Have recently acquired a Ryobi ONE+ tool and am interested to know how I can extend the life of the battery and prevent it's premature death.
How Best to Maintain Lithium-Ion Batteries?
figarow on 30/01/2023 - 14:22
Comments
Also Li-Ion batteries do not like heat so try to store in a cool place (ie, not in a hot tin shed).
Keep charge between 20 and 80%, recharge to 80%, store in cool area at 80%!
30 - 80% rule
Don't store outside of this range for long periods.
Personally I avoid going below 30% unless absolutely needed.
Is it just guesswork to know if the tool is discharged at around 30%? Same with recharging, the charger is just a simple blinking light.
Yes. All of the advice being given is impractical. For most tools you won't know if it is at 30% nor 80%. If you use them infrequently just make sure to charge them up every few months or so. Personally, I just charge them fully when the battery runs out or I is low and they sit around until I need them again which can be anywhere from the next day to 2-3 months. My current set of tool batteries (DeWalt) has lasted around 7-8 years and the capacity isn't noticeably different. My Ryobi batteries before that died within a few years with similar usage so quality does play a factor.
Agree with the impracticality of precise measurement / process, and prefer to go with something imperfect but I can actually kinda sorta stick to. It's a pity most (all?) tool battery chargers don't have a "charge for longevity/storage" setting, as well as the plain ol' "just charge it to 100% already, quicker is better".
So there’s no way to tell what the battery level is? Not even indicator lights? Are the batteries expensive?
No, it's a small 2ah battery for line trimmer, no indicator on it.
I probably wouldn’t worry too much about it in that case… as mentioned above just use as normal but be sure to charge it once every few months.
Hopefully it's not that Giantz branded junk, they charge like $80 for a single 2ah battery
Not easily, no.
If it's an 18v/20v tool, they usually have 5 cells in series. At maximum charge that's 4.2*5 = 21V.
If you're trying to maximise cycle life, without over compromising usability, the highest voltage you want to get to is 3.8v per cell. 3.8x5=18v
You can measure this with a cheap multimeter between the two outer sockets. But then you're in a position where your either charging the battery and then disconnecting it every 10 minutes to measure it, or your charging it up fully and then using some device to drain it. With time you can get some rule of thumb measurements so that it won't be too hard, but it's still more work than I'm willing to put in.
As others have said, keep the battery charged between specific percentages. I personally opt for 40% - 80%. It’s detrimental to charge lithium ion batteries to their max and to let them run too low.
Did this with my iPhone 8 and the battery lasted nearly 4 years before I got it [the battery] replaced.
Learned this lesson first-hand with a 2015 MacBook vs a 2017 MacBook — different users:
- 2017 Mac: Plugged in >99% of the time, rarely discharged to zero
- 2015 Mac: Discharged to zero once a month or so
Battery results:
- 2017 Mac: Cactus. Any significant CPU activity when on battery alone causes it to switch off.
- 2015 Mac: 89%. coconutBattery result Still works great on battery power alone.
Oh, if you happen to have a Mac, this brilliant free tool takes care of long-term optimised charging for you
Apple introduced optimised battery charging on Macs and iOS devices recently, but is not quite the same. Unsure if any/all Windows machines have this built-in also.
Based on the info above and my here is the
painplan;When using the line trimmer I've noticed a power drop toward the end of battery drain, I estimate this to be around 10% remaining, could be more. I will make sure I stop once noticed. I have timed the charge of my 2ah battery, which is 100 minutes (10% to 100%). So 80% is 80 minutes but to be safer 75 minutes to charge it.
In summary;
1) Use the trimmer until I notice the power drop (don't take it all the way to cut out).
2) Using a timer charge to 75% to 80% (75 minutes).
3) 1 hour cooldown before charging. 1 hour cooldown after charging.I read somewhere that allowing battery to cooldown is also helpful?
Mate, you're overthinking it. Just use it and charge when needed, what you're trying to do sounds even worse than going with 2 stroke trimmer and mix the fuel at exactly 30:1 ratio and make sure you drain it out completely once finished. I have plenty of lithium tools over the years, including laptop batteries and only got two dud cases, one was due the cheap Acer laptop another a $50 ozito drill. In both cases it was one of the cheap no name Chinese cells that gave way. Any tools using quality cells from Samsung/LG/pana or Sony (murata) aren't likely to be dud, if it does then you grab a short straw, just move on with life and don't lose hair over it.
use higher amp battery for high output power tool(more cells in the higher amp batery means lower current draw per cell), don't drain your battery completely.
I wouldn't stress about Ryobi batteries, I've got ones that are 10 years old that live in the charger when not in use and still work like new
Off memory, one place with an online presence (batteryunversity) did a load of extended testing. Partial charge (40%) was much more important than low temperature storage. Best mix is partial charge and cool storage.
You can tell charge state by a multimeter if the pack doesn't have indicators, but TBH with a single Ryobi pack I would not worry about it, just wouldn't leave it charged full.
First comment in this thread says that lithiums discharge over time… well, in my experience, only if they are faulty. I've had lithiums hold their charge for >1 year (as they are supposed to). And cheap generic China cells just die in the same timeframe. I never bother to go back to 'top up' my lithium cells which are in storage- I will just bring them to half charge (with a hobby charger) and forget about them for ages.
Heat is their biggest enemy.
Lithium battery powered tools are best for people who use the tools often or need the portability. Li batteries slowly discharge over time. For laptop, I have read the charge should be kept between 50% to 85% and topped up between these levels to prolong life and for storage purposes. For tools, don't do what I did once and forget to check on the battery after a couple of years. Battery charge was too low to be recharged. Hardly used the tool (once / twice a year) so swapped for a corded one.