Mavic Air Battery Life

[JoelP]

I have had 4 MA batteries and have been doing my best to maintain them. I try to not run them below 30% and try to store them at about 50% charge. That said, I had one fail 5 days before 6 months which DJI replaced under warranty. This week a second one failed at about 9.5 months. I haven't counted the exact number of flights on this battery or the charge cycles, but it seems that it has had between 50 and 75 charge cycles. This seems too short to be normal. What is other people's experience?

These are smart batteries, so I would think it would be impossible to discharge them to a voltage that could brick them. That said this last one failed when I was having a difficult time making it back to the landing point as early as I normal would. My recollection is that it was down to 27% at 12 min 46 sec (per the flight log) as I pressed RTH and it gave the message that it only had enough charge to RTH. The distance to the home point was about 100 yds from an altitude of 200 ft. It came over the home point and descended to 27 ft and gave a low voltage warning but continued down to 10 ft as normal for a precision landing. When the downward visual sensors took over it wobbled more than usual then dropped from about 3 or 4 ft, breaking 2 props. My leg extenders avoided any other damage.

Within an hour I put this battery on the charge only find that it would not charge at all -- totally bricked.

 

[Mossiback]

I have been using my three original MP batteries for almost two years and have noticed no degradation. I rotate battery use and fly most days when weather permits.

 

[CanadaDrone]

All I can say is I have had no issues with my MA batteries. I realize that doesn't help you much but it's a data point. I always follow best care practices and RTH at 30%.

 

[DanMan32]

Could be a bad batch.
What are your typical storage temperatures? I'm convinced heat is the biggest cause of LiPo failure, barring any manufacturer defect.

 

[jeffcutler]

I have had 4 MA batteries and have been doing my best to maintain them. I try to not run them below 30% and try to store them at about 50% charge. That said, I had one fail 5 days before 6 months which DJI replaced under warranty. This week a second one failed at about 9.5 months. I haven't counted the exact number of flights on this battery or the charge cycles, but it seems that it has had between 50 and 75 charge cycles. This seems too short to be normal. What is other people's experience?

These are smart batteries, so I would think it would be impossible to discharge them to a voltage that could brick them. That said this last one failed when I was having a difficult time making it back to the landing point as early as I normal would. My recollection is that it was down to 27% at 12 min 46 sec (per the flight log) as I pressed RTH and it gave the message that it only had enough charge to RTH. The distance to the home point was about 100 yds from an altitude of 200 ft. It came over the home point and descended to 27 ft and gave a low voltage warning but continued down to 10 ft as normal for a precision landing. When the downward visual sensors took over it wobbled more than usual then dropped from about 3 or 4 ft, breaking 2 props. My leg extenders avoided any other damage.

Within an hour I put this battery on the charge only find that it would not charge at all -- totally bricked.

Have had three batteries do this to me. Two were fine-ish and gave low battery warnings, one did almost the same thing as yours CRITICAL WARNING LOW BATTERY and dropped from the sky into a hay pile.

I heard a batch of batteries that went into Fly-More packages was bad. I've now replaced all three of mine and plan to buy a fourth just to have extra time. My retail outlet thought warranty period was a year (and I didn't correct them) so I've got three relatively new batteries that I'll put through careful paces this winter.

**I often have flown down to 10% of battery. I won't do that as much.
**I often did back-to-back flights while charging batteries in the car and swapping out to have longer time in the air. I won't do this either and will allow them time to cool and then charge normally back at the office.

Have you learned anything more since your original post? Thanks! J

 

[unmannedarts]

Whats the performance like in the cold?