Anker 16K mAv battery fails in cold weather

[John F]

Tried to use an Anker “2nd Gen Astro E5” PN A1208 for recharging this weekend in very mild cold temps – 15F – 30F.  It failed miserably.  Would start to charge an iPhone and an InReach and then crap out and turn itself off after ~30 seconds.  Had to resort to stuffing the battery and the device inside the puffy to get it work (and then it eventually did).  Supposed to be li-ion rechargeable so figured it should handle this type of weather.

Anyone else have similar experience?

Is there a portable recharger that works reliably in cold temps?

 

[John F]

Temps were 15F to 30F (above 0F).  Re-reading the post it might be taken as below 0F temps incorrectly.

[Ken Thompson]

From Anker FAQ page,

All batteries are negatively impacted by the cold but Li-ion batteries offer reasonable performance at cooler temperatures and charge optimally in a range of 41°F to 113°F (5°C to 45°C). The current should be reduced for temperatures below 41°F and charging in below freezing environments can permanently damage your battery.

[Mike B]

I had a similar issue with the 13,000MAH Anker. Ended up sleeping with the charger and the phone to get a full charge for the morning. Temps were in the teens overnight and hovered around 30 during the day.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I don’t understand why an Li-ion battery would do this in “cool” temps.

Li-ion non-rechargeable batteries don’t act like this in my experience, even down to -10 F. in a headlamp.

 

[John S.]

I’ll guess that the lithium chemistry being used is different in the rechargables vs nonrechargers. Lithium/Iron Disulfide (Li/FeS2) in the ultimate lithium batteries. The charging process matters too I’d imagine.

http://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf

[Rex Sanders]

While I don’t know what’s inside the Anker packs, many battery packs repackage 18650s with appropriate electronics. Specs for one Panasonic 18650 rechargeable battery:

https://na.industrial.panasonic.com/sites/default/pidsa/files/panasonic-ncr18650bd-datasheet.pdf

You can see significant performance drops at -10° C (14° F, red line) and especially -20° C (-4 °F, black line).

Compare to Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries with a different chemistry (and different chart units):

Each Lithium battery chemistry has different performance specs.

— Rex

[John F]

The lack of rechargeable battery reliability in such mild cold temps is concerning for devices that we don’t have much data on.  Like my Delorme InReach which is rechargeable only.

I’ll bring a set of those energizer ultimate lithiums for my Black Diamond Revolt rechargeable headlamp.

I think I’ll make a little reflectix cozy for the Anker rechargeable. Then I can slap a hand warmer to the side of it, pop it in the bag, and don’t have to walk around with so much weight stuffed inside my coat.

[Greg Mihalik]

Garmin inReach SE+

… Rechargeable, built-in lithium-ion battery …

Specifications

[Cameron M]

My iPhone repeatedly shut off and became unusable when it got down into the 30’s. It was a ten day trip and an unhappy experience. My takeaway is to keep all rechargeable powered items (iPhone, Steripen, Anker, light) in my pockets or bag when it is cold, and to replace a flagging iPhone battery before a mission-critical trip.

[John F]

Agreed – my relatively new iPhone 7 acted up also in the morning at 16F.  Suddenly showed 1% battery left which was inaccurate.  Warming it up and rebooting it brought it suddenly to 82%.

The Delorme InReach was reliable.  Thanks for the specs on that.  It never acted odd at these temps.

 

[Jerry Adams]

NiMH batteries become more cold sensitive as they get older.  I wonder if Lithium batteries are similar.

Apple recently acknowledged that the capacity of Lithiums is reduced, so they slow older models to use less power to get acceptable lifetime.  I wonder how they work at colder temps?

If there is reduced battery capacity because of age, and cold on top of that, it would become more noticeable

[Rachel P]

I’ve been using Anker packs in cold weather all winter to keep my iPhone 6 charged and it’s been working great — I use the 20100 Mah and 10000 Mah ones and all are over a year old. I usually keep my phone in a mitten in my pack as the phone itself is mostly useless now in the cold (thanks Apple!). I haven’t had any problems with the battery, even after leaving them in a cold car overnight (temps in teens or 20s usually).

[John F]

Regarding the built-in li-ion battery in the Delorme InReach device that I have – it notably has 2 distinct temp ranges.  To recharge effectively, looks like both the Anker battery bank and the device itself need to be pretty toasty (which sounds like a nice insulated bag w/ hand warmers or other toasty areas.

The charging temp range is what caught my eye – that’s pretty hard for most winter camping so be aware.  Probably extrapolates reasonably well to other li-ion rechargeable devices (at least the charging range, certainly not the operating range as evident by my iPhone 7).

Operating temperature range
From -20° to 60°C (from -4° to 140°F)

<span style=”color: #ff0000;”>Charging temperature range</span>
<span style=”color: #ff0000;”>From 0° to 45°C (from 32° to 113°F)</span>

[John F]

What a joke.  I used the editor and it still fails miserably on rendering html that it created.  The basic forum software really needs an upgrade…..

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