Does freezing your batteries really help them to last longer?

Question

Please include informative links. Thanks!

Answer 1

Putting batteries in the freezer or refrigerator doesn't necessarily prolong their life

Alkaline batteries stored at "room temperature" self discharge at a rate of less than two percent per year. So normally refrigerating or freezing them will only help maintain their charge by a tiny amount. Hardly worth the effort of chilling them. However, if alkaline batteries are stored at higher temperatures they will start to lose capacity much quicker. At 85 degrees F they only lose about 5% per year, but at 100 degrees they lose 25% per year. So if you live in a very hot climate or are storing your batteries in a very hot location, it may be worthwhile for you to store your alkaline batteries in a refrigerator instead.

NiMH and NiCd batteries self discharge at a MUCH faster rate than alkaline batteries. In fact, at "room temperature" (about 70 degrees F) NiMH and NiCD batteries will self discharge a few percent PER DAY. Storing them at lower temperatures will slow their self discharge rate dramatically. NiMH batteries stored at freezing will retain over 90% of their charge for full month. So it might make sense to store them in a freezer. If you do, it's best to bring them back to room temperature before using them. Even if you don't freeze your NiMH batteries after charging them, you should store them in a cool place to minimize their self discharge
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Battery Myths vs Battery Facts

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Rechargeable batteries have a lower capacity than disposable alkaline batteries.
This is really a huge challenge for all of us because you can see companies everywhere advertizing their "battery fact" as rated capacity and what they are really doing is perpetuating the "battery myth" that disposable batteries have a greater actual or available capacity than rechargeable batteries.

The actual or available capacity for a battery is way more important to actual useage but is also more complex to determine, because it really depends on what you are using the batteries for. (For more detail see battery terms page - "actual capacity".)
For most high drain electronic devices, like digital cameras, rechargeable batteries will continue to work much longer than alkaline batteries. In fact, in devices like digital cameras, NiMH batteries will run on a single charge for 3-4 times as long as they would on an alkaline battery. Look at this chart of a brand name alkaline battery and a high capacity NiMH battery both set up in a computerized battery analyzer and subjected to a high drain rate of 500 mA.

You can see that the NiMH battery lasts WAY longer than the poor old alkaline battery when subjected to this high discharge rate.
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Heavy Duty, Super Heavy Duty, High Capacity, Quick Charger, Rapid Charger, Ultra, Long Life, etc.

Since there are no real industry standards, many terms used by battery manufacturers have become misleading marketing hype.

"Heavy Duty" batteries are often the least powerful batteries you can buy and some "quick chargers" can take as long as seven hours to recharge a set of batteries!

I believe these terms didn’t start out as misleading. For example the term Heavy Duty battery was used to refer to Zinc chloride batteries which had about 50% more capacity than traditional carbon zinc batteries. But that was 50 years ago! Calling zinc chloride batteries heavy duty became misleading once alkaline batteries with 300% more capacity than zinc chloride batteries became available.

A similar situation happened with battery chargers. Originally NiCd battery chargers took anywhere from 12-24 hours to recharge NiCd cells. Later, chargers that could recharge NiCd cells in half that time were introduced. Unfortunately, calling these chargers "quick chargers" was a real disservice to the rechargeable battery industry. Anyone that purchased NiCd cells and a "Quick charger" only to realize later that a quick charge took seven hours must have been very disappointed. I know I was.

The good news is that it’s now possible to buy a battery charger that can recharge batteries in less than two hours, and in some cases even as fast as one hour or less!!

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Battery capacity ratings are meaningless when used to compare different types of batteries or to compare the capacity of batteries powering different types of devices.

This means that you may not be able to predict how long your electronic device will run just by looking at the capacity rating of a battery. For example AA alkaline batteries typically have a capacity rating of over 2,500 mAh and AA NiMH batteries have rated capacities of only 1,200 to 1,900 mAh. But when it comes to actually powering an electronic device like a digital camera, the NiMH batteries will often run the device for three or four times as long.

(for an explanation see Battery FAQ, Why do my alkaline batteries run out so fast?)

Unfortunately, even comparing the capacity ratings of similar types of batteries won’t always work because different manufacturers often measure battery capacity in slightly different ways.

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Putting batteries in the freezer or refrigerator doesn't necessarily prolong their life

Alkaline batteries stored at "room temperature" self discharge at a rate of less than two percent per year. So normally refrigerating or freezing them will only help maintain their charge by a tiny amount. Hardly worth the effort of chilling them. However, if alkaline batteries are stored at higher temperatures they will start to lose capacity much quicker. At 85 degrees F they only lose about 5% per year, but at 100 degrees they lose 25% per year. So if you live in a very hot climate or are storing your batteries in a very hot location, it may be worthwhile for you to store your alkaline batteries in a refrigerator instead.

NiMH and NiCd batteries self discharge at a MUCH faster rate than alkaline batteries. In fact, at "room temperature" (about 70 degrees F) NiMH and NiCD batteries will self discharge a few percent PER DAY. Storing them at lower temperatures will slow their self discharge rate dramatically. NiMH batteries stored at freezing will retain over 90% of their charge for full month. So it might make sense to store them in a freezer. If you do, it's best to bring them back to room temperature before using them. Even if you don't freeze your NiMH batteries after charging them, you should store them in a cool place to minimize their self discharge.

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It's best to recharge batteries slowly.

(Not true. See next item).


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Quick charging NiMH batteries will reduce their life.

For practical purposes with batteries that are designed to be quick charged, for example, Sanyo, GP, POWERhaus, that is not true. It is important to use a battery charger that has been specifically designed to rapid charge NiMH cells. Actually there is a much greater likely hood of reducing the life of a NiMH battery by using an "overnight" charger than by using a smart fast charger. Overnight chargers rely on the fact that you will unplug them after a number of hours. If you forget to unplug them they can continue to charge the batteries longer than they should. Overcharging WILL reduce the life of batteries. From a strictly technical sense, a battery that is always slow charged will likely last a little longer than one that is always rapid charged. However, the difference is so small that it is not likely to be noticeable for most users.

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A battery with a capacity of 2,800 mAh can deliver a current of 2,800 mA for an hour

Assigning capacities to batteries can be very tricky, that's probably why you don't see capacity ratings marked on most alkaline batteries. When powering high drain electronic devices like digital cameras, computer peripherals, or portable music players, an alkaline battery will only deliver a small fraction of its rated capacity. A NiMH or NiCd battery is likely to deliver much closer to its rated capacity when it's powering high drain devices. This means that a NiMH battery with a rated capacity of 1800 mAh can take many more photos than an alkaline battery with a rated capacity of 2,800 mAh.
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Answer 2

Does Freezing Batteries Work

Answer 3

YES! The electrify is off. I bought D batteries for lamps. The batteries last for 4 hour in the lamps or fan. When the lamp goes out, I put them in the freezer overnight. The same batteries have lasted another 4 hours. I am repeating this to see how many times I can recharge the batteries. The Fuji batteries say that they may explode if recharged. Or may they just want you to keep buying batteries. The Duracell alkaline battery tells you not to charge, put in fire or connect improperly or the battery could explode. The cheap CVS alkaline battery also says don't install backwards, charge or put in fire or may explode. Bottom line is a small 1.5 volt battery CAN be recharged at least once by putting in freezer. I would not put then in longer than overnight. I have been using lamps for almost a wee. They take 2 d batteries that last 4 hours. I have 4 sets of batteries that I have usernames then recharged. No problems yet. Dry the batteries before using. Act at your own risk.

Answer 4

kfaulk has it right. And then to add to his, if you store the battery near another largely electrical circuit, like something as small as a car battery or as large as an electrical generator for generating power for the whole house and not just an addition outlet or two ( the difference between several thousand dollars at the local home depot) the battery in "storage" can actually leak out much faster, one might even be able to say the larger electric facilities drained the power overnight. For example, a normal everyday flashlight stored in the glove compartment of your vehicle can loose charge after less than a month when never used, because the vehicles battery under the hood caused a faster leak out. And then there is the idea of the battery actually grounding against the ...umm...ahem...ground. Always store any battery atleast 6 inches off the ground.

Answer 5

Yes, All a battery does it "inside" chemicals react causing a electrical charge giving what ever you the battery's in "power", but the chemicals are always bonding together and thats why battery's don't really last 'long'. Freezing or putting a battery in the fridge we'll slow down the bonding process making the battery last longer.
http://www.av8n.com/physics/battery.htm
That is how a battery works and freezing the battery slows down that process.

Answer 6

Really, yes....heat makes reactions faster..so..if you freeze the batteries..the chemicals inside have the speed of the reactions slowed down or stop. When brought at room temperature, the reaction starts again. And yet, if you heat a dead battery, it will must probably start up and remain alive for a few minutes. But, you should not heat it too much, it can lead to some explosion

Answer 7

If that really were the case, then tow truck companies in the north wouldn't be making tons of money on winter mornings jump starting cars left out in the freezing temperatures overnight. The smarter ones of us buy batteries with more current rating since the cold reduces it, and the lighter batteries don't have enough left to start the cars.

Answer 8

Basically, refrigerating batteries will cause them to have 93% of their initial charge after 5 years of storage, while storing batteries at room temperature will cause them to have 90% of their initial charge after 5 years of storage.

There is also no difference between storing batteries in the refrigerator at about 40 degrees F (10 degrees C) versus a freezer as far as charge retention. But, a cold battery has less ability to perform the chemical reaction that causes the battery voltage than one at room temperature. So, you should warm chilled batteries up to room temperature before using them. Frozen batteries take even more time to warm up and the consendation from a frozen battery could cause corrosion of the battery terminals.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

I've taken batteries out camping in freezing weather for nights on end and they seem to work less after they have been frozen

Answer 11

My opinion only: I know people that do freeze the batteries and reuse them but I really wouldn't recommend it because batteries are very dangerous.

My friend said differently:I also manually discharged mine, but by connecting a load to the external pins rather than dismantling. I'm pretty sure that the important part is to cut power to the battery's internal circuitry. Freezing or draining does this by dropping the voltage of the cells inside the unit below that required by the circuitry, but you should also be able to do it by disassembling it and briefly disconnecting the cells. The clamshell's battery doesn't have indictor lights, but on models that do, you'll know you have successfully reset the battery's circuitry because the lights will do a little dance when you plug it back in.

The freezing trick never worked for me (maybe my freezer's not cold enough), but if you are going to try it, you should definitely seal the battery in a plastic bag to protect it from condensation and wait for it to warm up before trying to use it.