Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire charging lithiums in the cold

There's plenty of info on the web about how easy it is to destroy your tools' batteries if you try to recharge them below the freezing point. If you keep them in an unheated shop or garage, you need to bring them inside and warm them to above 32F before you charge them. You can use them in the cold, although they'll put out less power, but don't charge them in the cold. Here's one site for an example: LITHIUM BATTERIES

You can use your cell phone at 0 but warm it up before you charge it. If you have a power pack, keep in an inside pocket for a while before you use it. That also applies to your GPS, camera, and whatever other electronics you carry around in cold weather.

Then it comes to lithium batteries in EV's and hybrids and your lithium starting and RV batteries. From what I've read (I'm no electrical engineer), car makers haven't kept up with the needs of EV owners and the batteries are prone to cold weather problems (the liberals don't tell you about those, do they?). There are a few batteries out there with internal heaters to keep them above freezing. Of course that reduces the power available for driving.

It pays to do some reading on recharging lithiums. There's no end to what's on the web about it and lots of is conflicting and confusing.

This is very true. I always keep my lithium dewalt batteries in the gun room during cold weather. $2k in batteries is too expensive to mistreat. Learned the hard way unfortunately🤷‍♂️

Interesting.... Because I have a several different lithium battery things like a Stihl electric chainsaw and a few 20V DeWalt tools like a blower, a string trimmer and a spotlight and IIRC the battery chargers won't charge if the battery temperature is too high or too low. Forgot if it's both the Dewalt and the Stihl chargers or just one of 'em but there is a certain temperature range pre- programmed into it to allow it to operate. Didn't know they could get hurt if you try to charge them at low temps. Learn something new every day.

I have a Kobalt chainsaw that won't charge when it's cold. They build the protection in sometimes. My Milwaukees will charge at any temp and that's not good.

DeWalt chargers have a temp delay function

The good lithium batteries have a low temp cut off in the BMS,something you should check on before buying because just one charge can ruin the battery,and there not cheap..The BMS is the key to RV lithium batteries with low voltage/shorts/low temp and others for dummies..


Jayco

BMS?

A battery management system is any electronic system that manages a rechargeable battery, such as by protecting the battery from operating outside its safe operating area, monitoring its state, calculating secondary data, reporting that data, controlling its environment, authenticating it and / or balancing it.


Jayco👍

Milwaukee's BMS is why a tool will shut down when the battery reaches a certain level of discharge. In their case, it's in the tool, not the battery. Some brands will let it run all the way down but that can damage both the tool and the battery.

I tried to charge a Milwaukee yesterday, and the charger wouldn't until it warmed up.

Of course the "magic" temp is not 32 degrees, but closer to 15.

A good reminder - thanks for that post..

If it's 15 in my garage, I'm not in there charging batteries.

Thanks for Posting
I am a new convert to Lithium Battery's
I am installing one to power a Composting Toilet vent fan recharged with Solar up at my Property in Arizona where it gets well below freezing in the winter time. Some times in the single digits.
It looks like I will install the Battery inside my place instead of outside.
Thanks again for the info.