How Long Is Drone Battery Life? (How To Increase?)

Drone battery life varies based on usage and drone weight. Typically, drones can fly for around 10 to 30 minutes, with heavier drones consuming more energy and requiring more frequent recharging. Drones engaged in activities like video recording or photography consume more power compared to those used solely for flying purposes

If you are thinking about flying a drone, it is important to know how long a drone battery will last. The number of minutes you can fly your drone will vary depending on the type of drone you have, the type of battery your drone uses, the weight of the drone and its accessories, how aerodynamic it is, the conditions outside and how often you fly.

You can get more out of your batteries by taking care of them properly and charging them for optimal periods. A typical hobbyist’s quadcopter might have a 20-minute flight time with each charge after a full night of charging at an outlet.

How Long Does A Drone Battery Last?

Battery life depends on many factors, such as the type of battery, the drone itself and different user habits.

The biggest factor in determining a drone battery life is the size and weight of the unit. Larger, more complex drones use more power and require more battery capacity to function properly.

Smaller drones generally have less features so they don’t use as much power and can operate with smaller batteries. The other main factor to consider is how long it takes to charge your drone’s batteries.

What’s The Most Important Factor That Affects Battery Life?

There are multiple factors that can affect flight time, but the biggest one is battery capacity. In general, the larger your drone’s battery, the longer it will stay in the air. This is why we recommend purchasing a drone with at least a 2000mAh or higher battery and then getting additional batteries so that you can extend your flight times.

Another factor to consider is what type of battery your drone uses. For example, some drones use LiPo batteries which offer more power than NIHM batteries but tend to be more fragile and less safe due to their chemical makeup. The good news is that both types of batteries tend to last around 20 minutes per charge if they were used properly.

Flight Time

The flight time is the most important factor in determining how long your battery will last. It is the amount of time for which a drone can fly on a single charge. The higher its flight time, the longer the battery life.

Temperature

The temperature can affect battery life in many ways, and it is one of the most important factors that affect the battery life of drones.

Due to the chemical reaction inside the battery, there will be some heat generated. However, in cold weather or low-temperature environments, this heat generated is easily dissipated. Therefore, we can get more energy from the battery in cold weather conditions than in warm weather conditions.

In addition to temperature affecting the capacity of batteries, temperature also affects their discharge rate. As you know, batteries are very sensitive to extreme temperatures and heat can cause permanent damage to lithium-ion batteries.

When a drone’s battery is used at a high rate during flight control or others; it generates a large amount of electrical energy which converts into heat as well as energy for motors and other components.

The hot air produced around the motor’s windings results in higher internal resistance which leads to higher loss of power and less flight time per charge cycle. The same thing will happen if you use your quadcopter when it is too hot outside (over 70 degrees Fahrenheit).

Battery Watt-hours

You can find the battery mAh and voltage by checking on the battery itself or in its manual.

For example, if you have a 3000mAh 3S (3 cells) 11.1v battery, you can simply multiply each of these numbers together to get 33,300 mWh. This is your drone’s “fuel tank capacity”. So the bigger it is, the longer your flight times will be.

I would also like to point out that multiplying an electric motor’s wattage rating isn’t always accurate since most motors are rated at their maximum efficiency points at 80% of their maximum power output (See Motor Efficiency Curve).

As a rule of thumb, if you’re using a motor with low Kv rating (around 1000Kv or below), multiply its wattage rating by 0.8; otherwise multiply 1.25 times its wattage rating for high Kv motor (around 1500Kv or above).

As an example, if we take this Hobbywing XRotor 2207 1750kV motor and see what happens when we use different prop sizes:

With 6″ prop then 1000Watt * 1.25 = 1250 Watt-hours / hour
With 5″ prop then 800Watt * 0.8 = 640 Watt-hours / hour
With 4″ prop then 625Watt * 1.25 = 781 Watt-hours / hour

Watt-hours can also be used to determine:

Battery size
Battery capacity
Throttle control (rate of acceleration)
Attitude control (pitch and roll)

Drone Weight

The weight of the drone is a factor that affects the battery life. The heavier the drone, the more energy it consumes. As a result, the lighter your drone is, the better it will perform in terms of flight and other functionalities. However, this shouldn’t be confused with quality or durability since most drones have been designed with top-quality materials that are sturdy enough for any weather conditions.

Another important aspect to consider when looking at which drone to buy is how much it weighs. While some manufacturers may be tempted to sell you on a super heavy quadcopter because they think it’ll give you stronger performance and better maneuverability, you should know that every ounce of weight you add to your drone will actually make your flying experience worse — not better!

Flight Conditions

During the flight, wind is one of the factors which affect the battery life. The more windy it is, the higher speed quadcopter will go to fight against strong air streams and this increases power consumption. Altitude is also very important factor concerning battery life. The higher you fly, the less energy is needed to keep your copter in air due to low pressure at high altitude.

In some cases it may be only half of what you need down on ground; as a result your drone will have its battery discharged much slower. When quadcopter flies in GPS mode it needs more power than when flying without it because GPS require additional sensor readings and calculations to maintain steady flight and make sure that home point is not lost during whole flight session.

I’d like to say that manufacturer does not give any info about how long each drone can fly in GPS mode or without but for example DJI Phantom 3 Standard has all sensors required for such calculations inside of its body so I believe this kind of performance should be better than in other models, especially when we consider additional weight carried by drone due to batteries and camera installed on gimbal system.

Flight path may also affect your battery life dramatically because if you plan a lot of turns during your journey then energy will be spent faster because motors need extra power when they change their rotational direction.

Propeller Width

You want a propeller that moves as much air as possible, but you also don’t want to increase the drag of your drone too much. You can boost the amount of air a propeller moves by increasing its width, but it will also mean your propellers will be pushing more against the wind. Larger props have larger blades with more surface area, which produces greater amounts of thrust and drag.

What Are Some Of The Most Common Drone Battery Types And How Do I Charge Them?

One of the first things you will want to know about your drone is the type of battery it uses. Common types include Lithium Polymer (LiPo) and Lithium High Voltage (LiHV). You will need to ensure that you have a charging port and/or cable that matches the type of battery in your drone.

An even more important thing is how to charge it! Lower voltage lithium batteries, such as LiPo, can be charged using a standard Lithium Polymer charger. Higher voltage lithium batteries, such as LiHV, will require their own specialized charger.

Li-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are lightweight, have a low self-discharge rate (important for long flights), and have a high energy density (which means you can fly longer). Plus, they have a high voltage (which means they’re powerful) and are relatively cheap to manufacture. These battery types are also becoming more common in consumer electronics like laptops, cell phones, tablets, and digital cameras.

The main drawback of lithium-ion batteries is that they are not safe to charge with an unregulated power supply. You should use a smart charger to avoid overcharging your drone battery or even causing it to burst into flames!

Li-po Batteries

Li-po Batteries are also known as Lipoly or LiPoly. This type of battery is more expensive than Li-Ion, but it holds a higher energy density, which means you can fly longer on the same amount of power. In addition to that, they are lighter than Li-Ion and offer more flexibility for design purposes. However, this does make them more susceptible to damage, so it’s important to understand how these batteries work before charging and flying your drone with them.

An interesting fact about Li-po Batteries is that each has a voltage of 3.7V per cell – one cell equals 3.7V. For example: 4 cells equal 14.8 V or 6 cells equal 22.2 V (which is how long range drones most commonly operate). It’s important to use a multirotor charger that can handle the number of cell count in your battery, otherwise you’re risking damaging both your drone and yourself.

Most high performance drones use these types of batteries because they last longer than their competitors on the market and are cheaper than brands such as Lightbridge 2 (click here for more info). This isn’t always the case though; some multirotors with shorter flight times may still choose Li-Ion over Lipoly due to cost considerations or even just preference among customers who don’t want all those extra features included in their purchase price!

Nimh Batteries

Nickel metal hydride batteries are heavier than lithium polymer, and they can’t hold as much charge. They’re also less expensive, but you will make up that difference in how often you can reuse them.

You can generally recharge a NiMH battery anywhere from 300 to 1000 times while the average lithium polymer battery has a life cycle of only 200 charges. If your drone is moving fast enough to generate a lot of heat, you might want to consider using this type of battery instead of lithium polymer.

Charging Drone Batteries

There are a few ways you can charge your batteries, and each way has their own pros and cons.

Charger: The first and most obvious way to charge drone batteries is with a charger. The benefit of this is that it’s a dedicated device that charges the battery in an isolated environment. This means you’re less likely to have problems like shorting or draining your battery too low. Chargers are also designed to be efficient, so they will normally charge your batteries faster than other methods (besides parallel charging).
Power bank: Another way that you can charge your drone battery is by using a power bank. A power bank is essentially just a portable battery pack. It’s more commonly used for smartphones, but it can be just as useful for drones! Unlike chargers, these guys are portable so you don’t need to worry about bringing extra equipment along when traveling with your drone. There are many types of power banks out there on the market so be sure to do some research before purchasing one!

How To Increase The Flight Time Of A Drone?

When you first start out in the hobby, you probably want to get a drone with a great flight time. This might be because you want to fly your drone over water, or maybe you just want it to perform well enough that it doesn’t crash into any trees when it has battery problems.

Whatever the case, there are lots of ways to increase how long your drone has enough power for an extended flight. This will help you get into more exotic locations and take video footage that’s otherwise impossible.

Increase Drone Speed

Did you know that increasing your drone speed is the most effective way to improve its flight time and range? Well, it’s true. This is because as a drone increases in speed, it takes less time to cover the same amount of distance. Less time spent flying means more overall flight.

Similarly, if you increase your drone’s flight speed, the faster it will be able to cover a greater distance before running out of power and falling from the sky. Increasing your drone’s maximum possible altitude can help here too. The higher you can get into the atmosphere with your quadcopter, the further it will be able to fly without losing signal or running out of power.

Remove Payload

Payload is the total weight of your drone that you want it to carry. A payload can be anything from a camera, gimbal, battery, extra batteries or even a small piece of equipment that you want to carry out on your drone’s flight.

The first thing that you should do is remove all payload from your drone. Don’t worry! You won’t be losing anything as other than increasing flight time there are no other benefits of removing payload. But if you want to be a professional photographer and make money then the next section will tell you how to increase the payload capacity of your drone so that it can fly with more weight and for longer times.

Use A Lighter Battery With More Mah

A battery with more capacity and less weight is going to make all the difference. One of the factors that determine how long a drone will stay in the air is its weight. The heavier a drone is, the shorter its flight time will be.

So what are you supposed to do? There are couple things you can do to increase your drone’s flight time. You can buy a lighter battery with more capacity or you can get an extra battery so that when one runs out of power, you can quickly switch it out with another one.

What Does Mah Mean?

The mAh stands for milliampere-hour or 1/1000 of an A-h (Ampere-hour) which means 1000mAh equals 1Ah. It’s basically the unit used to measure how much energy the battery has stored inside it at any given point. A bigger mAh means that this particular battery has more capacity (stores more energy) and lasts longer than another one with lower mAh but weights less because it doesn’t have as many cells inside.

The capacity of a battery is measured in milliamp-hours (mAh). This indicates how much charge the battery can hold. A larger number means that the battery can hold more charge and therefore has a longer flight time.

Most drone batteries are rated at 3.7 volts, though some may be rated at 7.4 volts or 11.1 volts (basically two or three cells in series). If you are comparing batteries from different manufacturers, keep this in mind and make sure to compare batteries with the same voltage rating.

Reduce Load

Load is the total weight of your drone and its payload (or anything it’s carrying). Reducing your drone’s load can increase flight time.

Most drones, including the DJI Phantom 4, Parrot Bebop 2 and the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K are designed to support at least one additional accessory, such as a camera or A3/N3 autopilot system.

If you’re using any accessories that aren’t essential for flying (as in it won’t fall out of the sky if they’re not attached), remove them before every flight. Every gram of weight you can remove will increase your flight time.

Use A Bigger Battery

Yup, exactly that. Just connect the battery with more capacity to your drone and you can achieve longer flight times- it’s as easy as that. But there are some drawbacks:

The drone will increase in weight and cost with a bigger battery attached.
You won’t gain too much extra time by making the switch, maybe just a few minutes.

If you are looking for an easy way to increase the flight time of your drone, using a bigger battery is a good option but you probably won’t gain too much extra flight time and will also pay more money for it.

Use Less Power-hungry Components

If you want to fly for a long time, first thing is to use the less power-hungry components. This means that you should choose ESCs with low output current (4A or less), slow motors (9×4.7 or 8×4.5 size), small FPV camera and transmitter, receiver and VTX.

The problem of these low power components is that they are very slow in speed, have weak video signals and sometimes have problems with sensitivity and control range.

How Can You Reduce Drag?

While flying, you should always try to fly downwind. This is because the wind will help hold up your drone in the air and it will use less power. So next time when you go for a long flight, make sure there is enough wind to keep your drone afloat.

Additional Batteries

Use Multiple Batteries in Series

Another way to increase your flight time is by using multiple batteries in series. In electronic terms, this means that you are connecting the negative terminal of the first battery to the positive terminal of the second battery and so on. This increases your voltage but not your amperage, which is why we will be using it in combination with our next method.

Use Multiple Batteries in Parallel

By using multiple batteries in parallel you will not be increasing the voltage but increasing your amperage instead. In practical terms this means that you connect all of your batteries together by connecting their positive terminals and also by connecting their negative terminals. This allows for more current to flow through since there is a higher amperage at work when you connect them together like this.

Larger Batteries

One way to increase flight time of a drone is by using larger batteries. If a bigger battery can fit into your drone than you should use it if possible because they have higher capacities than smaller ones and can therefore power it longer. The caveat here though is that bigger batteries usually weigh more so they could make flying harder or at least different because of added weight! You need to keep both these things in mind when considering upgrading from one size over another: capacity vs weight increase

Precautions

When you aren’t using your drone, always store it in a cool place.
Always keep your drone battery charged.
However, don’t overcharge it. Overcahrging can lead to premature drone battery failure.
Don’t leave the drone battery in the drone when it is not in use, as this can cause damage to both the battery and the drone.
Keep your batteries clean – dirt and dust can prevent proper contact with connectors and reduce performance of the drone battery. If necessary, clean your batteries with a soft cloth moistened with water or rubbing alcohol (NEVER with gasoline).
Be careful not to drop or crush your drone batteries or any other type of batteries – doing so may cause them to short circuit and even catch fire.

Conclusion

In short, drone battery life varies based on usage and drone weight. Typically, drones can fly for around 10 to 30 minutes, with heavier drones consuming more energy and requiring more frequent recharging. Drones engaged in activities like video recording or photography consume more power compared to those used solely for flying purposes

Since you have already bought this drone, you already know that purchasing a drone battery is something that you need to do. However, as with most new drones, you may not be certain how long your battery will last. There are many different factors that can affect the life of your drone battery.

This article goes through some of those factors and offered suggestions on how you can maximize the amount of flight time you’ll be getting from your batteries.

Frequently Asked Questions (how Long Is Drone Battery Life)

Why Aren’t Drone Batteries As Efficient As Phone Batteries?

A battery is a device that stores energy and breaks it down when the drone is in use. They are expensive, heavy and getting heavier as technology keeps advancing, even though there has been some improvement in the efficiency of drone batteries.

They are also the most expensive component in a drone; which makes them the most crucial part that needs to be upgraded regularly. Batteries are very complex technology, so there’s still a lot of research that needs to be done before we see much improvement in how long they last.

Why Are Drone Batteries So Big And Heavy?

You may be wondering why drones can’t just use a lighter battery. The reason lies in the laws of physics. Batteries are heavy because of their relatively low energy density, which is how much energy a battery can hold in proportion to its weight.

In other words, batteries contain a lot of cells, so they need to be big. They also need to hold a lot of energy, which takes up even more space and adds even more weight.