Battery Shelf Life

[Kiwimac]

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Whilst in Sydney last week I bought a spare battery for my Safari. I’ve not seen it for sale here in NZ other than in silver and black. I’m sure it is possible to get it here but since only about 3 Safari cameras were allocated here I don’t suppose there’s going to be a lot of demand!

 The battery remains in the Leica silver box, bubble wrap bag and clear plastic bag sealed witha bit of sellotape in which it was delivered. 
 

I have no idea how charged it is nor when it was packed: I can’t see that information anywhere. 
 

Since I don’t desperately need it, I was wondering how long it can stay in the state it’s in now without affecting its capabilities negatively. 
 

I’m happy to just put it away in the cupboard unopened, but they’re hardly cheap and I’d not want to pull it out in 18 months or something just to find it’s now unable to hold full capacity or something. 
 

 

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[maxpower]

I've always understood that it's best to use batteries (rotate between them) and leaving them on the shelve for years is not good for them.. but I'm not a scientist so that's just what I've heard.

[jdlaing]

31 minutes ago, Kiwimac said:

Whilst in Sydney last week I bought a spare battery for my Safari. I’ve not seen it for sale here in NZ other than in silver and black. I’m sure it is possible to get it here but since only about 3 Safari cameras were allocated here I don’t suppose there’s going to be a lot of demand!

 The battery remains in the Leica silver box, bubble wrap bag and clear plastic bag sealed witha bit of sellotape in which it was delivered. 
 

I have no idea how charged it is nor when it was packed: I can’t see that information anywhere. 
 

Since I don’t desperately need it, I was wondering how long it can stay in the state it’s in now without affecting its capabilities negatively. 
 

I’m happy to just put it away in the cupboard unopened, but they’re hardly cheap and I’d not want to pull it out in 18 months or something just to find it’s now unable to hold full capacity or something. 
 

 

It needs to be charged to at least the halfway level from time to time to avoid being totally drained. If it becomes totally drained it won’t take a charge.

[Thorfinn]

Li-ion (and their sistertechnology Li-polymer) are best stored cool (but not freezing) & dry with a app. 40-60% of charge, and that is what they are shipped with. There is a certain amount of self-discharge. So, when just storing over a long time the selv-discharge will bring the battery to a point of undercharched storage.  Storage in undercharged and "to the top" charge is someting Li-ion does not like. Other life-shortening actions are over-current, and the use or storage beyond the temperaturwindow.  
So why not use it from time to time, app. once a month and recharge to app. 80%? 

BTW: How do you want to dermine the full capacity in 18 month? Do you own adequate low-voltage measurement equipment fine enough to measure  the difference and what kind of discharge curve do you plan to applicate? 

For something as crucial as lead-acid Batteries there are 4 rival standards: SAE, EN, IEC, DIN. 

Batteries are consumables. That's what they are made for. 

[jgeenen]

Batteries deteriorate over the time - just because of the chemical processes inside the battery. It has been shown that the deterioration gets faster with higher temperatures and higher charge. Tests on car batteries (I found this link in German language https://ei.uni-paderborn.de/fileadmin-eim/elektrotechnik/fg/nek/Kairies/2019_Kairies_Batteriealterung_TU_Paderborn.pdf) show:

• A moderately loaded battery ages less (tests from Li-Ion based car batteries indicate that a 20% charged battery has still full capacity after 3 years, while a 60% charged battery has run down to 95% capacity and an always fully charged battery is already at 80%)
• Keep the battery stored dry and cool. 

To conclude - if your main purpose is to have a Safari green battery at home to be independent from Leica's supply chains - seal your battery in a vacuum bag, keep it in your fridge for a good year, let it warm up and unpack it, give it a moderate load (say 30min or so) and repeat the process.

On the other hand - a chrome battery base on a Safari M might look really sexy (for some).

[Kiwimac]

Thanks all. 
 

What happens if the Leica Store gets (say) 10 units and sell 3 so 7 remain in the drawer?

 

 There’s no packing date or charging date anywhere I can see. The batteries could be a year or more old before they’re sent out for sale. 

[pedaes]

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12 minutes ago, Kiwimac said:

Thanks all. 
 

What happens if the Leica Store gets (say) 10 units and sell 3 so 7 remain in the drawer?

 

 There’s no packing date or charging date anywhere I can see. The batteries could be a year or more old before they’re sent out for sale. 

On top of the 12 months in Leica's warehouse. Just can't sweat this stuff - in may have degraded a little, maybe not. You will not notice it in pictures, as they say about scratches on front elements.😀

[Tseg]

Before US tariffs I bought an extra battery for both my Q3 and M11.   Interestingly, both were depleted when I went to do a 1st charge.  I understand this is common with Leica batteries.   Not sure if there is long term benefit keeping the battery initially depleted like that?   Anyway, I did not.   Instead, I now rotate all the batteries.   My experience with all else in life is occasional use vs. long term storage prevents unwanted surprises.   With 2 of each battery, my "cycles" should be extended twice as long.

[BernardC]

You want to make sure that the voltage never drops below the minimum value (around 3.0V, but it depends). Chargers will refuse to charge if the voltage is too low. Your best bet, other than using the battery, is to top-up every few months. As others have pointed-out, it's theoretically better to charge to less than 100% for long-term storage.

[lct]

Batteries are made to be used so suffice it to use them all from time to time IMHO. I have 3 batteries for M240, 2 from 2013 and 1 from 2023 and they all work well this way. FWIW.

[Kiwimac]

I have to say that I wish the charger still came with the camera!

 

 It’s easier to manage without the camera being unavailable. It’s almost $300 here in NZ too buy the charger - and I didn’t see the camera price fall a corresponding amount when they stopped including it…..!