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I dont leave them in the van in the winter... they get too cold and then dont charge properly first ... or even second thing the following morning. Normally leave them next to my boots (so I don't forget them!) - but I only have 3... so easy enought
Best case scenario for that would be insulate your garage and leave in there or insulate a box in the garage.
I'm still on petrol the battery stuff isn't there yet in my opinion. I can just stop at the petrol station if I run out of juice if it was battery I'd have to charge it
The main problem with all these battery fires is people cheaping out on Chinesium quality dross, either the batteries themselves, the charges or both. And leaving things on overnight!
Buy genuine, only charge when your around and never ever leave overnight. Also depends how you treat them day to day, if your careful and don't just chuck them in the back of the van all the time they will be absolutely fine. If you drop one heavily, keep an eye on it the next couple of charges just incase something has been damaged internally.
People rarely had trouble with batteries before everything became cheaper abroad with questionable quality, and started putting them in cars!
only have one spare with me but that always sits on theshelf above the windscreen. Been doing that for years and never had any problems with it getting too cold or hot. Doubt thieves would even go for batteries .... they're after the bigger stuff so if they're tucked away, shouldbe fine.
Tend to leave a lot of my Li-ions in the vehicle, bringing in those that need re-charging, some only make it as far as the hallway where I have various chargers, as the packs are heavy in quantity, to lug around after a hard day's work, and I seem busier with non gardening related things than the work itself, having windows of opportunity to actually go out and do jobs feels like a luxury, so with time at a premium, corners inevitably get cut, very aware that if 1 exploded in the house it could be a potential tragedy but not happened so far....but for example have several Ego 56V packs mostly working great though one has intermittent issues, every time I threaten to get rid of it it starts working again, after some "percussive maintenance" (basically bang it on a hard surface and it fixes the fault, same as slapping a faulty CRT TV in the 70's did), don't trust it as far as I can throw it, weighing nearly 3kg that's not far nowadays, but it still functions to a large extent...sooner or later the night time temperatures will drop and some brands of batteries won't run a tool or charge if too cold, might store some in the shed over winter as the lower temperatures won't be bad enough to harm them, if kept at a low-ish state of charge it might actually prolong their life span in fact
Billy is it best to discharge all batteries then before winter storage ? I store my Stihl batteries in the shed over winter have always left them in their current state of charge so probably best powered down then .
You can get Lipo bags online to store lithium batteries I have a couple but hopefully will not have to put them to the test a bit like chainsaw trousers you can't review until you have had an incident .
I do remember in the old days it was very common practice to turn your TV off when you went to bed and remove the plug from the wall socket and of course the old chip pan caused a few fires until someone invented oven chips .
I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure they need to be fully charged before being stored (according to salesman)
Could be wrong but for Li-Ion batteries as I understand it about 20 % to 25% charge level best for storage. That's why when you get a brand new Stihl battery for example, it's supplied with One (out of 4) bars of charge
I always thought partially depleted for storage was best, so around 50% if possible.
Personally i don't really bother, normally they are fully charged as thats the end of day routine, they all work perfectly well, so anyones guess as to what is best really!
Storing fully charged is fine if they are likely to be used in the near future, if not likely to use for an extended period then as I understand it a lower state of charge extends the lifespan of the pack reducing deterioration in capacity, as I head into winter I try to predict which packs I'm likely to use less. I use battery mowers too which need a lot of batteries. Obviously if a power tool pack loses capacity or fails after several season's use it's annoying but not the end of the world, whereas if a massive battery in an EV goes wrong it's an expensive repair or even economic write off
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