Freezing rechargeable batteries

lightwisps · Jul 17, 2013

Does anyone have any ideas about freezing rechargeable batteries that are freshly recharged? I now have a couple extra left over from a purchase yesterday and I charged all of them up because recharging them takes so long. Would freezing them be a good idea? Thanks Don

Ian Grant · Jul 17, 2013

Get a better charger, mine charges in a couple of hours. I also have a lead to charge from a car cigarette lighter, and a separate adapter to give me 240V AC from the cigarette lighter for other chargers etc.

I store at normal temperatures.

Ian

Rick A · Jul 17, 2013

Hmm... I always thought that freezing batteries drained the energy from them. My batteries die in the winter in the cold.

Sirius Glass · Jul 17, 2013

The battery experts that I have worked with over many years told me that freezing or refrigerating batteries was not productive. Freezing some batteries damages them.

L Gebhardt · Jul 17, 2013

If you are using the newer NiMH slow discharge batteries like the Enloops they will last a long time without freezing them. They also survive freezing just fine (at least down into the -15C range). If they are the original NiMH batteries (no claims of year long storage) nothing I have seen will keep them from being self discharged in a month or two.

I have switched over to Enloops entirely. I use them in trail cameras in the Winter and they last fairly well, and definitely survive and function in cold weather.

Hexavalent · Jul 17, 2013

Freezing a Li ion battery that isn't designed to withstand freezing is not a good idea.
Refrigeration *might* prolong charge keeping.
Do not put a very cold, or frozen battery in a charger, particularly a "rapid charger".

polyglot · Jul 17, 2013

Do not freeze batteries, it won't help and there's a good chance you will destroy them.

If these are AA/AAA batteries, buy Eneloops because they basically don't self-discharge.

Make sure you have a proper delta-V charger that shuts off when the battery is full (the voltage actually drops a couple mV), not just a cheap timer-based charger. Anything else and you will be damaging cells through overcharging.

Gerald C Koch · Jul 17, 2013

Lithium rechargeables are preferable to those based on nickel. They hold their charge longer and are not subject to "memory problems." Freezing batteries is never a good idea. As far as refrigeration is concerned it is helpful with the older carbon-zinc batteries but not any other type.

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 17, 2013

Never heard of such an idea. Very cold conditions would reduce the performance of fully-charged/in-use batteries so I don't know what storage in a freezer would do to them.
If cold performance is a worry, switch to lithium batteries.

lightwisps · Jul 17, 2013

Thanks for all the great advice, they are now living happily at room temperature. Don

Freezing rechargeable batteries

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