Battery drain in unplugged charger? If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in...

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

nadelewitz wrote:

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

What camera system you talking about?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

nadelewitz wrote:

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

Maybe - depends on the charger design. Would need to see a schematic to be sure...

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

PixelStan77 wrote:

What camera system you talking about?

Any camera system. I have Canon DSLRs but it's a general question. Anyone tested this with THEIR system?

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

nadelewitz wrote:

Any camera system. I have Canon DSLRs but it's a general question. Anyone tested this with THEIR system?

My Nikon System shuts the power off after recharging. I sometimes have left the battery in the charger for a week and then put it in the camera. Did not see any charge level degrade.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

PixelStan77 wrote:

My Nikon System shuts the power off after recharging. I sometimes have left the battery in the charger for a week and then put it in the camera. Did not see any charge level degrade.

But was the charger unplugged? I leave mine in the charger sometimes after charging, but the charger is always plugged in.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

TriX wrote:

But was the charger unplugged? I leave mine in the charger sometimes after charging, but the charger is always plugged in.

Test it out and update us with the results.

I predict that the charger will not discharge the battery.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

nadelewitz wrote:

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

On general principle, knowing there is an electronic circuit making contact with the battery terminals, I remove the battery. If the charger is plugged in that would add in the house hold circuits. While there are more than likely diodes in the circuit to prevent any reverse current flow, why take the chance?

Jimbo1947

Modern Lithium-Ion battery chargers have very little residual drain on batteries when they are unplugged. However there is always a slight drain. Leaving for a few days would not be a problem, but months at a time will not be a good idea. Lithium batteries will discharge very slowly when not in use, even out of the charger.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Back to my original post, people. The question is, will the battery discharge in the charger with the charger UNPLUGGED from the wall.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

nadelewitz wrote:

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

As has been stated, you are going to have to test this out with your charger. Many old chargers had filter capacitors, and those filter capacitors sometimes had "bleeder" resistors. Such a bleeder resistor will definitely provide a current path for an unpowered charger to discharge a connected battery. Modern chargers have much different circuitry. Some may provide a current path that will allow a discharge current to flow. That current may be large, or it may be small. Others may have a completely different circuit design that prevents a reverse current from flowing, or may limit any such current to such a small level that it doesn't matter. So there is no way to provide a generalized answer to your question other than "It depends."

Photocraig

There's a reason why batteries come with terminal covers. Any time a circuit, however intermittent or flawed is made across the terminals, a flow will occur. Even in your pocket.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

nadelewitz wrote:

If you leave a camera battery in its charger after unplugging it from AC power, is there drain on the battery? Will a battery run down in storage in the charger, more than if it is out of the charger?

Any charger that reads the charge level and lets you know when its fully charged will maintain an open circuit with the battery and will cause a slow drain even when unplugged.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Okay, thanks for all the responses. Maybe I'll test this out sometime with my batteries & charger.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It would be difficult to test that. The discharge would be very slight, if there is any at all. Sitting on a shelf or in a camera, a battery will discharge.