How Long Can You Leave A Battery Charged At 100%

[GadgetGuy]

You have a significantly increased chance of a pack puffing while it is at 100% SOC- that is a fact. High state of charge and elevated temp is the best known way to get a cell to puff closely follows by allowing self discharge below around 2.7 V and exceeding the C rating. Leave a fully charged pack in a vehicle cabin on a hot day and you can almost guarantee it will be permanently damaged.

If your flying almost daily your not keeping your batteries at 100%. Obviously it’s not an issue.

Not arguing the point, but swelling is still not an issue with any of the more than 3 dozen DJI batteries I own going back 4 years. I have multiple DJI batteries and keep at least four fully charged at all times, ready to fly, even though I may only use one. All this obsessing over batteries is much ado about nothing when it comes to DJI batteries, for all the reasons cited above. Except for two bad batches of M2 batteries dated 2018.07 and 2018.08, of which I own none, no other M2 batteries are reported to be swelling, regardless of care or usage. Do as you like, but it won't make any difference, despite all claims to the contrary! YMMV.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Not arguing the point, but swelling is still not an issue with any of the more than 3 dozen DJI batteries I own going back 4 years. I have multiple DJI batteries and keep at least four fully charged at all times, ready to fly, even though I may only use one. All this obsessing over batteries is much ado about nothing when it comes to DJI batteries, for all the reasons cited above. Except for two bad batches of M2 batteries dated 2018.07 and 2018.08, of which I own none, no other M2 batteries are reported to be swelling, regardless of care or usage. Do as you like, but it won't make any difference, despite all claims to the contrary! YMMV.

There is nothing special about DJI batteries, at least not with respect to the cell chemistry. I don’t baby my packs either. To say how we treat them has no impact on performance though is for us to be ignorant of the limitations of the technology. It’s all about compromise and informed choice.

 

[GadgetGuy]

There is nothing special about DJI batteries, at least not with respect to the cell chemistry. I don’t baby my packs either. To say how we treat them has no impact on performance though is for us to be ignorant of the limitations of the technology. It’s all about compromise and informed choice.

Then we agree. Much ado about nothing. The differences are marginal at best. Swelling is not an issue, unless the packs are defective. The batteries will be superceded by a new aircraft long before their degradation becomes an issue.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Then we agree. Much ado about nothing. The differences are marginal at best. Swelling is not an issue, unless the packs are defective. The batteries will be superceded by a new aircraft long before their degradation becomes an issue.

I’m not sure we agree. My interest is, to the extent possible, in addressing facts. Those who favour long term performance and reliability can potentially realise their objectives with being more attentive to storage requirements. They are less interested I suspect in what you, me or anyone thinks about how relevant their priorities are. The OP question was concerning the effects of keeping a LiPO at 100% SOC. The answer is it is one of the best known ways to reduce the usable capacity and service life.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I’m not sure we agree. My interest is, to the extent possible, in addressing facts. Those who favour long term performance and reliability can potentially realise their objectives with being more attentive to storage requirements. They are less interested I suspect in what you, me or anyone thinks about how relevant their priorities are. The OP question was concerning the effects of keeping a LiPO at 100% SOC. The answer is it is one of the best known ways to reduce the usable capacity and service life.

The direct effect of keeping your packs fully charged is being able to use them without delay. Catching the decisive moments with your drone is the objective. That trumps battery longevity. One purchases a drone to fly it, not to prolong the life of the batteries. I think we've now covered all the relevant issues, and the OP can decide whether flying is more important than babying his batteries. The worst thing he can do is fly on a partially storage discharged battery, where the cells are unbalanced, which can lead to a battery shutoff in midair. Ask me how I know!

 

[WithTheBirds]

The direct effect of keeping your packs fully charged is being able to use them without delay. Catching the decisive moments with your drone is the objective. That trumps battery longevity. One purchases a drone to fly it, not to prolong the life of the batteries. I think we've now covered all the relevant issues, and the OP can decide whether flying is more important than babying his batteries. The worst thing he can do is fly on a partially storage discharged battery, where the cells are unbalanced, which can lead to a battery shutoff in midair. Ask me how I know!

What I do is keep one or two packs charged ready to fly but it isn’t, or at least I make an effort to try and ensure it won’t be, the same pack(s). I try to keep them rotated so that the time at full charge is kept as low as it can be while not loosing an opportunity to fly. It does make a difference. There is a reason why DJI introduced self discharge. I know a couple of authorised DJI techs who claim to have lost count of the number of early battery deaths where it was revealed storage full was almost certainly the culprit. I choose not to remind myself of the cash I wasted in the early days of LiPO introduction to the model hobby- I killed plenty of expensive packs charging after flight and leaving sitting around.

 

[GerdS]

Be aware that swelling does rarely occur with new batteries, even if stored fully charged over weeks. But the risk will quickly increase with battery age. Back to my example, the SplashDrone battery was 3 years old, almost same as my Mavic Pro batteries. So, if you want a long battery life you should follow my suggestions.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Be aware that swelling does rarely occur with new batteries, even if stored fully charged over weeks. But the risk will quickly increase with battery age. Back to my example, the SplashDrone battery was 3 years old, almost same as my Mavic Pro batteries. So, if you want a long battery life you should follow my suggestions.

It should be clear by now that prolonging battery life is secondary to the primary purpose of flying the drone as frequently as possible to obtain video and stills, before the drone is superseded by a better one, requiring new and different batteries, which generally happens annually. Time to upgrade that obsolete Mavic Pro!

 

[GadgetGuy]

What I do is keep one or two packs charged ready to fly but it isn’t, or at least I make an effort to try and ensure it won’t be, the same pack(s). I try to keep them rotated so that the time at full charge is kept as low as it can be while not loosing an opportunity to fly. It does make a difference. There is a reason why DJI introduced self discharge. I know a couple of authorised DJI techs who claim to have lost count of the number of early battery deaths where it was revealed storage full was almost certainly the culprit. I choose not to remind myself of the cash I wasted in the early days of LiPO introduction to the model hobby- I killed plenty of expensive packs charging after flight and leaving sitting around.

Rotating the packs kept full makes sense. Nothing wrong with self-discharge either. It fulfills its purpose when 10 days have gone by without use.

However, how on earth would any DJI tech have access to how long a battery was stored full? Is there now a battery .DAT log file of the date and time of every charge and how long it was kept at that charge, as well as the full history of self-discharge? How does any DJI tech have sufficient information from which to accurately conclude the cause of any early battery death, especially when "full storage was almost certainly the culprit?" I call B.S..Early battery death means within the 6 month battery warranty period, as, otherwise, no one is looking for a cause, because it is out of warranty. Even @GerdS is not claiming storing at full charge will cause a problem until year three! Those couple of authorized DJI techs you know are full of it! That is pure unsubstantiated speculation on their part, spreading false information to you as truth!

 

[GerdS]

Time to upgrade that obsolete Mavic Pro!

Why should I do so? I don't see any remarkable benefit for my flight profile if upgrading to a Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom. In contrast I would have a more heavy and more bulky drone which is incompatible with my accessories.
And my Mavic Pro is crash-free after almost 3 years and flies as well as at the first day, after about 400 flights according to the battery charge cycles from Airdata.
There is just no need for following each single iteration in DJI's product portfolio. I also switched from the Phantom II with analog video equipment (no plus or pro) to the Mavic without stopping between for Pantom 3 or 4. And my tendency goes clearly to smaller and more liteweighted drones.
But it's your personal decision how much money you will burn, just to be always with the most recent model...

 

[WithTheBirds]

Rotating the packs kept full makes sense. Nothing wrong with self-discharge either. It fulfills its purpose when 10 days have gone by without use.

However, how on earth would any DJI tech have access to how long a battery was stored full? Is there now a battery .DAT log file of the date and time of every charge and how long it was kept at that charge, as well as the full history of self-discharge? How does any DJI tech have sufficient information from which to accurately conclude the cause of any early battery death, especially when "full storage was almost certainly the culprit?" I call B.S..Early battery death means within the 6 month battery warranty period, as, otherwise, no one is looking for a cause, because it is out of warranty. Even @GerdS is not claiming storing at full charge will cause a problem until year three! Those couple of authorized DJI techs you know are full of it! That is pure unsubstantiated speculation on their part, spreading false information to you as truth!

How did we know storing cells at full charge killed them without logs? Personal experience and the experience of others. The fellows I mentioned performed repairs in house and spoke to the customers directly. I don’t have cause to doubt them, I am persuaded to accept the claims as they align with what we should expect from LiION chemistry. It might be you don’t understand the limitations of LiION performance or refuse to acknowledge they are real. The reality is you are the one who is clearly making false claims.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Why should I do so? I don't see any remarkable benefit for my flight profile if upgrading to a Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom. In contrast I would have a more heavy and more bulky drone which is incompatible with my accessories.
And my Mavic Pro is crash-free after almost 3 years and flies as well as at the first day, after about 400 flights according to the battery charge cycles from Airdata.
There is just no need for following each single iteration in DJI's product portfolio. I also switched from the Phantom II with analog video equipment (no plus or pro) to the Mavic without stopping between for Pantom 3 or 4. And my tendency goes clearly to smaller and more liteweighted drones.
But it's your personal decision how much money you will burn, just to be always with the most recent model...

If you are happy with the results from the three year old Mavic Pro, and the batteries are holding up, fine. The cameras are the biggest difference. I am all about the image quality. I have over 1000 flights and want the best image and video possible for that investment of my time and irreplaceable flight opportunities. The Mavic Pro didn't cut it for me. I prefer the P4P most, but it lacks the portability of the M2P and M2Z. The optical zoom on the M2Z is also a game changer, allowing you to get the same image from twice as far away.

 

[GadgetGuy]

How did we know storing cells at full charge killed them without logs? Personal experience and the experience of others. The fellows I mentioned performed repairs in house and spoke to the customers directly. I don’t have cause to doubt them, I am persuaded to accept the claims as they align with what we should expect from LiION chemistry. It might be you don’t understand the limitations of LiION performance or refuse to acknowledge they are real. The reality is you are the one who is clearly making false claims.

As I suspected, purely anecdotal speculation, rather than cold, hard, proven facts! It is all belief based conclusions. I have not made any false claims.

 

[WithTheBirds]

As I suspected, purely anecdotal speculation, rather than cold, hard, proven facts! It is all belief based conclusions. I have not made any false claims.

To the extent you maintain that keeping the packs at 100% SOC doesn't hasten the age related reduction in usable capacity, increase the propensity to puff and that the commonly understood measures that might be taken to prolong life and performance provide negligible benefits you are making demonstrably false claims and seemingly arguing from personal incredulity. The cold hard facts can be found in the many published papers discussing LiION technology.

 

[GadgetGuy]

To the extent you maintain that keeping the packs at 100% SOC doesn't hasten the age related reduction in usable capacity, increase the propensity to puff and that the commonly understood measures that might be taken to prolong life and performance provide negligible benefits you are making demonstrably false claims and seemingly arguing from personal incredulity. The cold hard facts can be found in the many published papers discussing LiION technology.

The extent to which you have twisted my words to fit your premise is astounding. I never disputed the point you keep repeating ad nauseam. I said it doesn't matter in the global scheme of how the batteries are used, when the batteries have a built in discharge mechanism, are used within 10 days, and that no swelling has ever occurred on any of my DJI batteries, regardless of care or abuse. Swelling of batteries within the warranty period of 6 months is unheard of, unless defective. Your assumptions that some techs speculative anecdotes are conclusive proof of concept needs re-examination.

 

[Iceman318]

We'd have no way of knowing (of course), but I highly doubt the average Mavic owner (or DJI drone owner in general) is manually discharging batteries before the auto discharge feature kicks in. If that's true, then it seems letting the batteries sit around for more than one day is working out just fine for most people. Otherwise, we'd see posts with stories similar to yours above here every day.

Agree. I have four batteries, charge them before each time I fly. If I don't use all four then I don't. I also have never discharged the ones I didn't. I do cycle the order I use them in but that is it. I've been doing this for over a year, zero issues of any kind.

 

[tribar]

I'm new to this forum so if there is already a thread on this i'm sorry. I have 4 battery's and i'm going on a 10 day vacation and don't want to bring the whole charging setup so I guess my question is if I charge all 4 batteries and bring them is that fine in terms of longevity? I've always heard to charge before you fly not to store fully charged.

Keep in mind that you are NOT allowed bring fully charged LiPo/LiIon batteries onto an airplane, and the connectors have to be covered to prevent a possible short.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Keep in mind that you are NOT allowed bring fully charged LiPo/LiIon batteries onto an airplane, and the connectors have to be covered to prevent a possible short.

It is well understood that there is a prescribed maximum permissible SOC level of LiION cells carried as air cargo- I would be grateful if you might sight your source for any such restriction being placed in batteries taken in board as carry on. I suspect this to be incorrect information. Means of protection of terminals to prevent short circuit are certainly required and there are many ways to satisfy this including installation in device, retail packaging, seperate bags etc.

 

[msinger]

Keep in mind that you are NOT allowed bring fully charged LiPo/LiIon batteries onto an airplane

Most airlines allow passengers to bring fully charged batteries on board.

 

[Flycaster]

I would not let a fully charged battery lay around for more than one day now.

My most recent experience form yesterday:
At Saturday I was out with my SplashDrone (avatar) with two batteries. Because of a technical problem I was not able to fly a second time, so I returned home with one fully charged battery. Yesterday, means just two days later, I intended to use that battery for a test flight and found out it was swollen on one side. When checking the single cells via balancer connector, three cells were at about 4.1V while the fourth (and swollen) cell was at about 1.5V only. So this battery has to be disposed now.

For the Mavic this risk applies, too. Never store a battery fully charged for more than one day if your batteries shall have a long life. Even the self-discharge setting of 3 days within GO4 is too long.
If you will run into a situation where you cannot fly a battery empty, then discharge it at home. I have the Fly More bundle which included an USB adapter for using a battery as power bank. Use this for discharging by charging your phone or tablet from that battery.
For storing a battery, even over weeks, I charge the empty battery after flight just only until 2 LEDs will show solid light and the third one is blinking.
This was so successful that my old Mavic Pro batteries from November 2016 and with more than 130 cycles each are still operational.

I suspect that the battery that swelled after 2 days was already on the way out with a "hobbled" cell.
Over the years, I always store @45/50 percent. But I have had batteries that I ran that were charged for up to 5 days with zero issues. If you take good, reasonable care, they will "afford" you a little leway, but with the caveat that that they "don't forgive being ignored"...
The DJI self discharge is a gem of a feature for making life easier on the owner.
And the battery(ies)...
The only time I ever had an issue with a LiPo, is when I dropped a 6s 8kMah it on the floor,
and yes, it showed it did not like it. At all. Started outgassing within 60 seconds....