Batteries left in a hot vehicle

It has been brutally hot in my parts of Florida with the heat index reaching 108 on some days. It can become 120-140 inside a closed vehicle. My camera bag has been with me in the car for 3 weeks and now i have 3 factory batts with a charging problem. One just rapid flashes on the charger and the other two go green in about 20 seconds. Has the heat killed them?

I have seen upper limits set to 40-50 C mentioned for the batteries.

Here is a paper on the subject.
https://www.sciencedir​ect.com …cle/pii/S100200​7118307536

So yes i pretty much killed them.

Thanks Alan for pointing out this paper. I was aware that thermal aging exists - but it seems to be more dramatic then I anticipated (section 2.2.2).

During the warm season I keep my gear in a plastic cooler in the car. It's a great thermal protector and it keeps my gear hidden from thieving eyes.

-Duck- wrote in post #18886576
During the warm season I keep my gear in a plastic cooler in the car. It's a great thermal protector and it keeps my gear hidden from thieving eyes.

What a great idea.

chuckmiller wrote in post #18886518
So yes i pretty much killed them.

Don't think so. The batteries are usually spec'd to work safely at up to 70 degrees C during charge and discharge, so 45-50C storage should not be a problem.

Lbsimon wrote in post #18887221
Don't think so. The batteries are usually spec'd to work safely at up to 70 degrees C during charge and discharge, so 45-50C storage should not be a problem.

A few years ago I had a Canon SL1. I ended up not using it much, because I had 3 other cameras at the time. So I put it in a camera bag and stuck it under
my car seat, just to have a spare dslr on hand. I live in Southern California, and the summers can get really hot. 100+ degrees is common. I left it in the car for over a year until I gave it away to a co-worker for free. Myself and the new owner did not experience any type of battery problem.

I'm sure it's not a wise idea to store a camera like I did. Just relating my experience.

It's pretty straight forward in that all my batts were good until I gave a few the sauna treatment and they subsequently stopped charging. But before I throw them away I am going to try them on a different charger. Hey, who knows.

-Duck- wrote in post #18886576
During the warm season I keep my gear in a plastic cooler in the car. It's a great thermal protector and it keeps my gear hidden from thieving eyes.

Just a note, this only works for a few hours at most. Plastic coolers do a fine job slowing thermal transfer but without something cool inside to keep the temperature down, after a few hours, they will also be 120~140 degrees inside them and they will hold that heat once the car has cooled for several more hours. To keep it cool you need to stick an ice pack in the cooler which will bring up a whole other set of issues. Not sure you really want your camera gear in a cooler with an ice pack.

I'm thinking one of those gel type cold packs that doesn't involve water would be okay, in it's own bag of course.

A couple of weeks ago I was testing Panasonic and Sony cells in a battery pack. The temp got as high as 65C with the spec saying 70C as a max for charging conditions. So 140F (60C) is not that bad, should not have destroyed the cells.

Of course it is possible that you may have gotten bad batteries from the same manufacturer, particularly those that do not have UL approvals. You did not say if all three of them were the same make/brand.

Just a note: My full time job is safety testing and certification of products for a major international high tech company. Batteries is one of categories that I deal with.

All are Canon LP-E6 and LP-E6N. Today, on a different charger, they all seem to be charging. Now I need to put each one in the camera and see if they function/last.