Charging half dead batteries

Wolfman Jonathan · Dec 10, 2016

Hello all. I did some flying today and ended up with a few batteries with half a charge or maybe a little less. Is there any problem just charging them up or do we really want to run them down completely before charging.

Thank you

Robert Mitchell · Dec 10, 2016

Lipos will do fine charging from any state of discharge. They don't suffer from "memory effect" as did some of the previous battery technologies . There is a direct coorelation between how much they are regularly discharged and their lifespan so, in fact it is beneficial, not to discharge them excessively. .

seanmclean · Dec 10, 2016

They're fine. Charge 'em.

MavicPro83 · Dec 10, 2016

I don't know if it's the same for the mavic but on the P3P it was always recommended that you charge on the day of use, even if the battery indicates it's full it would be worth a top up to ensure the readings were all accurate. Also thought was that you should always store batteries around 50% full which is about where they get to on auto discharge... I don't know if the same applies to the Mavic entirely but seem like good ideas in any case.

F6Rider · Dec 10, 2016

With new batteries I always limit the discharge to 50% for the 1st 10 cycles or so, then not below 20%, never had a battery go bad or have decreased flight time. There are Pilots who subscribe to this practice and others who don't, but at near $100 a pop I will take the extra care if it helps them last there full life span.

Wolfman Jonathan · Dec 10, 2016

Thanks. That's great.

GerdS · Dec 11, 2016

I can confirm, never fly the batteries until they are fully discharged and the craft will land automatically. I usually limit discharge to 30% and by doing so, I can still use my now almost 3 year old batteries with more than 100 cycles on my Phantom 2.