Question: How often should Two-Way batteries be replaced?

We have recently been asked the question by several of our clients asking how often they should budget for two-way battery replacement.

While Motorola has all kinds of slick marketing sheets giving you all kinds of formulas on how often you need to retire batteries. Here is our straight shooter breakdown:

Public Safety Applications (Full-time Fire and Police Radios):

• LiIon - 12 months
• NiMH - 18 months
• NiCd - 24 months
• IMPRES (all Chemistry) - 24 months

Commercial & Non-Mission Critical Applications:

• LiIon - 18 months
• NiMH - 24 months
• NiCd - 30 months
• IMPRES (all Chemistry) - 30 months

After the above time frames, these batteries should be pulled and marked from frontline service, they should no be thrown out but should be put in a reserve fleet of batteries that can be used in case of a disaster or shared with other departments in your organization. The reserve fleet of batteries can usually be keep for double the time frames listed above.

As with everything, the above times are simply guidelines and can change based and environmental conditions and care and maintenance of batteries. See our blog post for some battery care & tips to ensure proper maintenance of your equipment.

As always, Wiscomm would be happy to develop a battery management program for your organization. Wiscomm offers some of the best pricing on Motorola OEM batteries in the world!