Drill Batteries - Keep 'em On or Off the Drill?

Curious...

1)Do you take the battery off your drill and stow it in a pocket or somewhere else warm when not drilling holes in the ice?
2) Do you leave the battery on the drill and exposed to the weather when not drilling?

Just thinking it might conserve battery life on a really cold day to take the battery off and stow it in a warmer place.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

You have to protect the connection from ice and snow, so I leave a battery on the drill when I'm fishing. My spare(s) are in an insulated bag with food and things that I don't want frozen. I microwave 16 oz. water bottles, one minute times the number of bottles then put them in.

Thanks Jim...great advice!

I keep mine in my inside pocket. Big difference in amount of holes drilled.

thank you for the advise i have the clam drill plate with a dewalt drill and i leave one on the drill and keep the other battery in my shack to keep it warmer.

I keep my battery on the drill but i always point the battery up and off the ice. I dont think the Milwaukee red lithiums are sensitive to the cold much.

I leave my battery on my fuel drill . I have 2 batteries and keep the second one in a ziplock bag in my shanty .

I keep mine in my pocket with a hand warmer. I've found that I get quite a few more holes that way.

I keep mine on the drill, to keep any moisture out, and then have my spares in a soft sided cooler with a couple of handwarmers thrown in to keep things warm.

I take mine off and throw it in the inner pocket of my Ice Armor top on the colder days. If its above 15 degrees, I leave it on and haven't noticed any difference. But when I do have it off, I have the connection facing up to keep snow out of it.

I like the idea of keeping the extra in a baggie with handwarmers.


Ken........

I keep mine off the drill in a small plastic cooler in my fish house, it definetly helps

It depends on the weather, if I am moving a lot and its fairly warm I leave mine on the drill. If its -30 I keep mine in my pocket.

I leave my battery in the drill, but keep spares in a cooler. I've thought about using a Velcro tape attached to the bottom of the battery and seeing if a hand warmer would "stick" to that. I've only gotten as far as thinking about though, haven't tested yet. Lol

I recently purchased a ion 10" drill bit and after drilling 8 holes, it turned into a big ice ball around the cutting ice blades! I then contacted ion customer service and was told that there was a bad batch of coating on the drill bit area so they had me send the bit back and they sent me a new one which works great and doesn't ice up at all! So if anyone has this problem, don't give up on this auger just contact them!