NIKON EN-EL3 battery pack life expectancy

[david_thomas___banned_from]

Every week I have a new wedding in the summer to photograph. I have 2 EN-EL3

batteries in my D100 and 1 in my D70. Is it harming them to recharge too often?

After about 12 months, my laptop batteries just died.

[chris_leck]

Good question. My oldest EN-EL3 is nearly four years old. I have three. I charged them when empty or when preparing for a gig; no failures, no problems.

[walterh]

I recommend to swap battery packs only once empty. I use three packs so if one gets empty I still have one to use and one backup. You should get about 1000 cycles from a good pack - lets hope Nikon uses high quality :-) I expect 4 years of lifetime. Of course these are rough numbers because storage and ambient conditions are a major factor.

[jon_noble]

"After about 12 months, my laptop batteries just died"

 

Li-ion batteries do not like heat as their usefulness decreases. My guess the enel3 should last a lot longer, as long as you don't get them hot. I'm not sure but is it recommended to keep them fully-charged wherever possible?

[ShunCheung]

I bought my D100 in August 2002 and I got an extra EN-EL3 around that time. That whole set is almost 4 years old, as well, and everything is still working fine. I don't use it that much any more though.

 

My wife has Sony Li-ion batteries for her camcorders from the late 1990's. I think like 1 out of 3 of those has died. The other 2 are still working fine after 7, 8 years.

[conrad_hoffman]

IMHO, much has to do with initial age and quality. I've had terrible life from cheap off-brand Li-ion batteries for my Panasonic camera. The factory and Maxell batteries are still going strong after a couple years. Hopefully your batteries were freshly manufactured when you bought them, and are of high initial quality. You should keep the batteries charged and top them up if not used for a long time- they lose charge over time. Don't store them in the cameras, as that will increase the discharge rate slightly. Don't discharge them deeply on a regular basis if you can avoid it. Go to batteryuniversity.com and read all their info on rechargable battery technology, remembering that the state of the art changes rapidly. IMHO again, we don't have enough history on this battery type to draw really reliable conclusions about the best practices.

[rjacksonphoto]

Thom Hogan, when discussing the EN-EL3e, warns against repeatedly discharging below 5% (deep discharging) and recommends recharging immediately if you do discharge them that far, in order to preserve battery life.

[jeffrey moore]

Everything you would ever want to know about batteries can be found here: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

 

And as the previous poster suggested, and is confirmed on the aforementioned website, if possible, avoid discharging lithium-ion batteries too low.

[eyeseeyou]

li ions are'nt supposed to achieve a "memory" as would a ni cad .i do believe that 1,000 cycles given slightly less than optimum conditions is still on the low side . the enel3a is an excellent design and find that they have not yet gained a "memory" as i have experienced w/non li ion batts.