Impres Battery question

[Mushroom6]

We have Motorola Impres chargers and batteries. The batteries are used maybe 4 days a month. The batteries are probably 5+ years old. Standard practice is to leave the batteries on the charger 24/7. Due to a longer than usual inactive period I removed the batteries after they had charged for a few days. When the batteries were put into radios about 35 days later, some were dead, others were chirping. When put into the chargers most chargers showed yellow. A couple were rapidly flashing red.

Should Impres batteries be left in the chargers 24/7?
Is it unusual for Impres batteries to lose charge over 35 days?
Are they not holding a charge due to age?

 

[SCPD]

We have Motorola Impres chargers and batteries. The batteries are used maybe 4 days a month. The batteries are probably 5+ years old. Standard practice is to leave the batteries on the charger 24/7. Due to a longer than usual inactive period I removed the batteries after they had charged for a few days. When the batteries were put into radios about 35 days later, some were dead, others were chirping. When put into the chargers most chargers showed yellow. A couple were rapidly flashing red.

Should Impres batteries be left in the chargers 24/7?
Is it unusual for Impres batteries to lose charge over 35 days?
Are they not holding a charge due to age?

I guess in my opinion batterys left in the charger 24/7, impress or not..will deter the life somewhat. If the batterys are 5ish years old they are in need of replacement, especially if they are in use in public service. Usually batterys are good for a year or two to be dependable.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, 5 year old batteries are near or at their end of reliable life. Time to replace them.

Also, storing the radio on the charger 24x7 is not a good idea. If you need a radio on 24x7, then you need a base station plugged into the wall.

 

[cmdrwill]

I usually do NOT leave the radio in the charger. And if I am not using the radio for while, I remove the battery.

Some radio have a on-off circuit that can drain the battery, even with the radio turned OFF, but that takes time depending on the radio.

Also some older radios have some leakage when off and the battery will run down.

 

[darunimal]

Is this where a basic household outlet timer may come in handy in a professional situation, since having all kinds of rules posted behind chargers and other one off ideas may not fit the need of a dept. Even if you just set it to charge 5-15 minutes a day to maintain a charge, it sure would be better than beating up the battery every month by letting it charge for 2days. just check load rating against both device

something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004TGO6RY/

 

[cmdrwill]

Is this where a basic household outlet timer may come in handy in a professional situation, since having all kinds of rules posted behind chargers and other one off ideas may not fit the need of a dept. Even if you just set it to charge 5-15 minutes a day to maintain a charge, it sure would be better than beating up the battery every month by letting it charge for 2days. just check load rating against both device

something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004TGO6RY/

We have done just that, and it does work. One thing to remember is when AC power is turned on the charger goes into full tilt charge, so keep the time short.

Took us a while to find the reason way too many batteries were crapping out on movie filming locations. We had to mod the chargers so they came on in trickle mode. The AC power cycled many times during different scenes, and lighting changes.

 

[Aero125]

Back to the OP question. First a 5+ year old battery is at end of useful life. If genuine Impres battery and charger is being used it has circuitry that maintains the optimum battery charging, reconditions it as needed, and keeps track of how many times its been recharged and provides capacity and percent full on compatible radios. The charger has different light colors on it to indicate info as well, here is a description of the lights and reconditioning protocol.

https://blog.magnumelectronics.com/2013/04/07/impres-video/

 

[N4KVE]

When charging the battery, & the charging cycle is complete, what lights come on. A solid green, or alternating red green. The red green indicates the battery is on the way out. But I'm assuming you have a radio where you can go into the menu, press the battery button, & see the condition of the battery. For example my XTS2500 battery which is 3 years old, & rated at 2100 ma now only holds 1816 ma @ full charge. It's been charged 150 times, & not as good as it was when new. But still quite good. But a 5 year old battery should be replaced. So what does your radio tell you about it's batteries?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ada1lqnobTg

 

[jeepsandradios]

Our SAR team switched to Impress about 8 years ago as we were told this would be a better battery. We operate about the same and can go over 2 months without pulling a radio from a charger. We would just annually replace batteries and even though they are HT1000's that funding was getting burned up for nothing. We tried the lamp timer trick and tried just plugging in once a month with the radios being dead when the pager tripped. The Impress was supposed to fix that(or we were told) but after 8 years we are seeing similar results. With that said i have been able to bring many back to life by pulling one at a time from the lot, leaving the radio on until dead, rechargering in a standard rate trickle charger and cycling all over. It takes me about a week of back and forth but most all my batteries are now back to 90% cycle rate and dont blink red. Our only solution to this point is to leave them unplugged and on our inverter. This will at least charge them on the way to the call (as long as they dont go in condition mode). We also issued many of the members radios and asked them to use them besides callouts and drills just to keep the battery in use.

I also agree 5 years is pushing a battery but i have some batteries that have never seen a drill or mission and still show 90% on the rack charger. IF they last a few more years great, if not no worries.

 

[ecps92]

Yellow means the battery has not been seen by/in an Impress charger in xx Days (Forget the basic settings), you can by-pass that and go right to RED by Double-Tap/Double Drop the Battery into the charger.

And Yes, 5 yrs is well EOL for those batteries, especially in a Public Safety environment

We have Motorola Impres chargers and batteries. The batteries are used maybe 4 days a month. The batteries are probably 5+ years old. Standard practice is to leave the batteries on the charger 24/7. Due to a longer than usual inactive period I removed the batteries after they had charged for a few days. When the batteries were put into radios about 35 days later, some were dead, others were chirping. When put into the chargers most chargers showed yellow. A couple were rapidly flashing red.

Should Impres batteries be left in the chargers 24/7?
Is it unusual for Impres batteries to lose charge over 35 days?
Are they not holding a charge due to age?

 

[Mushroom6]

Thank you for the information and outlook.

We are using Motorola H66UCD9PW5BN radios powered by Motorola Impres NTN985BC batteries.
The battery label states 102 and AUG3 above the UPC. One of the batteries has been marked 12/10 which I interpret has being the date the battery was first used.

Batteries are kept 24/7 in the Impres 5 slot charger. One charger has the read out screen, the other does not. Batteries are not placed in any particular bay, often taken from one bay, used, and placed in another after use.The radios are kept separately. Radios are used between 4 and 16 hours at a time depending on events. After each use the batteries are put back in the charger. They will stay on the charger sometimes up to 5 weeks before the next use. Most times the indicator light goes from solid red to green. Sometimes the light will flash red rapidly.

Of the batteries in the read out charger four are at full charge. One is at 89% 1881 mAh 8.3 v; one is at 93% 1953 mAh 8.3 ; one is at 113% 2385 mAh 8.3 v; and the last is at 115% 2421 mAh 8.3 v. When they were taken off the charger last month for about 35 days and then attached to radios they were mostly drained and chirped when transmitting.

Being a bear of little and it being Monday morning on top of that, I understand the consensus seems to be don't keep a charged battery on the charger, or keep the batteries on the charger and buy a programmable timer and only charge the batteries for about 15 minutes a day.

When our charged batteries have been taken off the charger and not put in a radio they appear to have lost their charge. Why is that? Is it the length of time off the charger? Age of the battery? another problem? Is there a rule of thumb at what % or mAh should a battery be discarded?
`

 

[N4KVE]

Yellow means the battery has not been seen by/in an Impress charger in xx Days

30 days. For you guys with a large fleet of radios using Impres batteries, this device is invaluable. I picked one up at a hamfest for $40.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv1Iv3bQ50I

 

[chief21]

I agree that keeping batteries in a charger 24/7 is not good practice... no matter what the charger manufacturer says. Batteries don't like heat and keeping them in a charger continuously - even at a trickle charge - just slowly cooks them over time. Radio batteries are happiest when exercised and recharged on a regular basis. Top of the line batteries and chargers, like Impres, might minimize these effects but - as the OP has seen - won't eliminate them entirely.

Also, keep in mind that most rechargeable radio batteries will self-discharge over time, even when not actually attached to the radio. A fully-charged battery could easily self-discharge completely (or nearly so) when kept out of the charger for over 30 days. Perhaps even faster if the battery is already old.

In the case of some radio models, batteries can drain even faster if kept attached to the radio when the radio requires a small amount of current to keep certain circuits awake.

I don't recall the URL, but there are several radio battery related web sites that offer good suggestions for improved battery maintenance. Google is your friend.

John AC4JK

 

[hitechRadio]

From Motorola IMPRES Manual 6875795C01 Revision D :

"IMPRES batteries CAN be stored in IMPRES chargers long term. IMPRES
chargers are ideally suited to maintain full charge & protect cycle life without
over-charging batteries. This is done by automatically
Reconditioning/Calibrating batteries and by continuously monitoring battery
status and reacting accordingly."

 

[SCPD]

If you drop the impress battery in the charger it will show red. Now remove battery and then slide it back in. You should see a steady burning yellow. This indicates your battery is reconditioning. If it flashes red it's done for. Flashes yellow it is either going out or is too hot and needs to cool before beginning charge. Under your impress charger it should show the sequences. But 5 years yeah sounds like they are end of life. You could try reconditioning them over a period of a few weeks Basicslly drop in and remove then back in to get a steady yellow then it'll go solid red then green when finished. Seen some come back around after that but in reality time to replace. If they are relied on for public safety or life definitely toss them out and replace. Probably better to practice better battery habits. They say the impres charger will bring the battery back up then idle when it drains enough it'll kick back in the bare low percentage to afull charge. I always preferred to fully charge then remove batteries. Have them numbered in a order and cycle rotation keeping in mind to drop then re drop to recondition the batteries at set times over time. The batteries if good should hold a charge just sitting on own full charged for some time. Of course they'll naturally deplete energy but not that dramatic unless they are going out. Constant chirping is a sign after charging it's pretty much had it. A good rotation and cycle pattern helps extend life as using the conditioning feature the charger offers. I have noticed many doing what you have and new batteries seem to die off faster on impress chargers. I have always rotated out once charged and mine have lasted heck of allot longer then those just leaving them in the chargers 24/7 365.

 

[SCPD]

From Motorola IMPRES Manual 6875795C01 Revision D :

"IMPRES batteries CAN be stored in IMPRES chargers long term. IMPRES
chargers are ideally suited to maintain full charge & protect cycle life without
over-charging batteries. This is done by automatically
Reconditioning/Calibrating batteries and by continuously monitoring battery
status and reacting accordingly."

While this is true I still have noticed a issue over time. But 5 years yeah the battery seen better days.

 

[hitechRadio]

While this is true I still have noticed a issue over time. But 5 years yeah the battery seen better days.

I agree on the 5 years,,,replace it!!!!

As far as chargers, I believe there was an issue with 3.0FW in the chargers when battery was left for extended time in charger, and I believe it was specific to a battery chemistry type, not sure which one. That was addressed in either 3.4 or 3.9FW. Not sure which one and cannot find all the revision release notes.
I believe it addressed leaving the radio on while on the charger also.

We keep a cache of radios in 6 bank MUCs at all times ready to go. So far the batteries after 3.5 years are are showing around 75%.The MUCs do have the latest FW installed. And they are deployed maybe once every couple months for a day or so, so they do not get heavy use.

If a planned event we will recondition the batteries before deployment. Sometimes the user just needs a quick charge and the recondition cycle hits at the worst time. And even though you can tell them or leave a note on the charger "if it turns yellow remove and install until steady red". I can't expect them to remember that. They have enough going on, let alone worrying about a charger Yellow light.