How long can you leave your lipos fully charged without damaging them?
How long can you leave a battery fully charged?
You probably know that leaving your batteries fully charged at 4.2 volts per cell is bad for them, but what if you charge your batteries up the day before you're about to go fly, and then for whatever reason it rains the next day maybe and you don't go fly. Should you put your batteries back to storage immediately, or should you maybe it's okay to wait one or two days and just go fly the next day. It turns out that there is no actual right answer to this, it's just a matter of degree . So here's what let's start with what we know because hard information about this topic is actually pretty difficult to come by, and we know that batteries left at storage voltage 3.8 volts per cell for a typical Lipo, they can stay there basically forever and will perform basically as good as the day they were made, and we know that because when lipos are manufactured they are stored in whatever the warehouse on the retailers store. They're stored at 3.8 volts per sell and when you get them they're still brand new.
So how long then can you leave it before it takes damage. The actual answer to that question I go back to a test done by the website lipobench.de, I don't know if they're still doing tests but they were doing battery tests some years ago and they did a test where they found that a battery left at full charge for 30 days at a 5% reduction in performance. So there's a there's like one rule of thumb 5% performance after 30 days at full charge, but the real question is does it matter if those 30 days at full charge are all at once, or whether it's one day at full charge 30 times over the life of the battery and I don't know of data to test that hypothesis. But I'm gonna tell you what I think that the time spent is cumulative the chemical processes that are occurring inside the battery start to occur when the battery is charged up, and they occur progressively over time. So I would think that 30 days consecutively at full charge is just about the same harm as 24 hours 30 times non consecutively, so I think about batteries as the total amount of time over the life of the battery that it has spent at full charge. So when you think about whether to discharge your batteries down to storage voltage or not, ask yourself how much time is this battery gonna spend at full charge over the life of the battery. Think about it like you've got a certain budget of time that the battery can spend at full charge and eventually the battery will either be destroyed because it has its performance has degraded enough that it's not usable anymore, or it will not be usable because you've smashed it into a bando and you've just destroyed it, and that's the thing. Most of the time freestyle pilots and racing pilots destroy batteries way quicker by smashing them and breaking them than by wearing them out from leaving them fully charged for too long. If I was going on vacation for a month, I wouldn't leave my batteries fully charged but I don't really think about” oh should I put them back at storage voltage after 1 day or 2 days”, I just leave them charged up and I go fly when I'm ready to go fly, because those one and two days that I leave them charged up over the life of a battery maybe it's 20 or 30 days, which is about a 5% reduction in battery performance, but I'm probably going to destroy the battery in some other way before the cumulative effect of being fully charged, actually adds up to anything noticeable.
The other thing to keep in mind is that batteries also take damage when you discharge and charge them, the act of charging and discharging the batteries wears them out slightly too. So if you're in a situation where you you know that's why they say a Lipo might have 300 cycles before its capacity is reduced to 70% of new and it's considered to be worn out. So if you've got a battery that's fully charged and you're not gonna fly it tomorrow, and you decide to take it down to storage that's one cycle. So the act of putting them in storage also put some wear on them and you keep that in mind when you're thinking about how long to leave them at full charge versus putting them at storage. Personally I'll leave them for a few days and then I feel like maybe I had to put them at storage, up to maybe a week, but now you're starting to really bite into that budget of time that the battery could spend at full charge before its performance is degraded. I want to destroy my batteries by smashing them not destroy them by leaving it full charge.
In summary, for rechargeable batteries, it's ideal to store them with around 50% charge if not in use for a long time, while non-rechargeable batteries should be used until fully discharged and then disposed of. Always refer to the manufacturer's guidelines for specific recommendations on storing and charging your batteries.
For rechargeable batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries commonly found in smartphones and laptops, it is generally recommended to store them at around 50% charge if they will not be used for an extended period of time, such as several months. This helps to prevent overcharging or discharging, which can degrade the battery's performance over time. If you need to store a rechargeable battery, it's a good idea to periodically check and recharge it to prevent it from dropping below a safe voltage level.
On the other hand, non-rechargeable batteries, such as alkaline batteries, should not be left fully charged for an extended period of time. These batteries are designed for one-time use and do not perform well if kept fully charged. If you have non-rechargeable batteries, it's best to use them until they are fully discharged and then properly dispose of them.
In summary, for rechargeable lipo batteries, it's ideal to store them with around 50% charge if not in use for a long time, while non-rechargeable batteries should be used until fully discharged and then disposed of. Always refer to the manufacturer's guidelines for specific recommendations on storing and charging your batteries.
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