Shortened Battery Life in Cold Conditions

[DoodlesDad]

Hello friends! can anyone tell me if the battery life is shortened only when operating in cold conditions or can it drain when not in use. I will be heading to Norway and want footage of the famous Trolltunga (Troll's Tongue). It is an entire day of hiking (8 hours) and weather conditions are unpredictable. I understand that battery life may be shortened when in use, but if we are hiking for an extended period of time do I run the risk of having or shorter life upon arrival. Any help is greatly appreciated and my apologies if this is the incorrect forum for asking. Thanks!

 

[dgronjord]

What's the weather/temperature forecast? Something like 0 to -5C?

Keep the batteries in an inside pocket on your coat. When starting, let it hover a few minutes at low altitude to let it get warmed up and check it's OK.

 

[brett8883]

Storing all of them them in a pocket might not be possible on an 8 hour hike so what I would reccomend is getting one of those hand warmers you can get anywhere and put one at the bottom of your bag. I would try not to have it directly touching the batteries maybe wrapping in a thin cloth or something.

When ready to fly take your first battery and slowly rub the hand warmer over the battery to warm it up a bit. The idea here is to warm up the battery evenly and not having one side hot and the other cold. Put the battery in the mavic and check the battery internal temp in DJI Go app.

I like to have mine above 20 degrees C before take off but it has to be above 14C.

You aren’t exposing your battery very long but I’d still try and keep them from freezing with a full charge in them.

 

[DoodlesDad]

Thanks for your replies Fellas, greatly appreciated!

 

[MavicFlyer]

As to of the batteries over time, I've found that to be a non-issue. When I charge the battery all the way up (4 solid green lights), I still see 4 even if several days have gone by. However, you should know that the batteries self-discharge down to about 60% after a certain number of days, because fully charged is not the optimal level for storing these kind of batteries. On my Mavic Air, it's fixed (10 days, IIRC) but I understand that duration can be changed within a certain range on the other DJI drones.

 

[ColoradoFisher]

Lithium is not meant to be in the cold. Use or not if their exposed to outside air they will deplete.

 

[Mav.phant.inspire]

I’ve flown in -30C few problems... when transmitter dies it’s pretty scetchy. Just use your head. The m2p gets batteries warmed up fast.

 

[brett8883]

Anybody get some of those self heating Mavic 2 enterprise batteries for their regular Mavic 2 yet? I feel like that was the biggest thing about the enterprise edition nobody talks about.

 

[jeplane]

I just flew last week in Svalbard, northernmost Norway at -27C/-17F.
I only lost 2-3 minutes of flight time.
Hand warmers work great and are your friend in this case.
The biggest issue was the Ipad I use for a tablet, since they are not designed for theses temps. Even at 0C/32F, they will shut down after about 10 minutes.