Litheon battery and cold weather

[whit richardson]

I have this little dealie which really rocks - Bosch’s 10.8V Litheon PS20 Pocket Driver. The strange thing is (strange to me since I'm not a battery engineer) is it's been pretty cold in the garage workshop while I've been making some plywood shelves for the basement. I came out in the morning and the battery acted like it was run down.. rrrr...rrrr..dead. So I took it inside let it warm up and RRRROOOOWWWWWW.... g2g again. So do Litheon batteries get sensitive to cold more than other technology?

Battery engineers out there?

[Andrew Nemeth]

Actually, I think Lithium Ion Batteries are LESS sensitive to cold temperature than just about any other batteries out there including alkalines (Please, somebody correct me if I am wrong). I have switched to using lithium batteries almost exclusively when I go winter camping and mountaineering and they seem to work better although I often sleep with any electronics in my sleeping bag (you could give that a try!).

[Chris True]

Lithium's are effected by cold.

At higher loads much more than the other chemistry's. Portable power tools are moderately high usage so I'd expect them to have problems somewhere in the 30 - 40 degree range, my drills live inside so no personal experience there. I fly Lithium powered RC aircraft which are REALLY high loads - drain the battery in 4 minutes type of loads. At that level once the temps drop below 60F you need to do something to make sure the batt's are warmer than ambient or you won't have enough power to take off...

[Bob Genovesi]

Sounds like it might be a good time to strap on one of those hand warmers to keep the temp inside to where it needs to be.

[whit richardson]

I have replicated this little experiment twice now and it's consistent. If I leave the Bosch in my freezing cold garage the battery acts like it's drained. After warming it up for about 2-3 hrs it acts fine again. My standard cordless 18v Panasonic drill is not affected at all. Hmmmmm...

[Steve Griffin]

Yep, my little bosch drill which I love so much, is the worst cordless tool for handling cold. Dead as can be if it's much below freezing.

But oddly enough, as mentioned already, for headlamps and cameras when mountaineering, lithium is the only way to go.

And for model RC, which I also fly, the batteries need to be warm before my ski plane flights. Though since they give off heat in use, they do fine for a flight as long as they start off warm.

-Steve

[Andrew Nemeth]

The Lithiums I use for headlamps, radios, and cameras while climbing are not intended for recharging as power tool batteries are. I wonder if that could explain the difference in cold weather performance.