Battery Maintenance Checklist and Care

So, you have your new lights, and you get the batteries all charged up and start to play and practice with them, do a few shoots and needless to say your impressed with the lights and the battery set up. But Lithium batteries, well in fact any battery, needs maintenance and care to maximise their life. Here is where you may potentially have an issue in the future.

Months later, after you have been busy using your lights on a regular basis, you may have now been busy doing family stuff for a few months and not using the lighting as frequently. This situation may give you a few issues with your batteries if you are not aware of a few basic things to do with your lithium batteries.

The following potential problem should not be seen as an issue with the batteries, but something some people are not aware of. The best way maybe to give an understanding of potential issues is like this:

Let's say, hypothetically, you have two cars. Winter arrives or you pop your 2nd fancy summer car into the garage for a long period for storage. In this case, you would probably connect your battery to a Trickle Charger to keep it charged as the battery charge will naturally fall over a period of time, as if you don't, you may come back in Spring to a car that won't start! And that's the last thing you need. 

For instance, the lithium-ion battery-powered flashes and lights from Godox which is considered one of the most popular brands recommend not using or storing their batteries in temperatures above 40°C or below -10°C. In reality, lithium batteries’ performance may suffer. The solution is always straightforward at this time of year get the battery warmer between your hands, put it in your pocket or wrap it up. 

Unfortunately, you cannot trickle charge your lithium-ion batteries for your lights, so we have to take care and run a bit of maintenance on the batteries ourselves.

These batteries are expensive, and the last thing you want is to have to replace them! Here is a list of dos and don’ts that you would need to follow to keep your batteries running correctly.

To Do’s

1. Remove your batteries from your lights at the end of each shoot as a precaution anyway, but always when you are storing them for a period of time over more than a few days.
2. Check the charge whilst on the light heads, before removing and storing, if they are nearly flat, pop them on the charger.
3. They do not need to be fully charged, in fact better if they are not in a fully charged state, so 50% plus charge, should be perfect for storage.
4. Set up in your calendar a MONTHLY reminder to check and charge your batteries, if necessary, charge only if they have depleted, which should be a little at all.
5. Get the batteries onto your lights and pop them a few times and check the battery level on the heads, this is a better indication of the power than the LEDs on the actual batteries.
6. Pop the batteries back to where you store them, in a cool place with NO hugely varying temperature movements such as the living room or under your bed.
7. Keep them wrapped in a suitable cloth, wrap or blanket to protect them, especially when storing batteries for a long period of time. 
8. Rinse and Repeat Monthly
9. Give your chargers and cables a general visual check.
10. Keep your batteries close to your body for remaining your batteries warm.  
11. Having a spare battery is able to switch between the battery in your flash and the warm one in your pocket. 

Do Not’s

1. Do not leave your batteries attached to the heads when not in use.
2. Do not store them in an area of particularly high or low temperature. To help counter this, take the battery you'll need and chuck it in your pocket. 
3. Do not store them or leave them for any period of time in direct sunlight, like inside your car, even whilst travelling to and from jobs. Car boots are cooler for transport. 
4. Do not plug your batteries in and go to bed leaving them charging overnight for the mornings shoot or leave them for excessive periods on the charger at any time. Once charged, remove them from the chargers.
5. Do not empty your batteries to 0% on a shoot, always try to swap out with fresh batteries when they get down to a single bar, or as you can during the shoot.

If you are swapping out batteries during a busy all-day shoot, allow the battery you have taken off to cool, before placing on chargers. As an example, when doing multiple subject fast shoots along the lines of 6 pops per minute of the lights for hours at a time if you use 3 CITI400PRO’s and have 3 spare batteries always ready to swap out during the shoots, you can pop the lights up to 3000 plus times per shoot during the day.

PiXAPRO CITI600/AD600 Range Batteries

Specifically, CITI600/AD600 range batteries do have a protection shut down built into them. This can be reset if you should find yourself with a non-charging battery, just contact your retailer for assistance.

So, a few simple tricks and to dos, to keep those batteries working away for you for many years with no issues. If you find yourself still having trouble with your batteries after following this advice, however, please email our Customer Support team at info@essentialphoto.co.uk and they can see if your units will still be under warranty and if we have any solutions for you. Please be aware that even though a lighting unit may have a 2 -year warranty, your battery will only have a 6 month warranty on it as per our Warranty Policy.