New Battery DOA?

[TwoWheeler]

Bought my wife an R7 for Christmas. Before I wrapped it, I pulled the battery out of the box, so I can charge it and she can have a ready-to-go camera, when she opens it.

Glad I did.

Stuck it on the charger and got the dreaded blinkblinkblinkblink from the LED. Did some exhaustive internet research (30 seconds on Google) and found that it sometimes takes a few tries before it will take a charge. I did more than “a few tries”. No dice. Got the brain fart to try it in my R5 charger. Nothing. Tried my R5 battery in the R7 charger, it worked fine. Came to the conclusion that the new battery is pooched.

I know they are shipped completely flat, but is it a common occurrence for them not to take a charge, when brand new? Is there any way to “jump start“ the thing? (Preferably without burning my house down).

(Props to B&H - I sent Support an email and within a half hour -on a Sunday night, no less- I got a shipment notification. The new battery showed up yesterday and is blinking away happily in my R5 charger as we “speak”)

 

[EricN]

B&H is wonderful

 

[koenkooi]

[…]I know they are shipped completely flat, but is it a common occurrence for them not to take a charge, when brand new?[…]

Lithium batteries aren’t stored or shipped flat, that would damage them.
The factory likely charges them to 60% to give them a year or two of shelf live before internal discharge drains them completely.

Receiving a new battery flat and/or it needing multiple tries to charge are big red flags. Especially considering how much Canon charges for the LP-E6NH!

 

[TwoWheeler]

Lithium batteries aren’t stored or shipped flat, that would damage them.

Ah, ok. I assumed they were, to lessen the fire hazard. Shows what I know.

 

[Del Paso]

I just got 2 new LP-E6NH batteries yesterday.
They were more or less flat (one single light flashing and in-camera -warning less than 10%), but accepted charging without any issues. All the LP6 I received the last few years were in exactly the same condition. They were all bought from a store which seems to sell a lot of Canon gear.

 

[AlanF]

Lithium batteries aren’t stored or shipped flat, that would damage them.
The factory likely charges them to 60% to give them a year or two of shelf live before internal discharge drains them completely.

Receiving a new battery flat and/or it needing multiple tries to charge are big red flags. Especially considering how much Canon charges for the LP-E6NH!

IATA rules are that batteries may be charged only to 30% or less when shipped by air. Every battery I have received has arrived flat.

 

[Del Paso]

B&H is wonderful

Let them have subsidiaries in Europe, with US pricing, of course.

 

[Del Paso]

IATA rules are that batteries may be charged only to 30% or less when shipped by air. Every battery I have received has arrived flat.

There's also a distinction to be made between "discharged" and "over-discharged", aka dead battery.
This is what the original poster "TwoWheeler" certainly meant.
An over-discharged battery can usually not be returned to life.

 

[koenkooi]

IATA rules are that batteries may be charged only to 30% or less when shipped by air. Every battery I have received has arrived flat.

I didn’t know about the 30% rule, it makes some sense.
The most recent LP-E6NH I bought had some charge in it, the manufacturing date on the label was very recent

 

[TwoWheeler]

B&H is wonderful

They’re guilty of some shenanigans, too. I’ve seen multiple instances where, with the same item, the one that is discounted via the EDU discount is back ordered, while the non-discounted one is in stock. Same SKU.

The first time I saw it, I wrote it off as an error. I saw it again one or two more times and it was always the discounted one that was out of stock, never the other way.

 

[Surab]

I just got 2 new LP-E6NH batteries yesterday.
They were more or less flat (one single light flashing and in-camera -warning less than 10%), but accepted charging without any issues. All the LP6 I received the last few years were in exactly the same condition. They were all bought from a store which seems to sell a lot of Canon gear.

Same here, both with the LP&E6N and LP-E6NH that came with an EOS R and an EOS R6 MkII, respectively.

 

[kaihp]

IATA rules are that batteries may be charged only to 30% or less when shipped by air. Every battery I have received has arrived flat.

That's very curious to me, because I've never heard about this rule before and I'd love to learn more.

I've seen lots of internal discussions about State of Charge (SoC) before putting the batteries on storage and even periodically charging the products, just to be sure that the product has a 'reasonable' SoC and thereby product life when arriving at the end-user.

Thinking back, I cannot remember receiving a smartphone with less than 30% SoC, even with sealed packaging (ie last charging was at the assembly plant).

 

[AlanF]

That's very curious to me, because I've never heard about this rule before and I'd love to learn more.

I've seen lots of internal discussions about State of Charge (SoC) before putting the batteries on storage and even periodically charging the products, just to be sure that the product has a 'reasonable' SoC and thereby product life when arriving at the end-user.

Thinking back, I cannot remember receiving a smartphone with less than 30% SoC, even with sealed packaging (ie last charging was at the assembly plant).

There are different rules for batteries inside equipment and sent accompanying, or separately. You can google the regulations for your own country's postal system. Here is a summary of IATA for air transport:
https://www.iata.org/en/publication...-to-know-about-how-to-ship-lithium-batteries/

"Can lithium batteries be shipped by air?​

Despite lithium battery shipping restrictions, lithium batteries can be shipped by air but not without stipulations. Lithium metal and lithium ion cells and batteries shipped by themselves (meaning alone and not installed in a device or packed with the device they will power) are forbidden to be shipped as cargo on a passenger aircraft. In addition, lithium-ion cells and batteries shipped by themselves must be shipped at a state of charge not exceeding 30% of their rated capacity."

 

[kaihp]

There are different rules for batteries inside equipment and sent accompanying, or separately.

Lithium-ion cells and batteries shipped by themselves must be shipped at a state of charge not exceeding 30% of their rated capacity."

Thanks. I've only worked with Li-Ion batteries inside equipment, which is why I haven't come across this limit before.

For those that are interested in this subject, the "UN rules" that is offhandedly referred to is the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, Part III, subsection 38.3 (be prepared for a very boring read). DAMHIK.