How to care for the batteries to make them perform their best.
Here are the top ways to make your Triad Battery perform its very best:
Full Charge
Mostly full is a LOT better than fully full
If you only fill a battery to 86%, you double the number of battery cycles. What does that mean? It means you get double the energy out of the battery over its lifetime if you only fill it to that level. (Note: a “cycle” means discharging and charging a battery its full capacity one time, not necessarily in one shot, so if you charge and discharge it by 50% of its capacity twice, that counts as one “cycle”.) Stopping at 90% is better than 100%, and 80% is better than 90%.
Don’t leave them full
Keeping a battery fully charged seems like the right thing to do. You’re always ready to go. But sitting in a fully charged state is very costly to a battery’s lifetime. Unintended chemical reactions occur more often in a fully charged battery, reducing its useful life. While it’s not good for the battery to fill it 100% at all, it’s much worse to keep it at 100% for a long period. As an example, if you store a battery 100% charged for one year at at 77 degrees F (25C), you’ll permanently lose about 20% of its capacity, while if it’s stored under the same conditions at only 40% filled, you’ll only lose 4% of its capacity.
Don’t empty them all the way
Batteries don’t like to be empty. It reduces their capacity permanently if you discharge them to 0%. It’s much better to use the battery from 80% down to 30% twice than to discharge it from 100% to 0% once. It’s a little less harmful to the battery than overcharging, but both are harmful.
Don’t get them too hot
Batteries are worn out by many uses, or by sitting around for too long, but both of these are worse when the battery is hot. Getting a battery very hot will shorten its life, because the bad chemical reactions happen more at high temperatures. And while storing a battery at high temperatures is costly, using (charging or discharging) it at high temperatures is even worse. As an example, if you if you store a battery at a healthy 40% charge for a year at 77 degrees, you’ll permanently lose 4% of its capacity, but if you store the same battery at 104 F (40 C), then you’ll lose 15%.
So, don’t keep your cellphone on a hot dashboard, or your Triad battery in a storage shed where temperatures can reach 120+ F.
Don’t get them too cold
Getting cold isn’t as bad for a battery as getting hot, but it reduces the energy you can get out of it. If a battery is cold, it will empty more quickly. A good guideline is that batteries like the same temperatures that people do. 70-75 degrees F is a great temperature range.
Don’t charge or discharge them too quickly
Generally, the faster you charge or discharge the battery, the more it degrades the battery’s lifetime, and the heat generated during charge/discharge can make the problem a lot worse if not actively cooled. Most batteries don't like it if you discharge them at a rate that would take them from full to empty in less than 30 minutes, or if you charge them at a rate that would take them from empty to full in less than 60 minutes, but the slower the charge/discharge, the better.
The faster the discharge (high speeds and/or steep inclines), the more cool down time. 30-60 mins before charging is a good guideline to remember. Contact us for any additional questions about our high tech battery.