LP-6 total battery failure

[Don Haines]

I spent the day kayaking.... temperature started around freezing and warmed up to about 5C later in the day... my 60D with me. The camera was working fine and showing full charge on the battery and then it went dead... absolutely nothing! and for once I had not brought a spare battery.. I paddled for about another 5 hours and saw a half dozen or more Great Blue Herons, one from about 10 feet away (I think they were mocking my brick camera) and eventually went home.

When I got home I tried a second battery and the camera came to life. I put the dead battery into the charger and nothing happened... no blinking, no lights, nothing.... tried another battery in the charger and the charger worked properly... this battery instantly went from indicating a full charge to absolutely nothing.... my voltmeter across the power pins shows no voltage whatsoever.....

Has anyone heard of this happening before? It is a real Canon battery, about 2 years old.

 

[Jim Saunders]

Bummer, at least it failed properly rather than going soft or getting intermittent.

Jim

 

[dgatwood]

I spent the day kayaking.... temperature started around freezing and warmed up to about 5C later in the day... my 60D with me. The camera was working fine and showing full charge on the battery and then it went dead... absolutely nothing! and for once I had not brought a spare battery.. I paddled for about another 5 hours and saw a half dozen or more Great Blue Herons, one from about 10 feet away (I think they were mocking my brick camera) and eventually went home.

Dendrite growth? Sometimes Lithium ion cells just go stone dead without warning. When not caused by physical impact, it is usually caused by a manufacturing defect.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Canon recently issues a service advisory, and instructions on things to try before returning the battery. Basically, they said to repeatedly insert the battery into the charger. The batteries can discharge so low that the protective circuitry shuts them down. Each time you insert it into the charger, it gets a small amount of charge before the battery circuitry shuts off, and on about the third attempt, it may have enough to spring to life.

Its possible that the cold temperature brought the battery down below the shutoff point. The one at home might have self discharged below the point.

Its worth a try.

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/10/canon-lp-e6-product-advisory/

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/10/canon-lp-e6-product-advisory/