Storing an unused Fuze

I have an unused Fuze that I em keeping on a shelf  until mine wears out. Should I keep it charged?

For long-term storage, it’s best to keep approx. 50% charge in the battery.

Charge it, put it on the shelf.  It’ll slowly discharge as it sits there.  Probably a good idea to charge it every year or two, since if you let it get too low the battery will be damaged.

The Fuze has a LiPo (lithium-polymer) battery.
I don’t know how much they differ from lithium-ion batteries, but
batteryuniversity says this about lithium-ion:

                                   @ 40%        @ 100%
                                   charge.        charge.
                                  Capacity      Capacity
  Storage                  lost per         lost per
Temperature              year              year

     25C                           4%            20%
     40C                         15%            35%

As previously noted:  It will slowly discharge even when not in use, and you never want to let a LiPo get too low.

Great info, lee321987!  

@lee321987 wrote:

<snip>
@                                   @ 40%        @ 100%
                                   charge.        charge.
                                  Capacity      Capacity
  Storage                  lost per         lost per
Temperature              year              year

     25C                           4%            20%

<snip>

 

Ah, but since the 100% battery starts with so much more, it takes quite a while for the higher discharge _rate_ to leave the battery with less charge than the 40% one.

 

After    100%   40%

Year

 1         80       38

 2         64       37

 3         51       35

 4         41       34

 5         33       33

 6         26       31

etc

 

So, it takes _5 years_ for the higher discharge rate to lower the 100% battery to the same charge as the 40% battery.  After that the 100% battery really goes to hell, but nobody is thinking about 5 year neglected storage, I hope.

 

But, the real story, I think, is not the self discharge rate, but the charge on the battery.  Li-Ion are happier operating at less than full charge.  IIRC, I’ve read that the lives of batteries that are only 1/2 charged (to 3.9v) are twice that of batteries fully charged (to 4.2v).

 

So, yes, you’re better off storing at 40%, assuming there is some way to tell that the charge is 40%.  I also have a Fuze in reserve and this discussion prompts me to do this:  I am going to use this reserve Fuze until the battery indicator show 2 bars.  Then store it and periodically check the charge.  When it gets to 1 bar, I’ll charge it, but only to 2 bars, and put it back on the shelf.

 

Bob

 

 

@Bob_Engelhardt

You do understand that I was talking about losing charge _capacity_, and not state of charge – right?

@lee321987 wrote:

You do understand that I was talking about losing charge _capacity_, and not state of charge – right?

Oh … no, I kinda missed that!  Now, in regard to my previous post: never mind.  Except the part about not fully charging it - I’m sticking to that part.

In that case, the _capacity_ falls like this:

After    100%   40%

Year

 1         80       96

 2         64       92

 3         51       88

 4         41       85