What’s the Difference Between Supercapacitors and Lithium Ion Batteries in a Dash Camera?

Pros and Cons of a Lithium Ion Battery

✅ If you forget to switch off your dash cam, you won't have to worry about your car battery being drained

✅ Less expensive than supercapacitors

❌ Takes longer to begin recording since the battery must be charged first

❌ Will eventually fail and will need to be recharged or replaced

❌ Not safe for cold and hotter climates, sometimes overheating and exploding

❌Slower charging and discharging rates, especially when power is cut

Pros and Cons of a Supercapacitor

✅ Can assist your dash cam maintain a more consistent voltage

✅ Safe for regions where temperatures are high, keeps it from overheating or freezing

✅ Longevity, providing a more stable power source over a longer life-span

✅ No chance of the battery dying and missing a crucial event because it can record for extended periods of time without running out of power

✅Rapid charging and higher safety when power is cut

❌ To power when the vehicle is off, must be hardwired into the vehicle's electrical system, which adds time and effort to the installation process.

❌ Pricier than battery-powered dash cams

Upon testing and knowing how these devices work, batteries and capacitors both create electricity, but in different ways, which limits their applicability to diverse applications.

A battery uses a positive terminal (cathode), a negative terminal (anode), and an electricity conducting material (electrolyte) to convert chemical energy into electrical energy. Rechargeable batteries can be recharged by using external electrical energy.

For dash cams, lithium-ion batteries work by electrochemically storing energy. When the lithium-ion battery is charged, power flows to a substance known as the high-energy anode compound. During this time, the energy-filled lithium ions flow from the high-energy anode to the low-energy cathode material via a separator. This process liberates energy, which is subsequently transferred to a circuit.  

This cycle of charging and discharging causes the chemical components in the battery to steadily degrade over time. As a result, lithium-ion batteries will eventually lose their ability to store energy and will have a reduced power density naturally over time. This results in shorter powering periods, in the exact same way that your iPhone’s battery doesn’t last as long after 2 years or so of use.

If you’re going to ask us about why we would choose a lithium ion battery, the first thing we would say is the cost. Lithium ion batteries are well-known for being reasonably priced, making them popular among those who would not spend more money on dash cams.

In addition, dash cams with lithium ion batteries like Nextbase don't require many additional components to be securely incorporated into the gadget. In fact, when the battery dies, it can be replaced by opening up the unit and accessing the circuit board.

While the lithium ion can be a factor in the price, there are plenty of other factors that can lead to an increased price, as Nextbase cameras are overall still rather pricey. Generally using a Lithium Ion Battery is indicative of some corners being cut, and the life-span of the camera suffering because of it.

We have tested hundreds of dash cams in the market. In our opinion, there is no doubt that lithium-ion batteries deliver poor results when it comes to charging and discharging speeds. Even though the charge can last longer, it generally takes 10-60 minutes to charge it once – too time consuming! Lithium Ion batteries do not need to be fully charged as is the case with lead acid, nor is it desirable to do so. From dead, it will normally take a minute or 2 for the camera to boot up and begin operations. In fact, it is better not to fully charge because a high voltage stresses the battery. Lithium Ion batteries for consumer products go for maximum capacity and cannot be adjusted; extended service life is perceived less important.

Even when a Dash Cam with a Lithium Ion battery can operate in parking mode when the vehicle is turned off, without having a constant power source to feed off of, the effective coverage of that parking mode is severely reduced. The camera will either compromise the parameters of recording, such as only waking up and recording when the vehicle is impacted, or running for a drastically shorter period of time than would be provided off of a car battery, or other power source.

We also take durability in mind, and we have proven that because of charging and discharging, batteries are more prone to wear out. As a result, the battery life gets quickly depleted. Since batteries are substantially less expensive, they are more likely to create issues and may even harm your dash cam recorder.

More importantly, safety. Lithium batteries are unsafe for warmer temperatures and can also cause overheating, leakage, and possibly explosions of your dash cam. Moreover, when your dash cam’s battery is exposed to hot temperatures, its life-span will quickly be reduced.

If this happens, you don’t just lose your footage, but you also harm your car, and even yourself. You will also add cost as you might have to get another dash cam as a replacement - which defeats the essence of lithium batteries being cheaper.

Beyond that, in the event of a truly rough accident, it’s not unheard of for power to the dash cam to be cut . While Supercapacitors do jump to action in such an event, supplying their full charge cycle to retain and ensure that the most recent footage finishes writing to the SD card, the same is more difficult with super capacitor. While they take longer to charge, they also take longer to begin discharging as well, with a delayed response in such an event. We’ve heard plenty of stories of footage being recorded before and after an accident from a Lithium Ion camera, but the accident itself is corrupted and no longer accessible.

Your dash cam is there to protect you, not to cause you more headaches.

Now, let’s move on to the more innovative solution - supercapacitors!

Supercapacitors boast a newer technology with several distinct advantages over regular lithium-ion batteries. In contrast to lithium-ion batteries, which store energy via chemical reactions, supercapacitors store energy as an electric charge.

Diving deeper, a supercapacitor is made up of conductive plates separated by an insulating barrier (dielectric). The dielectric prevents electrical current from exiting the capacitor, accumulating a charge that is stored between the plates. The quantity of charge that a capacitor can store is determined by its charge storage capacity. One more thing is they also charge faster than batteries!

When we compare supercapacitor dash cams like BlackVue, Thinkware, and VIOFO to lithium-ion batteries, capacitor batteries are built to resist severe temperatures. Because of the unique environment and extreme weather fluctuations that a dash cam is subjected to, these supercapacitor dash cams outperform lithium batteries.

We have also proven that supercapacitors are extremely safer to use. They do not contain highly flammable liquid combinations and so cannot explode. It also is more dependable, as they can cycle hundreds of thousands of times, whereas batteries fail after a few hundred of charging and discharging cycles.

Aside from the safety, temperature and weather resistance of supercapacitors, they are also reliable in terms of usage. As we know, batteries are only useful if they are charged; some larger batteries might take up to an hour to fully charge. Capacitors, on the other hand, charge in seconds and are constantly ready especially when connected to the power supply.

Capacitors can be used effectively for dash cams in such a way that they can charge within seconds of being discharged. Again, it simply takes around 10 seconds to charge up for another cycle. Even though it discharges quickly, the great power density makes it a long-term winner.

Super capacitors are very quick to charge and discharge, so if power is suddenly lost to the dash cam, they are your best bet for ensuring that the camera takes it’s time to properly finish writing the footage of the accident to the camera. With other batteries, those couple seconds that it takes to activate and begin discharging can result in vital footage becoming corrupted.

For us, there is only one major disadvantage of supercapacitors - it is that they do not store a charge for long periods of time, which should be ok if you are hardwiring your dash cam. 

However, many hardwire kits include a low voltage cutoff device like the BlackVue dash cams that prevents the kit from drawing power from the car battery when the voltage falls below a certain threshold. So, problem solved!

Alternatively, use a dedicated dash cam battery pack like the BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 that’s made of Lithium Ion Phosphate. It is built with the safest battery technology using LiFEPO4 which charges faster and will keep your dash cam running for longer hours in parking mode in extreme weather conditions. Moreover, it is designed with a 96Wh/7500mAh battery that delivers 25% more power and lasts up to 2,000 charge cycles - enough power for up to 48 hours of parking monitoring for your vehicle.

Here at BlackboxMyCar, we are confident to say that all the dash cams we carry are powered by supercapacitors - which is highly recommended for longevity, safety and durability.

Our best brands like Thinkware and BlackVue offer a wide range of operating temperatures due to its supercapacitors.

While other battery-powered dash cams like Nextbase can only cover -20° to 45°C (from -4° to 113°F), BlackVue can withstand temperatures up to -20 °C − 80 °C (-4 °F − 176 °F). Therefore, whichever state or province you are living, your dash cam is guaranteed to be safer!

One thing we want you to remember is that a dash camera's operating temperature refers to when it will work - not when it is hazardous to the camera. So, by the time you turn on your car, warm it up, and begin driving, it should be at operating temperature.

In our opinion, heat is the main killer of a lithium ion battery powered dash cam, therefore if you reside in hotter climates like Arizona or Florida, we do not recommend these cameras.