Nikon EN-EL18D battery "issue"

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RichF

RichF

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I have a spare EN-EL18D battery which was sitting on the shelf for the better part of a year. Mostly because I am able to charge the battery in the camera and don't rotate batteries.

When I put this spare battery in the charge, it need calibration. Has anyone seen that behavior?
 
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Here is a detailed discussion about batteries and calibration:

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I know little or nothing about the subject and i offer it only for information.

I would be curious about what happens if your battery is calibrated.

I think we can all learn something here. Should we rotate our batteries regularly?
 
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Try this instead
www.nikoncafe.com

Battery Calibration

So, what triggers the 'needs calibration' status? I seldom run my batteries below 40% and the one that isn't in the camera is on the charger. This morning I plopped one in the camera and for whatever reason checked the info via the menu - it says calibration required. The battery life is still...
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wotan1 said:
I think we can all learn something here. Should we rotate our batteries regularly?
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I've always rotated my batteries (they are all numbered) and memory cards. AFAIK if a lithium battery is unused for a long time it can at best reduce the amount of charge if can hold or will not accept a charge at all.

I try to charge anything that has a lithium battery every now and again if I don't use it much like a wireless speaker of flashgun.
 
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dabhand16 said:
I've always rotated my batteries (they are all numbered) and memory cards. AFAIK if a lithium battery is unused for a long time it can at best reduce the amount of charge if can hold or will not accept a charge at all.

I try to charge anything that has a lithium battery every now and again if I don't use it much like a wireless speaker of flashgun.
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good idea. I tend to keep the same battery and cards in my camera and only use extras when I need to. I'll try rotating them in the future
 
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RichF said:
fully charged, my guess 6 to 12 months since I last charged it
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Weird that it drained, although this is a reasonably long period. I know that laptop batteries frequently needed to be calibrated, which involved a full drain and then a full charge. If it is an old battery, I would not expect much from it, but I would still recalibrate and see how it responds.

--Ken
 
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I actually have 4 18Ds (and yes…..I know it’s overkill), that are numbered and I rotate through them. I’ll change one when I get to about 40%. In the last 6 months, I’ve received the calibration alert on 2 of the batteries. I thought it a little unusual as I have used the 18B and 18C batteries on my D850 and D500 in the past and never needed a calibration. I chalked it up to the Z9 being much more of a power hog than either DSLR. No issues with either following the discharge and recharge.
 
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Replytoken said:
Weird that it drained, although this is a reasonably long period. I know that laptop batteries frequently needed to be calibrated, which involved a full drain and then a full charge. If it is an old battery, I would not expect much from it, but I would still recalibrate and see how it responds.

--Ken
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used it this weekend. Got down to around 50% after 5000 shots. Will calibrate when I get home tonight
 
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Fishboy1952 said:
I actually have 4 18Ds (and yes…..I know it’s overkill), that are numbered and I rotate through them. I’ll change one when I get to about 40%. In the last 6 months, I’ve received the calibration alert on 2 of the batteries. I thought it a little unusual as I have used the 18B and 18C batteries on my D850 and D500 in the past and never needed a calibration. I chalked it up to the Z9 being much more of a power hog than either DSLR. No issues with either following the discharge and recharge.
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I found that when I travel to Africa I get the occasional calibration warning. I attribute this to voltage fluctuations. Almost never see a warning when traveling in the US, Canada, or Europe
 
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Every day I come in from shooting I change the battery to a fresh one, placing the removed battery in the charger. Doesn't matter how discharged it is. I have a marking system and always install the next "higher battery" when the battery with 4 dots is replaced I start over with the battery that has "no" markings. I have recived two batteries that were DOA. The charger would show calibrate for a few minutes, and then flash all the green lights. Both were returned for replacements.

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I had a lengthy discussion with a Nikon tech about the EnEl 18 batteries, and their care a few years ago. He was polite, did not rush off the phone and answered my quandaries.
He suggested that if the battery should show calibration needed, reinstall to continue using it until the battery is dead. Wait a few minutes, rip off a few and kill it very dead again. If you place it on the charger with charge remaining it will somewhat drain the battery first then charge fully (calibrate), which will take a bit of extra time. Calibrating quicker is to drain it fully so the charger does not need to drain off the battery. So do the kill, and re-kill as mentioned. Also, if you wanna, just ignore it. Charge the battery and go about business, it's suggested but not required to calibrate.
Calibrate: All cells (allegedly) return to full charge..
 
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I have 3 EN18-ELD. Once in a while, I get a recalibration indicator. My observation, with no true data, is that I will get the recal indicator if the battery has been topped off a number of times in the camera. If I don't top off in the camera and only charge the batteries in the external charger, my recollection is that I have had only 1 recal indicator during the last year+.
 
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Both batteries that I recived new, and were DOA were manufactured at least 18 months earlier. I image they were sitting on a shelf some place. The requirement that you must wait for batteries to be near discharged before recharging is past. That came from an era where batteries suffered from the "memory effect". That issue has been overcome in todays batteries they can be recharged from any level of discharge without ill affects.
 
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RichF said:
I have a spare EN-EL18D battery which was sitting on the shelf for the better part of a year. Mostly because I am able to charge the battery in the camera and don't rotate batteries.

When I put this spare battery in the charge, it need calibration. Has anyone seen that behavior?
Click to expand...
I've had to calibrate mine, both of them, a time or two. My take on it is, it's not a biggie. Just read the manual for the charger on how to do it. See P. 851 of Z9RG_(En)01.pdf
 
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I have 2 Z9's and 4 batteries and rotate them. I have had a few recalibration alerts in the charger and did so. Can take all night to recal and then charge starts. The recal alerts seemed to happen early in the life of the batteries.

As some others have mentioned I rotate the batteries putting a charged one in as soon as i get home and putting the batter out of the camera in the charger before I do anything else (just in case it does need recalibration there is plenty of time. I have 3 chargers the two that came with the cameras and a spare I bought when I only had one Z9 and would charge two batteries at once if I had swapped out in the field that day.

Been a while since I had a bad EN EL 18 battery I think it was back in the D4s days, Nikon had me send it back and they "formatted it" and sent it back and it worked with not issues.
 
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Slightly off-topic, but it is about the EN-EL 18D. I ordered a new EN-EL 18D from a large Photo store (2/27/24) and received a battery manufactured in May 2022. It was defective, so I returned it and was sent another one manufactured in early 2022 it was faulty. I received its replacement today, you guessed, in manufacture in May 2022, and it was defective. Do you think they found a stash of old batteries and are dumping them on their customers? When I went to fill out the return request, their system said I had reached my return limit. I contacted customer service this evening, but they were closed, so I emailed them waiting for a response. I'm curious if anyone ordered a new EN-EL18D recently and received one with a 2024 manufactured date.
 
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Got first Z9 in 2022 and extra battery both batteries 2021. Second Z9 and extra battery in 2023 both batteries 2022.

I have not bought any batteries in 2024. I have not kept track of how many times what battery required calibration but have had to calibrate about 4 times since 2022. Have never charged in the camera.
 
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