When do you retire a battery?

[Chrislaf]

Aside from the obvious signs like battery swelling, bad cells, or consistent major cell deviations when should you retire a battery?

I have a P3 battery that has over 150 battery cycles and it still seems to be working well. According to Airdata the current battery life is at 72% but it has dipped down below 70% recently. The battery has not shown any major deviations worth noting.

One thing worth noting is that this battery is more than 4.5 years old - a testament to the quality of this PowerExtra battery!

I have 3 other batteries - one newer one with low cycle counts and 2 others with over 100 cycle counts, so I find I am using the batteries with lower cycle counts more now especially when I fly over water. My biggest worry is that the battery will suddenly fail while in flight.

Chris

 

[Pablo Morales]

What about the flying time? Are you still getting the same flight duration from the 150 cycles battery?

 

[Chrislaf]

What about the flying time? Are you still getting the same flight duration from the 150 cycles battery?

Yes. Same amount of time as my other batteries, around 15 - 16 minutes depending on what I am doing.

Chris

 

[Starz]

You seem to have the information needed.
One question to consider would be, do you want to replace your aircraft? If the battery fails at the wrong time..……………………….
You know the rest.

 

[Chrislaf]

You seem to have the information needed.
One question to consider would be, do you want to replace your aircraft? If the battery fails at the wrong time..……………………….
You know the rest.

Obviously I don’t want to replace my AC, but what I am trying to figure out is if a sudden battery failure is likely or will there be warning signs. So far this battery has been performing just like my other batteries. Other than AirData reporting battery life at 72% it could just as well be my newest battery that AirData is reporting with a battery life in the high 80s.

I am sure others here have encountered the same choice. When do you retire fully working batteries?

Chris

 

[Starz]

Probably no definitive answer.
Risk verses reward comes to mind.

 

[snowghost]

What is the voltage across the cells and is it consistent when hovering?

 

[Capt KO]

DJI rates theirs at 200 cycles so would assume, if aftermarket are similar, you have some time left. Not certain about age related lipo failure though. I’m flying a 4+ year old oem with my P4s with 150 cycles but like you, not over water. Sadly, I have several oem that have failed with far less charges but luckily never in flight. Knock on wood.

 

[Chrislaf]

What is the voltage across the cells and is it consistent when hovering?

The voltage across the cells is pretty much the same. Cell 4 has some deviations but nothing out of the ordinary and the voltage is consistent when hovering.

Here is a link to the last flight with that battery.

<DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com>

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

DJI rates theirs at 200 cycles so would assume, if aftermarket are similar, you have some time left. Not certain about age related lipo failure though. I’m flying a 4+ year old oem with my P4s with 150 cycles but like you, not over water. Sadly, I have several oem that have failed with far less charges but luckily never in flight. Knock on wood.

DJI GO reports 151 cycles for this battery but AirData is reporting 177 total battery charges with a lowest reported life at 63%. Probably GO is more accurate. Regardless, I have started using this battery less now and likely will not use it for much longer as winter weather is fast approaching and temperatures are dropping. I have two other batteries with high cycle counts both with well over 100 charge cycles as well and they are PowerExtra batteries too. That leaves me with only one battery that has less than 50 cycle counts. Probably time to think about getting another battery especially since I fly my P3S year round.

Chris

 

[horsepowerphoto]

I have several batteries in the low 80% range in airdata... No problems with any of them. No warning signs.... All genuine DJI batteries... I would take my chances with those, what I know, versus getting an aftermarket knockoff new that could fail for no reason.