Store batteries on or off the charger?

[David Bourla]

I have confirmed this: if you have Interactive 2000 chargers, your AB Dionics should always be kept on the chargers to engage "Lifesaver" pulse charge cycle. Stops battery from draining on shelf. No idea if Red brick or redvolt chargers do that. Anyone from Red wanna comment?

[Sid Idris]

On the charger. Off leads to slow discharge. Sometimes you're lucky to be able to bring them back. Revolts seem to be the worst offenders. They degrade much too quickly.

[ericyoung]

All LiIon chargers have to be intelligent for safety reasons.

Generally if a charger is powered on, the circuitry will be intelligent enough to keep the batteries topped up with a trickle charge. But for long term storage this is effectively putting the battery through more cycling than necessary if you aren't going to use them.

If the charger is switched off, then the circuitry usually presents a discharge path. Not a problem for a few days, as it'll be high impedance, but if storing long term, don't leave batteries on a switched off charger. Otherwise the discharge path will deep discharge the batteries, which kills LiIon batteries.

For very long term storage, charge to 2/3 or 3/4 full (charging to full will again use up cycle life unnecessarily) and check charge state at least every month initially ( maybe longer once you've established the discharge rate of your particular batteries ). Probably best not to let them discharge below 20-25%.