Storing lithium batteries at full charge

Derek Barnes · Senior Member

Storing lithium batteries at full charge

TimTim · Guru

Derek Barnes wrote:
I belong to an e-scooter facebook page and almost all of them suggest that the lithium battery should only be charged to 80% of full charge if your storing your scooter for any length of time. I dont understand why as the battery will eventually slowly discharge anyway. In caravans lithiums will always be charged up to 100% by the solar charger or 240v/12v charger so they will usually be stored at 100%.
Has anyone else heard of this?

Yes! They are correct. The rate of self discharge for Lithium-ion batteries is very slow. All batteries degrade over time and to reduce the rate of degradation and to maximise the number of discharge cycles it is recommended that the batteries not be stored fully charged. These will be the manufacturers recommendation.

In caravans we use LiFePO4 batteries which are a different chemistry and, yes they are generally going through a regular charge and discharge cycle, but again it is recommended that if storing the caravan for any period of time then the batteries should be partially discharged.

https://electrek.co/2018/05/04/are-you-killing-your-lithium-batteries/

Hope this helps.

-- Edited by TimTim on Tuesday 9th of August 2022 09:00:23 PM

-- Edited by TimTim on Tuesday 9th of August 2022 09:03:13 PM

Whenarewethere · Guru

Battery University:

'Charge batteries in storage to approximately 50% of capacity at least once every 6 months.'

Dick0 · Guru

Hi Derek,

Caravan lithium LiFePO4 batteries can be charged by a MPPT solar charger to whatever level you choose. Most recommendations for longevity of battery life is in the vicinity of 85-95%.

I charge my batteries to a rested voltage of 13.3V which translates to 90%.

I believe storing lithium batteries at 80% charge will not change the voltage to any extent over 12 Months.

As far as e-scooters, don't have one and know nothing about them.

markf · Senior Member

We use a Victron IP22 charger which some time after full charge is attained switches to "Storage" mode which keeps the battery at about 80% until the charger is power cycled.

When we get home from a trip the battery is at 100% and I just plug in the charger and after a number of hours it'll drop into storage mode and gradually (over a few hours) the voltage will fall to about the 80% level. When we're leaving on a trip it takes a little time for the DCDC (Victron Orion) charger to get it back to 100%.