Understanding Battery Performance

Battery-powered equipment provides great performance for many companies – machines that are quiet, productive, and convenient to operate, even in busy spaces during daytime cleaning. Batteries are also a big investment, making it important to understand what to expect from them so that you know whether battery-powered equipment is performing as it should.

Same battery, different results – Installing the same battery on different machines or different models can yield very different results. The specific configuration of each machine, including head size and feature sets, will draw power differently, causing variations in performance even in identical batteries.

Different operators, different results – The same machine, the same fully charged battery…but different operators can still get different run times. This is due in part to the variations in operator settings (such as down pressure) allowed by most machines, and in part to variations in travel speed that operators might choose, even when cleaning the same space.

Same manufacturer’s specifications, different results – Battery run-times listed in a manufacturer’s specifications are accurate, but of course they represent only one set of operating conditions. No manufacturer can anticipate the exact machine configuration or environment the battery will be operating in, so in-use run times are likely to vary with different settings or floor conditions.

Different points in the lifecycle, yep, different results – Early in its lifecycle, for approximately the first 100 cycles, a new battery is in what is known as the formatting period. Over the course of this period, performance will rise from about 70% of rated capacity to full capacity.