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Milwaukee Lithium Ion Battery Maintence


Firefighter1406

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I am new to Milwaukee, I am switching over from DeWalt. Is there a recommended way to store the lithium ion batteries?  I have 3 XC 5ah batteries currently. I always bring the batteries in during cold weather. But should I store them fully charged?, 2 or 3 bars?  Any help would be appreciated. 

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With lithium, any lithium, it's best to store it at just under half charge... but what I recommend is charging them up to 100%. You're going to get a lot more life out of lithium than the previous NiCad batteries, we're talking years worth of usage not months. The savings you'd get by storing them in their ideal charge state is going to be less than your aggravated state when you go to use them and they're dead halfway through a job.

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You don't have to charge lithium batteries right away. However when i get new rechargeable batteries i consider it maintenance. Ideally you want to keep them around the 50% mark like BMack said. If you don't use them every few months, refresh the charge. If it gets cold in your garage or shed bring them inside. Things you should avoid at all cost is heat with lithium-ion. Make sure you don't use off brand charger or over charge your batteries. Make sure your tools aren't left in the sunlight. An example of what can happen is old Samsung cellphones.

In the past when new lithium ion cells were manufactured for cellphones and laptops they were transported on planes. People didn't realize these new batteries needed to stabilize chemically before being transported.  A little common sense is all

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The “half-charge” rule is most important for batteries that are going to sit idle for weeks or months. If you know you’re going to use them in a couple days it’s less of a big deal. The extremes are the “least happy” states for lithium batteries to be stuck at long-term.

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Since the first lithium cordless tools came out, I have always and still do store my batteries either fully charged, their end of day state or empty. At times the batteries will sit for months,  several months. I've got some that are 8 years old and still going strong. I've only ever had 1 AEG battery fail and it was less than 3 years old. 

 

I honestly don't believe it's crucial that they should be stored with a certain charge state/temperature but, I do think storing them fully/mostly charged is better than storing them dead flat. Some of my batteries were kept in a trailer for years,  hot, cold, whatever the weathera, fully, partially and completely discharged for weeks/months and none ever failed. 

 

Lithium has many chemistry types, yet I always store my phone, cameras, shavers,  tablets etc fully charged and they last a long time given their use. I think if it was so critical to store batteries at a certain temperature or charge state it would be printed clearly on the battery/device. I'm sure Teslas would be fully charged as often as possible. I know I'd have mine (if I owned one) plugged in every night regardless of if it was down 10% or 90%.

 

 

Batteries are so cheap after a few years that if you lose 6 months of its life by not adhering to lab recommendations,  it is not worth fussing over. 

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I'm glad you asked this question @Firefighter1406. This is something I also want to know.

 

I haven't had a lot of time for anything since starting a family, so all of my batteries have been sitting idle for months. I believe some of them might even be unused for 8-9 months. 

 

I used to always keep them fully charged but I once read something about the half charge rule so I just started doing that instead. I prefer the full charge as I can always grab a full battery when I need it. 

 

That's a good point about the labelling @method. I vaguely recall reading a manual saying something about temperature (it might have been Hitachi) but nothing about storing at certain charge levels. Like you said, there'd probably be something on the battery itself.

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I appreciate the reply’s. I was told to always to store them fully charged, but it is completely possible I was misinformed or I misunderstood what they were saying.  But I do realize that batteries are all different. My lipo batteries for my RC stuff is kept at a storage charge and keep in the fridge. Anyways thank you all for your help. I keep my batteries together especially this time of the year so they can be brought in and not left out in the cold. 

 

Hopefully will have a long life of Milwaukee tools ahead of me. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, jls1znv said:

Also another thing to take note is, it generally takes 3-5 cycles before you get the full optimization from a battery pack. A cycle going from full charge to low.

 

I noticed this with a new 3ah compact Hitachi. Absolutely terrible run time at first. It's was drilling around 20 holes then the tool would show the battery already empty. Its running great now after 4 or 5 charges. I've only had this happen with this one particular Hitachi battery. I neary threw it away thinking it was faulty! 

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