Yaesu: Yaesu FT-60R Replacement Battery NI-MH vs Li-ION upgrade

[KK7RQX]

New Ham here with an FT-60R. The OEM battery is a NI-MH 1400 mAh battery and I just have the one. I want a spare. The OEM battery is still available for sale, but there are also Li-ION batteries that are 2200mAh for the same price or less. If I go that route, I would have to buy a Li-ION charging cradle as well. Have other FT-60R owners made the transition to Li-ION from the NI-MH? Is that upgrade common practice nowadays, or is it recommended to stick with the NI-MH OEM battery?

Thanks!

 

[robertmac]

Still use OME NiMh 1400.

 

[G7RUX]

New Ham here with an FT-60R. The OEM battery is a NI-MH 1400 mAh battery and I just have the one. I want a spare. The OEM battery is still available for sale, but there are also Li-ION batteries that are 2200mAh for the same price or less. If I go that route, I would have to buy a Li-ION charging cradle as well. Have other FT-60R owners made the transition to Li-ION from the NI-MH? Is that upgrade common practice nowadays, or is it recommended to stick with the NI-MH OEM battery?

Thanks!

I have switched to LiIon but with a 3d printed battery case and used a 2s BMS board. I charge the cells outside the case and pop them in as needed.

 

[k6cpo]

I'm still operating on the batteries I bought back in 2012 for my FT-60. I have three because I also have an FT-270 which uses the same battery. One of them has finally refused to hold a charge, but the other two are still holding their own. I'm not going to switch to Lithium Ion until such time as those two fail. The 270 and the 60 are relegated to backups for other radios I use more.

 

[clovisb31]

I have a couple of FT-60's and have tried a Lithium battery on them. It's Yaesu/Vertex part number FNB-V67LI
and has a 2200Mah capacity. It lasts WAY longer than the standard NIMH battery FNB-83 at 1400Mah. The drawback
to using the Lithium battery is that , yes, you will need a different charger. I use a Vertex CD-16 which is a commonly available commercial version desk top charger. It charges the standard NIMH and Lithium batteries. Also, the Lithium
battery is slightly thicker than the NIMH battery which prevents you from charging it on the radio inserted in the desk top charger. The NIMH battery on the radio WILL fit into the Desk top charger however. The Lithium battery is slightly lighter weigh than the NIMH battery, but not by a whole lot.
There are TON's of replacement batteries for these radios so I would not worry about any problems with availability.
73.