Hi. I have a question for anybody who can offer an opinion on this. We have a fleet of radios, some newer xpr series with li-ion batteries, and some ht1250 series radios with older battery technology. The business is a ski resort. My question is this, how best to maintain batteries over the summer? I am thinking a weekly charger timer, on for maby 1 x 12 hour period a week? I would rather a monthly timer but cannot find one, weekly timers are readily available.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
off season battery maintenance
Moderator: Queue Moderator
Re: off season battery maintenance
Hello:
Im by no means an expert on this but ill toss in my thoughts .
My concern would be that normally a battery fast chgr in my experience chgs a low battery back to full chg in aprox one hr.
And that likely one week later the battery would still be fully chgd and get another not needed full chg therefore possibly over chging unless its a smart chgr and shuts down.
Another concern id have is when the chgr is powered down by the weekly timer if thats true in your case is does the battery chgr let the batterys power seap back into the chgr as a load drawing the battery down ?
Also as I recall most batteries have a number of discharged to recharge cycle rates and if im correct its 1000 discharge recharge cycles that the battery is normally designed to give before needing replaced.
I myself would prefer to keep the 52 cycles for future use rather than use it up with once a week unneeded chg.
But I do see your predicament and hmm just a thought what about oh say a 15 minute chg once a week or even just a 5 minute quick chg time just to keep battery up to save on deep 1 hr chgs thus reducing the chances of over chging a older tech type battery saving on the battery cylcles???
The lion battery packs I think you could just leave in chgr let full chg and leave chgr on as it should go trickle chg to support battery without any issues or at least I thought that was the case.
And even older NiCad batteries should id think in a slow chgr be ok just leave radio on BUT DONT TRANSMIT WITH IT IN CHGR and it I think might be fine with the radio on to use the slow trickle charge when not needed for battery as load maybe ?????
Wont stand by that thought either as I truly don't know that to be true.
What if a slow trickle chgr was turned on for 15 minutes every week ????? Now that might be the ticket ?????
Just some thoughts in my mind as I go and pop a lid off of a cold beer
Satelite
Im by no means an expert on this but ill toss in my thoughts .
My concern would be that normally a battery fast chgr in my experience chgs a low battery back to full chg in aprox one hr.
And that likely one week later the battery would still be fully chgd and get another not needed full chg therefore possibly over chging unless its a smart chgr and shuts down.
Another concern id have is when the chgr is powered down by the weekly timer if thats true in your case is does the battery chgr let the batterys power seap back into the chgr as a load drawing the battery down ?
Also as I recall most batteries have a number of discharged to recharge cycle rates and if im correct its 1000 discharge recharge cycles that the battery is normally designed to give before needing replaced.
I myself would prefer to keep the 52 cycles for future use rather than use it up with once a week unneeded chg.
But I do see your predicament and hmm just a thought what about oh say a 15 minute chg once a week or even just a 5 minute quick chg time just to keep battery up to save on deep 1 hr chgs thus reducing the chances of over chging a older tech type battery saving on the battery cylcles???
The lion battery packs I think you could just leave in chgr let full chg and leave chgr on as it should go trickle chg to support battery without any issues or at least I thought that was the case.
And even older NiCad batteries should id think in a slow chgr be ok just leave radio on BUT DONT TRANSMIT WITH IT IN CHGR and it I think might be fine with the radio on to use the slow trickle charge when not needed for battery as load maybe ?????
Wont stand by that thought either as I truly don't know that to be true.
What if a slow trickle chgr was turned on for 15 minutes every week ????? Now that might be the ticket ?????
Just some thoughts in my mind as I go and pop a lid off of a cold beer
Satelite
-
N4KVE
- Posts: 1649
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 10:35 am
- What radios do you own?: APX XTS XTL TRBO 900MHZ
Re: off season battery maintenance
If the batteries are Impres, put them in the Impres charger every 32 days. That way they will be reconditioned. GARY.
Re: off season battery maintenance
Or lift them out of the pocket briefly every three months. NiMHs and LiOns don't need to be reconditioned after 30 days of trickle charge. When in doubt read the battery and charger data sheets.
Karl - WA8NVW AFA5VB
SHARES + NCS
SHARES + NCS
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N4DES
- was KS4VT
- Posts: 1233
- Joined: Thu Dec 25, 2003 7:59 am
- What radios do you own?: APX,XTS2500,XTL2500,XTL1500
Re: off season battery maintenance
What you don't want to do is leave new boxed Impres batteries in the box on the shelf for a long period of time (~ 1 year).
I had a user do this instead of doing a rotation and lost about 20 batteries that wouldn't correctly charge when he attempted to put them in service.
I had a user do this instead of doing a rotation and lost about 20 batteries that wouldn't correctly charge when he attempted to put them in service.
Re: off season battery maintenance
Personally I have alot of radios, some I dont use much, I charge the batteries, put them in a baggie in the fridge. Seems to work to slow down cell degradation.