Tips to Extend the Life of Your Push-to-Talk Two-Way Radio Battery

Whether you’re in construction, event services, or public security and safety, two-way radios help keep you communicating with your team all day long. To keep your radios working properly, you need to take care of their battery. Below are five tips to help you extend your PeakPTT two-way radios battery’s life.

1. Initialize Your Batteries

Brand new batteries for two-way radios come with almost 50% of their capacity charge for a couple of important reasons:

• The charge of the battery decreases with time. It will be below max load by the time you use the battery.
• Safety

To optimize the battery’s future capacity, it’s important you charge it overnight (a minimum of 14 to 16 hours). This is only for your first time using the battery.

2. Keep the Battery Dry and Clean

Make sure the radio battery’s contact points are kept dry and clean at all times. If you expose the equipment to contaminants or water, take the battery out, clean it and wipe it dry completely. It’s essential all two-way radio equipment has the right IP rating for use in dirty or wet atmospheres.

3. Turn Off When You’re Not Using

Some innovative digital two-way radios come with special features like display functions, text, and GPS. These all can drain the battery. And, people don’t use them often. So, when you’re not using features like these, disable their functions. You can also dial the screen lighting back which could help decrease battery usage.

4. Don’t Keep the Radio in its Charger

You shouldn’t leave a radio in its charger for an extended period of time. This will not only degrade the battery’s ability to hold a charge, but it could heat the battery up, which also reduces its lifespan.

5. Use the Proper Battery

Even if you take great care of the battery, you’ll still have to replace it at some point. Typically, radio batteries need to be replaced every 18 to 24 months or so. Use lithium-ion batteries since they tend to hold the longest charge, produce less heat than other batteries and weigh the least.

By applying the tips above, it will help you gain more usage hours from your radio and improve the battery’s overall performance.