but how does one know if their cells truly have protection?
In this example the wrap states that some of these cells have protection, when in fact they do not.

Disassembly of some UltraFire batteries

This next link, also from the same site illustrates how to determine if the cell has protection.

Is my battery protected

And @Vetttech, thanks for starting this thread, and getting folks talking about all this. It's helping to nudge the learning curve along.

 

[paul1598419]

@CE5

The first link you gave has all the others in it. The rest are just portions of the first link opened to show the complete review. I was happy to see my favorite battery charger reviewed quite comprehensively. The Opus BT-C3100. I have many chargers, but this one is the best of all the ones I have.

 

[CE5]

Just trying to break it down, and reference some pertinent links from that site.
To provide quick links to the specifics I was talking about.
There is so much info to sift through there, this seemed to be the best approach.

I also did mention that the links I was posting were from the same site.

 

[paul1598419]

I was asking another member about batteries, and they sent me a few links.

Sorry. It was this sentence that threw me off base. It wasn't said specifically that it was all from the same site, but a careful reading would lead one to that conclusion.