Does freezing weather kill battery life?

[princealfie]

I was using my TiBook outside and suddenly my battery life plunged downward after 40 minutes of use even though CoconutBattery and the battery suggesting that I had 1 hour 25 minutes left.

So does extreme cold kill the battery very quickly like zap?

 

[SuperCompu2]

I know that keeping a battery outside in freezing temperatures will usually deteriorate the life substantially. I had an electric scooter that I left outside in a shed once, all winter. The next spring, I went to go take it for a spin. Go luck, the battery no longer held a charge, and It had previously held a good 40 minutes-an hour of constant riding. Pretty depressing, I've still yet to get a replacement.

*searches ebay*

It could be possible that the cold effects batteries when running as well. I'd recommend not using it out in the cold, or only using it once the temperature of the unit has warmed up from CPU heat.

 

[bill4588]

cold temperatures definitely affect battery life...well at least on my ipod. I could have a full battery at night, leave it in my car, and come back the next morning to find that it has nothing left. That's why I have a car charger

 

[SC68Cal]

I've had some battery capacity fluctuations with the cold weather.

 

[pilotError]

Lithium-Ion, like in your iPod or Laptop loses about 20-40% efficiency in cold temperatures.

Its not permanent though.

Mike...

 

[e12a]

actually refrigerating the li-ion battery can prolong its shelf life

thats why there's something called "operating temperature"

 

[mikefly]

batteries

Canadians know cold.

Batteries perform significantly more poorly in cold weather.

Cannot comment on the previous poster's comment about shelf life (quite possibly true), but in the -NOW- your battery will suffer.

Mike

 

[neyoung]

As an Alaskan resident I can tell you that batteries are not meant to opperate at cold temperatures. If your battery is exposed for a short amount of time to cold temperatures you may experience some wierdness. If its a long term thing then it will severely harm the longevity of your battery and even kill it. I've had numerous car batteries go bad from sitting too long at -50 F and colder. Trust me, if don't want to harm your lovely Mac, keep it at normal operating temperatures.

 

[puckhead193]

does the cold harm the battery itself? I sometimes leave my ipods in the center console overnight. Should I not do this?

 

[eldaria]

I had a funny experience with Battery life and cold weather.

Me and my Wife went to Northern Finland for a winter Holiday.
This was end of January, and we went out skiing, not the downhill type but the long run type.
Anyway I had my Sony digital camera in a camera bag around my neck.
The Temperature was around -30C (-22F).
I had charged it over night, and only disconnected it just before we went out.
Anyway we come across this beautiful frozen lake, and I get the camera out.
I turn it on, and try to take a picture, but the camera immediately warns of low battery and shuts off automatically.

Well, later we go to the ski gear shop, and I see this one use hand warming things.
Basically it is a small plastic thing with some chemicals in it, once you open it, it gets hot for about 4-6 hours.
I stick 2 of those in the camera bag, one next to the camera and the other next to the spare battery.
An added bonus was that you would not freeze your hands of on the metal casing of the camera every time you wanted to take a picture, it would actually warm you up instead.

And from that day on, we had no issues with the camera, we did have a good laugh at the other tourists struggling with their video recorders and such, And then telling them of our solution.