Charging Lithium Ion Batteries

I was surprised to hear some of this guy's thoughts (he holds an Electrical Engineer Degree) on charging lithium ion batteries. In a nutshell, these are what he feels are most important.

1. Remove batteries from flash/strobe when not in use. Sometimes current still flows and can drain the batteries.
2. Don’t store batteries fully charged – 50% to 80% is good.
3. Don’t overheat the batteries (such as leaving them in a hot car). They can catch on fire. If the battery was just used, it is probably hot. Allow it to cool before charging.
4. Don’t leave batteries on the charger. It can lower the battery life and is a possible fire risk.
5. Don’t let them run down to 0. There’s a chance the charger won’t recognize the battery and won’t be able to charge it.

I certainly didn't know not to charge them to 100% if they won't be used right away. In a Facebook group, several people have mentioned leaving batteries on their chargers for extended times only to find the batteries have completely discharged to the point of not being recognized.

In a different thread, I posted about this multi-charger for the Godox AD200 batteries. https://www.adorama.com/fpppev200mbc.html

I haven't yet used it or even read the manual, but according to this video, there is a button for each port that will cap the charge to 60% if you choose to set it that way. I wonder how many other lithium ion chargers have this feature.

I would add to this:

6. Allow the batteries to run as close to dead as possible before recharging.
7. When recharging always recharge to 100% - don't pull one off before it's fully recharged.

My drone has smart battery tech where you can program them to automatically discharge to 50% after 3-6 days of non-use. The part about going to zero is true, but I've only experienced it with batteries that have been at zero for an extended period of time.

Useful site for battery information
https://batteryuniversity.com/articles

Often batteries are no longer just a battery but can be multi cell unit with charge controllers, overheat sensors and charge level indicators. Your device manual will give you best practices for your specific battery.