How long can you leave your lipos fully charged without damaging them?

How long can you leave a battery fully charged?

You are indeed aware that it is detrimental to your batteries to be ultimately charged at 4.2 volts per cell, but what if you charge them the day before your flight and, for whatever reason, it rains the following day, and you are unable to take off? Should you put your batteries back in storage right away, or is it good to wait a day or two and then take off the next day? This is really an issue of degree, and there is no honest, proper answer. We know that batteries left at a storage voltage of 3.8 volts per cell for a typical Lipo can stay there for almost an eternity and will perform as well as the day they were made. We also know that when Lipos are manufactured, they are stored in whatever warehouse the retailer has. Let's start with what we know, as complex data on this topic is actually rather hard to come by. They are still brand new when you get them, and they are kept at 3.8 volts per cell.

How long can you leave it before it gets damaged, then? The honest answer to that issue is contained in a test conducted by the website lipobench.de. I don't know if they still conduct testing, but a few years ago, they conducted battery tests and discovered that a battery left at full charge for 30 days had a 5% decrease in performance. As a general rule, a battery should perform 5% better after 30 days of full charge. However, the real question is whether it matters if those 30 days are all at once or if the battery is fully charged 30 times over its lifetime. I don't know any data to support that theory. However, I'll tell you what I believe: the time spent is cumulative. The chemical processes that take place inside the battery begin when it is charged and develop over time. Therefore, batteries are the total length of time over their life that they have been at full charge. I assume that 30 days in a row at full charge is roughly the same damage as 30 hours in a row, not sequentially. So, while you are considering whether or not to discharge your batteries to storage voltage, consider how long the battery will remain fully charged over its lifetime. Consider it as follows: the battery has a certain amount of time that it can be fully charged, and after that, it will either be destroyed because its performance has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer usable or it will be rendered useless because you have smashed it into a bando and destroyed it. Freestyle and racing pilots typically smash and damage batteries much more quickly than they wear them out by leaving them fully charged over extended periods. I wouldn't leave my batteries fully charged if I were going on a month-long vacation, but I also don't really consider whether I should put them back at storage voltage after one or two days. Instead, I leave them charged and take off when I'm ready to take off because, over 20 or 30 days, which is roughly 5% less battery performance, I'm likely to destroy the battery in some other way before the cumulative effect of being fully charged actually adds up to anything noticeable.

It is also important to remember that batteries are subject to damage during the charging and discharging processes, which causes minor wear and tear on the batteries. For this reason, it is said that a lipo may have 300 cycles before its capacity drops to 70% of its original level and it is deemed worn out. Therefore, if you have an ultimately charged battery and you decide to put it in storage because you won't be flying it tomorrow, that's one cycle. You should consider this while determining how long to leave them fully charged as opposed to storing them because storing them also causes some wear on them. For me, I'll leave them for a few days before feeling the need to store them for a week or two, but now you're really cutting into the amount of time the battery may be fully charged before its performance deteriorates. Instead of leaving my batteries fully charged, I want to bash them to ruin them.

In conclusion, non-rechargeable batteries should be used until they are completely depleted and then disposed of, whereas rechargeable batteries should ideally be kept at about 50% charge if not in use for an extended period. Always consult the manufacturer's instructions for further advice on how to charge and store your batteries.

It's generally advised to keep rechargeable batteries, like the lithium-ion batteries found in computers and smartphones, at about 50% charge if you won't be using them for several months or more. This lessens the chance of overcharging or discharging, which over time may deteriorate the battery's performance. To keep a rechargeable battery from falling below a safe voltage level while being stored, it's a good practice to check and recharge it on a regular basis.

However, alkaline batteries and other non-rechargeable batteries shouldn't be kept fully charged for a lengthy amount of time. These batteries are meant to be used only once, and they don't work well when fully charged. It is advisable to utilize non-rechargeable batteries until they are completely depleted before disposing of them appropriately.

In conclusion, non-rechargeable batteries should be used until they are completely depleted and then disposed of, whereas rechargeable lipo batteries should ideally be kept at about 50% charge if not in use for an extended period. Always consult the manufacturer's instructions for further advice on how to charge and store your batteries.