LP-E6N longevity

[ChrisPBacon]

Most manufacturers of devices made that utilize lithium/lithium-ion batteries suggest that batteries remain in their charger for longevity, or to leave the device plugged into an AC source.

What about Canon’s LP-E6N? Should I leave them in the charger, or once charged remove them and put them in my kit?

I’ve asked Canon Professional Services this question and usually get “uhhhhh...” for an answer.

What’s your recommendation?

[Peter]

Store it fully charged at 25 degrees Celsius, 80% left after 1 year.
Store it 40% charged at 25 degrees Celsius, 96% left after 1 year.

[RobertTheFat]

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@Peter wrote:

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@iris wrote:

I also rotate my batteries and frequently check their viability in camera under the yellow menu called Batttery INfo...I register my batteries in camera so as to keep track of those losing viability .....

Question...on the back of the LP-E6N battery is a little silver colored rectangular square with 6 numbers in it:   I have surmised that the numbers there represent the date the battery was produced?

Can anyone verify that???   

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製造日期 is written to the left of the six numbers, so yes, you are right. On some batteries only Korean hangul are written but I have never studied the Korean language.

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Neither have I, but I'm pretty sure that what you've quoted there is Chinese. not Korean. Or conceivably Japanese, whose kanji characters often resemble Chinese. But Japanese text usually includes some word endings in hirigana or katagana. (Forgive my probable misspellings. My only exposure to Japanese was very long ago.)

[Peter]

The quoted one is kanji. Even if I have lived in Japan I still can't see the difference everytime between Chinese kanji and Japanese kanji. Hiragana helps. On some but absolutely not all batteries: kanji to the left, hangul in the middle and the date to the right. On some others, hangul to the left, date to the right.

[hjoseph7]

I had 2 fully charged LP-E6N batteries inside my camera with Canon battery-grip for no longer than 2 months. I took my camera out today to test out a new flash unit I purchased recently and both batteries were completely depleted. Now I have to recharge both batteries which of course will take a couple of hours. I don't rememer my previous Canon batteries (BP 511-A) depleting so fast and thoroughly. These Canon LP-E6N batteries are not exactly old-timers that can't hold a charge. Both are about a year old ! I could be wrong,  but I don't remember having these sort of problems with older batteries.  

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Yes, it's the batteries, they depletes themself on their own, rather than the body drains the batteries. I have 10 pcs LP-E6Ns with Canon LC-E6E chargers (came with the 5D4s + spares) and all of the batteries fully exhausted about 4 months due to COVID's pause in wedding industry.

The concrete problem is the LP-E6Ns BMS (Battery Management System) which is a built in electronics in the battery: it manages balanced charging of the 2 cells, provides overvoltage protection and undervoltage protection, etc. It has some current leakage and therefore the cells discharges sooner at an unusual and excessive speed. When the cells falls below 3 volt / cell in a few months the BMS undervoltage protection kicks in: it terminates the circuit, so when you try to measure the battery with multimeter you get zero volt, because of this. You have to "boost" the cells voltage over 3 volt / cell (6 volt in total, with lab power supply or something) to turn off the undervoltage protection, than you can charge the battery with a regular Canon charger.

I tested every configuration with our bodies (7D1, 5D3s, 5D4s) and my experience is that the old LP-E6s are holds the charge in every situation in every body or grip (Canon BG-E7, BG-E11, BG-E20) where all of the LP-E6Ns constantly failing.

I hoarded a bunch of LP-E6Ns from friends too (different dates of manufacturing from 2015 till 2020) and the experiences are the same with them.

If I have a time, I'll replace an "N" battery's electronics with an old LP-E6's: that 'll prove if the electronics have massive design flaw or the Li-ion cells discharging on it's own (I bet on the electronics).

[ChrisPBacon]

Store NOT fully charged?

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https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries