Eli5: Why does putting dead batteries in the freezer make them last longer but my phone dies in the cold?
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The lithium battery in your phone is really bad at working in the cold.
Bad things happen to cold lithium.
Works harder, and then drains faster.
Lead acid batteries (like most car batteries) also have a bad time when it’s cold (though they don’t catch fire and explode, so that’s nice)
Most batteries you would put in the fridge, AAs etc don’t have the same chemistry in them that gets angry in the cold the same way. I think it was proven that fridge batteries isn’t actually beneficial at all, but I could be wrong.
A battery is in a constant state of discharge. Even when it isn’t connected to anything that is using its power, it is always giving off a little bit of power in the form of heat.
Cooling down a battery will slow down its rate of discharge. In some cases this may be good for storing charged batteries for future use, but it also slows down its rate of discharge even when it’s being used. The battery needs to be at or above a certain temperature in order to power the device it’s connected to. If it’s too cold to give enough power fast enough, then the device will just shut down.
It’s like freezing chicken to eat later. It will last a long time in the freezer, but if you want to eat it you have to heat it up and eat it fairly quickly, otherwise it’s gonna go bad.
You should store most primary cell (non-rechargeable) batteries in the cold to make them last longer. Batteries slowly lose their charge just sitting there and the cold slows that down.
Because batteries rely on a chemical reaction to create current. Storing batteries in the cold slows down the chemical reaction when they’re not in use making them last longer. You don’t want to slow down them chemical reaction when you’re using the battery.
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