Cordless Battery Storage....

[Corey Hallagan]

I have a Ryobi 18V and a Craftsman 12V battery charger and batteries. The directions that come with my chargers, (both are made by ITT/OWI) and they are quick chargers ( 1 hour ) but batteries must be removed when done.
I am in the practice of charging each of my batteries once a week whether I use them or not and they are good to go when I need them.

Question is for storage in the winter. My shop is in the garage and the batteries should not be kept in below 50 degree temps. I was considering making one of the drawers in my shop cab as battery storage. Do you think a drawer inside of a garage will keep the batteries close to that temp with a blanket over them or something like that. Or should I just move them inside and forget about it? It gets very cold here in the midwest, even though the garage will be about 20 degrees warmer than outside on most days since I installed the insulated garage door.

What yah think?

Thanks

[Randy Meijer]

I'm guessing that in the coldest part of the winter, the temp in your garage will be less than 50°F. You might consider constructing a simple little cabinet with a fixture for an electric light bulb inside. If the enclosure is relatively small, I bet a 25 watt bulb would be more than adequate to keep your batteries up to temp. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could put the chargers in the cabinet and hook up a timer to turn on the chargers for an hour once a week.

When I lived in New York, we would put a 100W light bulb under the hood on nights that were expected to be really cold and I never had a problem with morning starts. And when I built a house for my pooch....a big and hairy one....dog, not house......I put a 100W light bulb under the raised floor and controlled it with a little timer. Pooch never complained about being too cold at night!!:D :D

[Mike Cutler]

I just bring them in for the winter, along with the glues, and stains. Cold weather is a battery killer, and if you have smart chargers, I'd bring them in also. The little micro, doesn't like -5deg. either.