Battery powered tools in winter
 

Hi,

Just finished organizing a new tool box for the garage and wanted to know what you do (for those who have real winters) with the batteries for battery powered tools in the winter? I don’t have a heated garage so it gets cold! Should I bring in all the batteries, put them on chargers, or just leave them in the toolbox?

I leave batteries (car) in the garage but on trickle chargers, but wonder if the power tool ones should come in from the cold?

Thanks

I'm not sure about lithium batteries, but I do know the cold will kill a Ni-cad battery. I left a radio with the battery in a friend's trailer, that ended up parked for the winter in the Rockies, near Breckenridge. The battery was only a year old, and refused to take a charge the following spring.

The lawn tractor battery seems to last 3 - 4 seasons, left in the garage over the winter with a less than full charged, but not dead battery. I'll usually put it on the charger for about 30 minutes before the first use of the spring, but other than that it doesn't need any other help.

I bring all of mine into the house until after the cold weather.

I have DeWalt batteries that stay on the chargers when not in use.
Always ready to go when I grab them.

Cold is not a factor for lithium batteries.
If it was, Teslas would not start in the cold.
Leave them in the garage

I keep batteries and chargers near the furnace.

They seem to perform better than leaving them in a drafty barn

Unless you're a contractor using your tools all day, the decline in output will be insignificant.

I keep mine in a very cold garage, I've never had a problem, and my batteries are ten years old now.

I bet look 171's neighbor has some battery powered tool storage tips

I've avoided buying battery powered...have a long extension cord for saws, drills, etc. And have been able to get by with hand power for mechanical stuff. I can understand why they'd be necessary time savers for pros, but for my occasional stuff, I've managed to get by with less complicated hand tools.

Most of mine stay in my work truck year round.

No effect on them.

.

I bet it doesn't get down to -31c there though Vin ;)

I bring them inside below freezing. I lost a $100 battery to < 0 temps 2 years ago. #wontforget

I found if the batteries (De-Walt) got to cold below 10 F they wouldn't charge. The charger light would quickly flash. Leaving the batteries in the cab of the work vehicle as opposed to the back did the trick.

Best to keep them inside in a cool dry place, not freezing. They won’t charge properly in the cold. Try it and see.

Lithium are better than most but are def affected by cold. And here wrt tesla:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/business/tesla-justice-department-investigations.html

https://www.classaction.org/tesla-range-lawsuit#:~:text=As%20recently%20as%20this%20year%2 C%20South%20Korean%20regulators,cut%20by%20over%20 50%20percent%20in%20cold%20weather.

As recently as this year, South Korean regulators reportedly fined Tesla about $2.1 million for falsely advertising its cars’ driving ranges on its local website between August 2019 and December 2022, with the Korea Fair Trade Commission finding that Tesla failed to disclose to customers that the vehicles’ range could be cut by over 50 percent in cold weather. Tesla was required to publicly admit that it had misled consumers, and CEO Elon Musk and two local executives acknowledged “false/exaggerated advertising” in a June 19 statement, the article says.